I've been banging my head and can't figure it out. In pclinuxos 7a it works just fine on the same computer. Guess I'm desperate. Basically I won't be able to use mepis linux if I can't access my 900GB worth of data on my external firewire drives.

su
modprobe ohci1394
modprobe sbp2

# lsmod
Module Size Used by
sbp2 16128 0
ohci1394 24064 0
ieee1394 61200 2 sbp2,ohci1394

# rescan-scsi-bus.sh
Host adapter ? (*) found.
0 new device(s) found.
0 device(s) removed.

fdisk -l (doesn't show ext firewire drive)

# cat /proc/scsi/scsi
Attached devices:

lspci -v
0000:00:10.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host
Controller (rev 46) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 12
Memory at e4005000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
I/O ports at ec00 [size=128]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

Booted PCLINUXOS 7a (6-28-04). kernel 2.6.5
turned on my 200GB external firewire drive
fdisk -l (didn't show it)

modprobe ohci1394
fdisk -l (shows 200GB firewire drive)
mkdir /mnt/win
mount -t ntfs /dev/sda1 /mnt/win
ls /mnt/win (shows everything..works beautifully)

So I compared lsmod and basically when I do
modprobe ohci1394 on pclinuxos the following modules are loaded that
aren't loaded with simplymepis 0709. (sd_mod, sr_mod, scsi_mod).
Now I can put in /etc/modules ohci1394 and sbp2 just fine so they start
at boot up but unless mid level SCSI support is compiled into the kernel
is hopeless without compiling a custom kernel.

Later I was trying to install a custom kernel using the default and see that sd_mod is built-in the kernel 2.6.7 kernel already under mepis. Is the only thing different supermount. I've tried rescan script, scsiadd -s, scsi -a 0 0 0 0, etc.

Here's a few references
linuxdig.com/howto/ldp/SCSI-2.4-HOWTO.php#modparams

If anyone wishes to try these two distros (mepis and pclinuxos) out your more than welcome to dl the isos from my site.

ok just installed Debian Progeny 2.0 developers edition and didn't have to modprobe anything. It just worked....booted up ..then turn on external firewire drive. I'm now going to try to compared what module isn't loaded with progeny compared with mepis.

family@localhost:~$ su
Password:
localhost:/home/family# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4863 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 14 4733 37913400 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 4734 4863 1044225 82 Linux swap
localhost:/home/family# lsmod
Module Size Used by
ds 17540 0
yenta_socket 18944 0
pcmcia_core 60100 2 ds,yenta_socket
parport_pc 31552 1
lp 10436 0
parport 37320 2 parport_pc,lp
thermal 12816 0
fan 4236 0
button 6808 0
processor 17584 1 thermal
ac 5132 0
battery 9612 0
ipv6 220384 12
af_packet 20616 2
eth1394 19464 0
ohci1394 31876 0
ieee1394 100024 2 eth1394,ohci1394
8139cp 19072 0
ehci_hcd 26116 0
pci_hotplug 32176 0
sis_agp 7424 1
agpgart 31272 1 sis_agp
tsdev 7168 0
8139too 23808 0
evdev 9088 0
mousedev 9684 2
mii 4864 2 8139cp,8139too
usbhid 29248 0
crc32 4608 2 8139cp,8139too
usbmouse 5504 0
ohci_hcd 17668 0
usbcore 95068 6 ehci_hcd,usbhid,usbmouse,ohci_hcd
snd_intel8x0 31528 0
snd_ac97_codec 54916 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_pcm_oss 47652 0
snd_mixer_oss 16640 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 84900 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 23044 1 snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 10884 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
gameport 4736 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_mpu401_uart 7296 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_rawmidi 22688 1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device 7944 1 snd_rawmidi
snd 48356 9 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi, snd_seq_device
soundcore 9824 1 snd
dm_mod 38304 0
capability 4356 0
commoncap 7168 1 capability
rtc 12088 0
reiserfs 199536 0
isofs 32440 0
vfat 13184 0
fat 41664 1 vfat
ext3 108392 2
jbd 54040 1 ext3
ide_disk 17152 4
ide_generic 1664 0
sis5513 15368 1
ide_core 134496 3 ide_disk,ide_generic,sis5513
unix 25776 529
font 8576 0
cfbcopyarea 3840 0
cfbimgblt 3200 0
cfbfillrect 3712 0
localhost:/home/family# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4863 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 14 4733 37913400 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 4734 4863 1044225 82 Linux swap

Disk /dev/sda: 203.9 GB, 203928109056 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24792 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 24792 199141708+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
localhost:/home/family# mkdir /mnt/win
localhost:/home/family# mount -t ntfs /dev/sda1 /mnt/win
localhost:/home/family# ls /mnt/win
==DVD_ISO== ==masterdvd== ==move== RECYCLER System Volume Information ftp ==kids== matrix mp3japan ==save==