Can't connect N810 through usb
 

I was attempting to follow these instructions for debugging:
http://wiki.maemo.org/Troubleshooting_boot_issues

It tells me to plug the tablet into the laptop through usb and both of them detect the other but when I type in:
ifconfig usb0 up

I get the following message:
usb0: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device

I don't understand why usb0 is not detected. When I do the ifconfig command by itself usb0 doesn't show up. Has anyone run into this problem or has any clue how to fix it?

ps- I'm using Ubuntu 8.04 if that matters