Well, what ever image you write your sd card.. First thing upgrade to
the 3.8.6-bone12 kernel:
(Debian Wheezy)
wget http://rcn-ee.net/deb/wheezy-armhf/v3.8.6-bone12/install-me.sh
sudo /bin/bash install-me.sh
For Ubuntu, you'll find the same file under the quantal directory..
Then you atleast get 500mA to work with for the usb bus..
Regards,