If your USB device is not being recognized, execute the command “dmesg” and check if the following output is there:
usb 1-1.4: rejected 1 configuration due to insufficient available bus power
The “1-1.4″ ID may be different for your configuration.
If, and only if, you are absolutely sure that your USB hub and/or hardware configuration have a safe way to actually supply enough power, you can override this barrier and force the device to be activated despite of the error message. A possible situation is where you manually applied 5V external power on your USB device and/or USB hub, like I did on my Bifferboard.
Here is how you can override the power safety mechanism:
echo 1 > /sys/bus/usb/devices/1-1.4/bConfigurationValue
Replace “1-1.4″ with your USB device ID. Be careful and have fun!