On Sun, 06 May 2012 13:18:23 -0600
Stan Sander <stsander@...> wrote:

> I don't have one of those drives at the moment, but on my system I
> typically have usb-common, usb-core, and usb-storage.  Only thing I use
> sg for is burning CD's/DVD's.  You didn't mention this specifically, so
> for what it's worth I access such devices as /dev/sd* just like I would
> any other internal drive. 
> 

Since my keyboard and mouse are both USB devices, I have the basic USB modules
for built into the kernel, and those would include, I believe, usb-core
and usb-common.

For other USB devices, such as printers and mass storage, I need to load
some more modules before using them.  I would assume that a Western Digital
USB HDD is just another mass storage device, like a thumb drive, that would
call for sg and usb-storage, but before I spend more money on acquiring one
I need to know exactly how to set things up.

Yes, a thumb USB drive, and presumable all USB mass storage devices, are
recognized as SCSI drives and accessed via /dev/sdX.

Some might ask why not just utilize udev or similar to automount the device.
For me, Linux means choice and control and I would rather understand my own
system even if it means a little less convenience.  For that reason I avoid udev.

Frank Peters