Wilf Hull, the key to your problem lies in this error message:
"E: You must put some 'source' URIs in your sources.list"
It seems that your system defines no source locations to download from. As a result, the source code for the xsane application could not be fetched and built. Removing the old xsane was successful, as you noticed.
I do not know Mint8. On my system the "sources.list" file is in /etc/apt. I suggest you check that file.
Wilf Hull, the key to your problem lies in this error message:
"E: You must put some 'source' URIs in your sources.list"
It seems that your system defines no source locations to download from. As a result, the source code for the xsane application could not be fetched and built. Removing the old xsane was successful, as you noticed.
I do not know Mint8. On my system the "sources.list" file is in /etc/apt. I suggest you check that file.