USB External cd-rw recognized only using knoppix cd

[Stephen]

Sorry to say -
/dev/scd1 /cdrom1 iso9660 defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto 0 0
doesnt get it either. It can't find mount for cdrom1.
Adding /mnt/cdrom1 doesnt work either.

If you have usb2, are your devices showing up in Control Center>Information>USB?
As mentioned earlier, mine only show when running from knoppix cd.
Also, USB hotplug shows up when running from knoppix cd, no mention of it with dmesg from the install.

Does the mount point /cdrom1 actually exist on your system? eg have you done mkdir /cdrom1. Also have you checked lsmod on the install to see if the module for usb2 is being loaded at boot ( I believe it's ehci)?