The Epson Perfection 2400 Photo fits the bill as you have described and has a back-lite for scanning negatives and slides. It is recognized by sane/xsane and makes very good slides. I got mine on sale from Staples for ~us$109.95. I am very satisfied with it.
I have not looked at local stores for the 2400 but I have found that one of the computer parts sources we order parts from here at work ( synnex) has the Epson Perfection 2480 for 88. I'm guessing thats is an upgraded version of what you have.
I'm think of ordering it or the next one up from it. From what I have read about epson i'm guessing it will work on linux also. thanks for the suggestion. jack PS I tried an hp5500c but it did not seem work with suse 9.2. we have that model here at work.