[SLUG] Scanner, I'm part way there

[john at johnallsopp.co.uk]

Hi

My current problem is to get my scanner working. I've reached this point
<ftp://ftp2.sane-project.org/pub/sane/sane-backends-1.0.14> and don't know
what to do next.

My book chapter says "if you plan to use Red Hat Linux software you have
downloaded or acquired from third parties, it is likely that the software
will be delivered in Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) format files".

Sounds like nuclear-fuelled American corporate bullshit to me, I thought
I'd gotten away from that.

Or maybe they're right. Maybe they've just labelled a standard package
manager format as a Red Hat one.

So here I am, staring at four files (in the link above). If I download
them, where to?

Then they're compressed, right? The book says "use the file manager to
browse to the file and double click it to install".

Is that going to work? Firstly, which file do I click? The top one looks
like a mixture of two versions, so I was going to do the bottom three.

The bottom one is an md5, so I guess if I open that I get an md5 number.
If I can work out how to get an md5 number from the middle file, I'll get
to verify it's right, right? Do I do that on the tar.gz file or on the
uncompressed file?

I presume, then, it's the large file I'll need to double click. Do we
think that'll work?

Then there's the lsm file. No idea what that is.

I read somewhere that I only need the backend, because I'm running XSane.

Oh, I'm using a UMAX Astra 2200 on SCSI which is supported in theory.
However my XSane version 0.89 says, when I choose the 'scanning' option in
the menu, "no devices available", although, just like the sound card, it
has correctly identified the scanner as it's available (but doesn't work)
from the Gimp.

So many questions, so little time.

Thanks for your helps so fars.

Cheers
J