I'm running:

CentOS release 5.3 (Final)

when I plug in a Small USB key, hotplug sees the new device, mounts it in userspace and creates a link on the desktop. The user can open the link and read and write to the USB key. I have tested 3 different usb keys and they all work.

When I plug in a USB 250 GB drive (Lacie), also fat32, it doesn't mount:

May 11 12:25:29 tinkerer kernel: SCSI device sdf: 488397168 512-byte hdwr sectors (250059 MB)
May 11 12:25:29 tinkerer kernel: sdf: Write Protect is off
May 11 12:25:29 tinkerer kernel: sdf: assuming drive cache: write through
May 11 12:25:29 tinkerer kernel: SCSI device sdf: 488397168 512-byte hdwr sectors (250059 MB)
May 11 12:25:29 tinkerer kernel: sdf: Write Protect is off
May 11 12:25:29 tinkerer kernel: sdf: assuming drive cache: write through
May 11 12:25:29 tinkerer kernel: sdf: sdf1 < sdf5 >
May 11 12:25:29 tinkerer kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sdf
May 11 12:26:15 tinkerer kernel: sdf1: rw=0, want=3, limit=2
May 11 12:26:25 tinkerer kernel: VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdf1.

However, I can mount the drive manually as root. The problem is that the user cannot write to the device if it's mounted by root.

Is this a problem with hotplug/udev or another way that I can make this device available rw to the user?

thanks

mount -t vfat -o uid=UID,gid=GID,umask=003 /dev/sdX /mnt/ExtFat32

UID and GID are those of the desired user, X is the device letter a, b, c, ...
Change the mount point as desired.

Don't know why the automount is not working. I know I've seen the issue before, but the cobwebs are too thick tonight.

The following worked:

mount -o uid=7461,gid=7461 /dev/sdf5 /mnt/disk/

for the user...

I think the reason it doesn't get automounted is that there are two partitions on the drive:

Disk /dev/sdf: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdf1 1 30401 244196001 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdf5 1 30401 244195938 b W95 FAT32

when I plug it in to the usb port, hotplug and udev see it but try to mount /dev/sdf1 which is not the real partition.
I wonder if there is a way to make a rule in /etc/udev/rules.d that would force it skip the W95 Ext'd (LBA) partition and mount the W95 FAT32 partition (sdf5) by default. ?

In any event, your suggestion worked to mount it for the user. thanks!