epson scanner / gimp

[Tony Laszlo <laszlo@example.com>]

I am trying to get an Epson GT-8500 scanner 
to work with GIMP. I have compiled ep_scan 
and chmod u+s 'd the crucial file (ep_scan) 
so that ordinary users can scan. It works. 
It is possible to compile this with a Motif 
interface, but I don't have Motif. So, I 
tried 
ln -s /usr/src/scan/ep_scan /home/username/.gimp/plug-ins/  , thinking
that I could this with GIMP, as one uses SANE. 

But GIMP gave "wire_read: unexpected EOF (plug-in crashed?) "

Am I doing something wrong, or asking too much? 

Thanks.