ivman is a generic handler for HAL events. Originally for automounting,
it can now be used to run arbitrary commands when events or conditions
occur or properties are modified on your hardware (e.g., run a command
when you close your laptop's lid, run a command when a particular
device is attached or a particular CD is inserted, etc).

ivman allows you to have automount feature even if you don't use a 
volume manager like KDE, GNOME, or XFCE includes. Just run ivman in
background, and if you're not root, be sure to also install pmount
that allows you to mount without being root and having the devices
listed on /etc/fstab.

NOTE FROM SUBMITTER:
I've discovered a bug (possibly known) in ivman with pumount usage,
since ivman doesn't have maintainer right now and I don't know where
to report it, I'll explain here how to easily solve it.
Note that this happens when using pumount as non-root; I haven't
tried using ivman as root.
It seems that when you remove a USB device without pumounting it
(which ivman should care of), ivman locks the device when calling
pumount. 
This can be easily fixed by correcting your ivman's config files.
Set in $HOME/.ivman/IvmConfigBase.xml:
<ivm:Option name="mountcommand" value="pmount-hal '$hal.info.udi$'" />
<ivm:Option name="umountcommand" value="pumount -l '$hal.block.device$'" />
