Thanks for your suggestion coco-loco.
Here is my fstab
# This file is edited by fstab-sync - see 'man fstab-sync' for details
#
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs defaults 0 0
/dev/discs/disc0/part1 /mnt/windows ntfs ro,users,auto,umask=666 0 0
/dev/discs/disc0/part3 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/discs/disc0/part4 / ext3 defaults 0 1
/dev/discs/disc0/part2 /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
/dev/maxtor /media/maxtor ext3 users,exec,noauto 0 0
/dev/hdc /media/dvdwriter auto users,exec,noauto 0 0
/dev/hdd /media/dvd auto users,exec,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy auto users,exec,noauto 0 0
As you can see here I have the correct device nodes at /dev
I don't see what can be wrong. I can mount and umount media manually.
# ls -l /dev/cdrom*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2005-12-13 21:03 /dev/cdrom -> hdc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2005-12-13 21:03 /dev/cdrom1 -> hdd
/dev/cdroms:
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 2005-12-13 21:03 cdrom -> ../hdd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 2005-12-13 21:03 cdrom0 -> ../hdc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 2005-12-13 21:03 cdrom1 -> ../hdd
When I plug in a pendrive kde presents a screen with the typical options.
If I click on 'open in a new window' the device is mounted and konqueror browses it.
with mount I can see the new mount point:
/dev/sdb1 on /media/sdb1 type vfat (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,quiet,shortname=winnt,uid=500,gid=100,umask=077)
and a look at fstab tells me that no new entries where added.
The difference between the pendrive and de cd or dvd media is that the device node for the pendrive is created when it is pluged in but the cd/dvd device nodes are created at boot time.