I'm using redhat linux 9. I ran gtkam under root and wihtout doing anything else, it auto detected the digital camera and was able to access pictures. However, when logged in as a normal user, it says "Could not claim USB device"
Running gphoto2 --capture-image give the message
*** Error ***
An error occurred in the io-library ('Could not claim the USB device'): Could not claim interface 0 (Operation not permitted). Make sure no other program or kernel module (e.g. dc2xx or stv680) is using the device and you have read/write access to the device.
ERROR: Could not capture.
*** Error ('Could not claim the USB device') ***

How can regular users get permission to access USB ports? I've seen intstructions about changing the /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam file but they don't work.

The other way is to access it as if it was a block device. By mounting (generally the device is /dev/sda1) it as root and accessing as user.

The folder that I mounted from /dev/sda1 has
001 002 devices drivers
How do you access the usb memory from there?

Usually I do this: Create a new directory named camera. Mount the /dev/sda1 there and then just list the contents with either Nautilus or in the console. Usually there are two directories where the photos are stored in. So just browse those directories, copy the images you'd like and you're done!