When I installed Ubuntu 5.04 on my laptop (Thinkpad 390E), it failed to detect the USB port. The same OS version detects the USB port on three different models of desktop system I have, so I'm presuming it's something specific to the way USB is implemented on the Thinkpad.

I used to run Win98 on the same laptop and it couldn't see it when I pluged in a Sandisk USB Mini Cruzer drive, even with the drivers installed,

In Ubuntu's case the /dev/sda1 device isn't installed so I think with Ubuntu it's probably a detection issue. When I had slackware installed on the same system it had that device and the USB drive could be mounted.

Anyone else have this problem with this laptop model?

Is there a way to install the /dev/sda1 device?

bfn...

DarkShades

Only Win98SE had usb support, and it wasn't very good. The fact that it worked with Slack suggests that the hardware is good. The first thing I would do is look in the kernel's .config file and see if usb support is compile in with Y or M. If they're USB2.0 ports you should have uhci, otherwise it's ohci.