xsane trouble

[Jorge Almeida]

xsane is quiting on me: when I start xsane (by itself or as a Gimp
plugin) the preview window appears long enough to see it but closes
immediately. This happens on two boxes, running Redhat and Gentoo, with
different scanners.It happens to at least two users, both with KDE desktops; it doesn't happen
to every user. 
Anybody with the same unpleasant experience?
TIA.

-- 
Jorge Almeida