Installing USB devices

All USB devices are detected automatically; if not install the hotplug package. It will detect and configure your hardware. Any external storage devices are also handled as SCSI and this rule also applies to parallel storage devices.

To mount a USB ZIP disk for instance you can use the following command.

       mount /dev/sda4 –t vfat /mnt/zip

       Or

       Mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/zip

Note that there is a utility to manage all your USB devices called “USBview” and is under

Note that there is a utility to manage all your USB devices called “USBview” and is under:

Kstart Menu => Configuration => Hardware

There is a file that manages your USB in /etc/sysconfig/usb, you may need to edit it if you are having trouble. Change the values to yes as needed, make sure USB=YES.

USB device is very strait forward and you won't have any trouble for the installation, just remember to install the hotplug package.

In some cases, during the boot process the system freezes when loading USB modules, and you just can't get to the login prompt. You may also receive kernel panic errors! To solve this issue; at boot time press 'I' to enter the booting interactive mode and answer (no) not to load the USB modules; login as root and edit /etc/modules.conf

• Edited the file    /etc/modules.conf

Comment the line: probeall usb-interface usb-uhci  

Insert these lines:  

probeall usb-interface uhci
alias usb-controller uhci

After this, you can then install drivers for any specific device you may have, if it is required. You may also disable the USB in /etc/sysconfig/usb by editing the file and change USB = yes to USB = no

Same procedure may apply to PCMCIA cards when any of these two devices freezes at boot time; it is most likely IRQ or I/O address conflict. Use dmesg to troubleshoot resources.
Many other devices can be enabled and disabled in /etc/sysconfig/, including the PCMCIA cards.