I notice that my Thinkpad (IBM T42) USB port can transfer a 1.5 GB file from a thumb drive (Diesel 8 GB Stick) in around a minute (Running Linux Mint 5 Elyssa) contrasted to my BIY desktop running Fedora 8 which takes around 23 minutes to transfer the same sized file. I am guessing that the Mint Linux install detected and installed USB 2.0 support for the USB ports and that the desktop running Fedora 8 is only supporting USB 1.1 and its much slower speeds. I would like to be able to run the desktop USB port at 2.0 speeds, but I am not sure how to approach the problem. Can one of you who have experienced this quest direct me in mine? Much appreciation would accrue...as I am new...hey that rhymes! I am glad to be on the LQ Forum...

1] fedora 8 is old. I think they are up to 10 now
2] You need the ehci_hcd module for USB 2.0:
Try lsmod | grep ehci_hcd Any result?
3] Try booting to fedora, plug in your USB stick, then read the last 12 or so lines of /var/log/messages
How is your device being seen?
4] Welcome to LQ!