Dont know how to detect thumbdrive on fedora2
 

I am using a usb flashdrive or thumbdrive. how do i get linux to detect it?

it probably already has.
just mount it.

after plugging in the usb driver, run dmesg, on the last few lines should be some note about a new usb drive being attached.

if this is the first usb drive you plugin, it will probably be /dev/sda1 if its the second, then /dev/sda2 etc etc

add this to the /etc/fstab to allow non root users to mount it... somthing like this...

the folder /mnt/usbdrive MUST exist, make it with mkdir /mnt/usbdrive

for more into, read "man mount"