Currently I am running Slackware 10.0 with kernel 2.4.x whatever the default kernel was that installed with the system. I have rc.hotplug running and I tried to setup my usb pen drive as another thread suggested on this site. I did lsmod | more to makes sure both usb modules were running. I then did modprobe usb-storage and created my directory /mnt/usbstick. I then edit my /etc/fstab to include the line /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbstick vfat user,noauto,umask=0 0 0. After that I plugged in the usb pen drive and did tail -s 3 -f /var/log/messages. At the end of the log file it said it had assigned addresses 2 and 3 to the usb device but did not actual assign the device to /dev/sda1. So of course when I tried to mount /mnt/usbstick I get the error message that /dev/sda1 is a bad block device. I then checked syslog to see if there were any errors. I found out that it was trying to assign an address to the usb pen drive but it wasn't able to, error -110. I also did lsusb and it said I had only one device and the usb pen drive was not listed in there at all. I was reading other threads and am now wondering if I need to install scsi emulation. It seems I have the ide-scsi module instaled but not scsi. I am at a loss now. What are my options should I upgrade to kernel 2.6.x or upgrade hotplug. I really want to get usb working but I think it is broken all to hell right now. Someone please help me, I have tried all the suggestions I found on linuxquestions.org in all the threads to no avail. I need some real technical help. Thanks.

my system is:

AMD k6/2 450MHz
388 MB RAM
40 GB running dual boot win98, win2k
6 GB running slackware 10.0
trident cyberblade video 8MB
on board via tech sound
two onborad usb ports

Wait a minute,

how can you be sure that it will be mounted to /dev/sda1
my friend owns a pen drive which is mounted to /dev/sda4

well simple, mount your pendrive
and go like

fdisk -l /dev/sd[a-z]

this will check all s-devices, and you'll know where it is mounted.

It doesnt always have to be /dev/sda1 for pen drives

If this shows nothing, then you may have to upgrade your kernel, in Slackware 10.0 CD 2 in /testing there is the kernel version 2.6.7 I use that one and have no problems with my USB drive

I'm also using Slackware 10. Simply type: mount /dev/sda /mnt/pendrive (or whatever dir you created for your usb pen). Not sda1 or sda2, etc. That's it. Don't forget to add the following in /etc/fstab:
/dev/sda /mnt/flash vfat noauto,user 0 0

Hope that helped.

OK. I'll just mount it to /dev/sda... Hey wait! There is no /dev/sda or any other sdax!
What gives?

USB worked just fine with 2.4.26. Now with 2.6.8.1 there are no sdax devices listed
under /dev. The USB modules are all loaded, scsi emulation is compiled in. The system
recognizes the jump drive I just plugged in, but there is nothing to mount it to.

How do I resolve this?

cheers

Thanks for all the help from everyone, but I think that my usb on my computer is fried. In helping somebody else with getting their usb pendrive to work I did notice that if you make sure the usb modules are running and you type fdisk -l you can usually find out where your pendrive got mounted to because at least in slackware 10 it should give the manafacturers name of the device, that's how you know it is the pendrive. Once you know that slackware is recognizing it, all you have to do is make a mnt point for the device and mount -t vfat /dev/xxx /mnt/xxx you can also edit you /etc/fstab file so it will be easier to mount in the future. Hope this helps others having problems with usb pendrives.