Not necessairly, you need to be sure the hotplug package is installed. With that installed it "just works" (tm) for me. Look in the logs for error or clues If you do not see it identified as a scsi device you are missing something.
Whatever you say :)
All I know about usb-mass-storage devices is that I bought a USB SecureDigital card reader, plugged it in, and all I had to do to get it working was to mount /dev/sda1 :)
