I had the same problem until I followed the normal rules for ASICminer Block Erupter USBs - i.e. add the user to the plugdev group and/or make the devices chmod 666 and also copy the rules from cgminer.rules to /etc/rules.d per the instructions for ASICminers.  I restarted udev and relogged in but no joy.

Then I rebooted while trying the things on normal bfgminer (getting, as you say, weird results from them).  When I brought them back to the linux box with the Antminer cgminer binary, voila' - it worked.  I'm using 115200:20 and stock speed right now and hashing away.  My linux is Ubuntu 13.10 (edubuntu) on that box  (couldn't get the binary to be happy with Mint 14, Debian Squeeze, or Ubuntu 12.04, so it's on the kids' computer).

Hope this helps!  Good luck!