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: