Linux USB boot hang

Hello,

I compiled and installed Linux-2.4.5smp on a dual 300 MHz Pentium II
running Red Hat 7.0 with gcc 2.96. The motherboard has two sets of USB
headers but there are no USB ports. If I configure the kernel with USB
modules, at boot linux complains repeatedly:

    hub.c: Cannot  enable port 1 of hub 1, disabling port.
    hub.c: Maybe USB cable is bad?
    hub.c: Cannot enable port 2 of hub 1, disabling port.
    hub.c: Maybe USB cable is bad?

 I don't know how to get out of this, so I just wait for it to time out
to finish booting. If I don't configure the kernel for a USB controller
then the during the boot process it complains that it can't find the
usb-uhci module and the boot process hangs at sendmail. Again I wait for
the time-out for the boot process to finish.  How do I fix this dilemma.
Is there some way I can modifiy hub.c to stop looking for ports 1 and 2?

Thanks, from a Linux newbie.

Don Werder
[e-mail]