Hello,
I have another variation of the above solution.

In your menu.list file you can add a parameter to turn off autosuspend globally.

kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-686 root=/dev/hdb2 ro vga=791 usbcore.autosuspend=-1

This in fact is the same as above, but you don't have to change each device.  The above approach is great if its just a few devices.

I stumbled upon this about 1 year ago with a Samsung ML-2010 that would only print a few pages and stop.  I couldn't figure it out.  After some snooping, I found it was because the Samsung printer driver (which included a Linux CD, Kudos to you Samsung) didn't turn off autosuspend.  I notified Samsung to have their Linux team add the printer to the blacklist but I guess it never happened.  

As a result, I can print fine and my devices are working.

I started to look for the same error again with the 2.6.26 kernel from Debian and stumbled upon this post.  Just thought I'd share some knowledge.

But a question:
Is usb storage broken in the 2.6.26 kernel now?
I've been getting some strange errors 

Oct  2 16:41:37 mepis1 kernel: [10725.578559] sd 13:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk                                            
Oct  2 16:42:26 mepis1 kernel: [10778.689115] usb 9-4: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 14               
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 kernel: [10779.523824] usb 9-4: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 14               
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 kernel: [10779.675803] usb 9-4: device firmware changed                                                 
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 kernel: [10779.675803] usb 9-4: USB disconnect, address 14                                              
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 kernel: [10779.675803] sd 13:0:0:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK    
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 kernel: [10779.675803] __ratelimit: 254086 messages suppressed                                          
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 kernel: [10779.675803] lost page write due to I/O error on sda1                                         
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 last message repeated 9 times                                                                           
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 kernel: [10779.675803] sd 13:0:0:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK    
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 last message repeated 8 times                                                                           
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 kernel: [10779.675866] sd 13:0:0:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK    
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 kernel: [10779.676182] sd 13:0:0:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK    
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 kernel: [10779.679806] sd 13:0:0:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK    
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 last message repeated 10 times                                                                          
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 kernel: [10779.680300] sd 13:0:0:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 kernel: [10779.699905] sd 13:0:0:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 kernel: [10779.778083] usb 9-2: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 13                
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 kernel: [10779.836350] sd 12:0:0:3: [sde] READ CAPACITY failed                                           
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 kernel: [10779.836350] sd 12:0:0:3: [sde] Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK     
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 kernel: [10779.836350] sd 12:0:0:3: [sde] Sense not available.                                           
Oct  2 16:42:27 mepis1 kernel: [10779.836835] sd 12:0:0:1: [sdc] READ CAPACITY failed 

Wondering if the device could be bad.

Good Luck,
btanoue