[TriLUG] usb/hotplug detection problem

[mack]

I'm having trouble detecting the hotplugging  of usb disks. 

Some machines work fine (an older slackware machine), some detect a usb 
zip disk, but not a regular (120G) usb disk (a RedHat laptop),
while another near identical Slackware machine (same drivers, kernel, 
usb card) doesn't detect either. The machine that doesn't detect
anything has an /etc/hotplug/ directory, but the machine that
detects everything just fine, doesn't have an /etc/hotplug directory.
All driver modules are loaded.

On successfull hotplugging, an entry like /proc/scsi/usb-storage-0 
appears/disappears and I can use the disk (as /dev/sdx).

When the hotplugging doesn't work, I don't get the usb-storage-0
entry in /proc, but the logs look the same (entries from usb.c 
about detection of the external disk).

Does anyone know what happens on plugging a usb disk so I can
debug what's going on? (I've read as much as I can find on the 
Linux USB website)

Thanks Joe

--

Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant map
generator at http://www.wm7d.net/azproj.shtml
Homepage http://www.austintek.com/ It's GNU/Linux!