LinuxUsbTwoTwoOneEight

USB and Linux

I recommend the 2.2.18 kernel (as of 1/23/00, anyway). One of the nice features of this kernel is a backport of the 2.4.0 USB code. This makes it relatively simple to configure USB devices.

Start at the linux-usb homepage
Enable USB in your BIOS. This is usually under 'assign interrupt to USB'
When rebuilding your kernel, make sure to enable USB. Go ahead and compile all the USB drivers as modules.
Download the usbd scripts.
Untar usb utilities as /etc/usb
cp /etc/usb/hotplug to /sbin
Add '/etc/usb/rc.usb' to an rc script. It needs to go in rc.sysinit if you are going to use USB systems early in the boot process, otherwise stick it in rc.local:

/etc/usb/rc.usb start
Reboot and check /var/log/dmesg. You should see some messages indicating that the USB system is initialized. Check 'lsmod' output for usb modules.