When I compare with Ubuntu live that is also based on Debian, I notice the following:

Partitions:
major minor #blocks name

8 16 62720 sdb
8 17 62576 sdb1
3 0 20010816 hda
3 1 5237158 hda1
3 2 1 hda2
3 5 1052226 hda5
3 6 1028128 hda6
3 7 3574431 hda7
3 8 530113 hda8
3 9 8586711 hda9

My usb device is recognized as sdb1.
---------
lsmod:
Module Size Used by
....
scsi_mod 119936 2 sd_mod,usb_storage
usbcore 107384 6 usb_storage,usbserial,usbhid,usbkbd,uhci_hcd
usb_storage 64064 2
....

scsi-mod is not included in Knoppix.
When I try to load it I get an error message, module not found.
------
uname:
Linux ubuntu 2.6.10-5-386 #1 Tue Apr 5 12:12:40 UTC 2005 i686 GNU/Linux

This is an older kernel version, Knoppix is 2.6.11