USB problems with SuSE 9.1

Since upgrading to SuSE 9.1 the USB interface has not worked so well.
Automount of USB can be disabled in /etc/sysconfig/hotplug by setting the parameter:
HOTPLUG_USE_SUBFS=no

A
Linuxquestions thread addresses this, and also this SuSE article explains how to revert to conventional mounting rather than using subfs.

The hotplug system is explained in SuSE article .