scusate se mi impiccio ma ho un problema simile, questa è la mia situazione:
sono su una gentoo 2005.1 con udev e kernel 2.6.14-gentoo-r5

questo è il risultato dei vari comandi che prima avete consigliatp

codice:
[14:38:31] paolo paolo # cat /b*/c*`uname -r`b |grep CONFIG_USB_STORAGE=
CONFIG_USB_STORAGE=y
[14:38:35] paolo paolo # cat /b*/c*`uname -r`b |grep CONFIG_USB_OHCI_HCD=
CONFIG_USB_OHCI_HCD=y
[14:38:48] paolo paolo # cat /b*/c*`uname -r`b |grep CONFIG_SCSI=
CONFIG_SCSI=y
[14:39:06] paolo paolo # mount -t vfat /dev/uba1 /mnt/pen
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/uba1,
       missing codepage or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

[14:39:38] paolo paolo # dmesg | tail
NTFS-fs error (device uba1): ntfs_fill_super(): Not an NTFS volume.
usb 1-1: USB disconnect, address 4
usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 5
ub(1.5): GetMaxLUN returned 0, using 1 LUNs
 uba: uba1
FAT: codepage cp437 not found
FAT: codepage cp437 not found
FAT: codepage cp437 not found
FAT: codepage cp437 not found
FAT: codepage cp437 not found
[14:39:51] paolo paolo # fdisk /dev/uba

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/uba: 263 MB, 263716864 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 32 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id System
/dev/uba1               1          32      257008+   b  W95 FAT32
sembra tutto a posto a parte il codepage, non so però quale specificare al posto del 437