In the same place in rc.sysinit that USB keyboard and mouse are detected (in order to load modules), USB disks should be detected (to modprobe usb-storage). This would allow such disks to be mounted in the normal sequence at boot time based on their entries in /etc/fstab. The code is cut & paste from the keyboard or mouse code.
updfstab (from kudzu) should write the appropriate entries into /etc/fstab.
That's fine if kudzu is going to "modprobe usb-storage". But what happens (as in a laptop situation) when I boot with drive present, then boot without, then boot with? I'm still not convinced that kudzu is the answer for disk-like devices. I already have an issue with my Dell laptop when I shuffle a drive out to put a battery in (usually it's on AC).
updfstab is run on a) boot b) hotplug events Still, perhaps loading usb-storage could be useful. Added; will be in next initscripts build, but it really should go off to its own script at some point.