I'm adding to this post as I have a similar problem - external firewire drive is a Maxtor 40 GB.

With Knoppix 3.2, the drive is automatically recognised at boot, and the partitions are displayed on the desktop. Here's the relevant parts of lsmod
Code:
sbp2                   16288   1
ohci1394               15688   0 (unused)
ieee1394               29516   0 [sbp2 ohci1394]
With Knoppix 3.3, nothing. According to lsmod, the required modules are mounted, but things are a bit differnent to 3.2:
Code:
sbp2                   16524   0 (unused)
ohci1394               22888   0 (unused)
ieee1394              183332   0 [sbp2 ohci1394]
sbp2 does seem to be used - is this my problem? What should I do/try next?

On the linux 1394 site, they say to to modprobe the various modules (when starting it up); modprobe raw1394 (do I need this?) gives the following result:
Code:
knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ modprobe raw1394
/lib/modules/2.4.22-xfs/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/raw1394.o: create_module: Operation not permitted
/lib/modules/2.4.22-xfs/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/raw1394.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.22-xfs/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/raw1394.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.22-xfs/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/raw1394.o: insmod raw1394 failed
Not sure if this is relevant, but here's a section of my dmesg where it refers to the modules:
Code:
ohci1394: $Rev: 1010 $ Ben Collins <[email protected]>
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 02:00.0 to 64
ohci1394_0: OHCI-1394 1.0 (PCI): IRQ=[9]  MMIO=[10800000-108007ff]  Max Packet=[2048]
spurious 8259A interrupt: IRQ7.
ieee1394: Node added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023]  GUID[0010b900100001d0]
ieee1394: Host added: ID:BUS[0-01:1023]  GUID[009007010100000f]
sbp2: $Rev: 1010 $ Ben Collins <[email protected]>
scsi2 : SCSI emulation for IEEE-1394 SBP-2 Devices
ieee1394: sbp2: Logged into SBP-2 device
ieee1394: sbp2: Node 0-00:1023: Max speed [S400] - Max payload [2048]
And lastly, here's the reult of lspci:
Code:
knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ cat /proc/bus/ieee1394/devices
Node[0-00:1023]  GUID[0010b900100001d0]:
  Vendor ID: `Maxtor' [0x0010b9]
  Capabilities: 0x0083c0
  Bus Options:
    IRMC(0) CMC(0) ISC(0) BMC(0) PMC(0) GEN(0)
    LSPD(2) MAX_REC(64) CYC_CLK_ACC(255)
  Unit Directory 0:
    Vendor/Model ID: Maxtor [0010b9] / 1394 Disk Drive [000000]
    Software Specifier ID: 00609e
    Software Version: 010483
    Driver: SBP2 Driver
    Length (in quads): 8
Node[0-01:1023]  GUID[009007010100000f]:
  Vendor ID: `Linux OHCI-1394' [0x000000]
  Capabilities: 0x0083c0
  Bus Options:
    IRMC(1) CMC(1) ISC(1) BMC(0) PMC(0) GEN(0)
    LSPD(2) MAX_REC(2048) CYC_CLK_ACC(0)
  Host Node Status:
    Host Driver     : ohci1394
    Nodes connected : 2
    Nodes active    : 2
    SelfIDs received: 2
    Irm ID          : [0-01:1023]
    BusMgr ID       : [0-63:1023]
    In Bus Reset    : no
    Root            : yes
    Cycle Master    : yes
    IRM             : yes
    Bus Manager     : no
Thanks in advance for any tips...

p.s. using the latest Sep build of Knoppix; here's what dmesg says:
Code:
Linux version 2.4.22-xfs (root@Knoppix) (gcc version 2.95.4 20011002 (Debian prerelease)) #1 SMP Fr Sep 19 17:55:45 CEST 2003
p.p.s I did try the tool 'gscanbus' (from one of the menus) - can't remember exactly the outcome, but didn't solve my problem :(