One of the pc's I use Antix with is an ancient PII.

It would not recgonized some USB devices untill I found and implemented this fix.

Make a file /etc/init.d/local with the following lines:
#! /bin/sh
echo N > /sys/module/usbcore/parameters/old_scheme_first
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1

Save the file and make it executable by typing in the console
chmod +x /etc/init.d/local

The instructions state that The last command you need to type is:
update-rc.d /etc/init.d/ local defaults

However it just gives me errors, but the usb devies are now working. Knock on wood.

Maybe someone else could elaborate on this? I think having it limited to sda1 is causing me problems when i use multiple usb devices. I still can't get the ipod to connect.

I don't know if you just mistyped in the post but there's an intruder space, it should be
update-rc.d /etc/init.d/local defaults