From awesome

[edit] ivman

In popular desktop environment (Gnome, KDE, XFCE), automounting is installed automatically. You just have to plug-in your USB key to access all your data in Nautilus, D3lphin or Thunar. Since awesome is not a desktop environment but a window manager, this feature is not provided by default.

To remain to this, there is a standalone application (without any dependencies) that does automounting very well: Ivman

On a Debian-based distribution, you can install this software by typing in a terminal:

  sudo apt-get install ivman

On Archlinux, you can install this software from AUR:

  http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=18938

On FreeBSD, you can install this software by typing in a terminal:

  su root -c pkg_add\ -r\ ivman

On Gentoo Linux:

  # emerge sys-apps/ivman
  # /etc/init.d/ivman start

Or add it to runlevel:

  # rc-update -a ivman default

Not for Gentoo Linux: After it is installed, simply add Ivman to your ~/.xinitrc. Here's an example of what it may look like:

  #!/bin/sh
  ivman &
  exec awesome

Or, simply start ivman and enjoy automounting.

[edit] Halevt

Ivman project seems to be dead (the last release was in 2007), and it does not work with latest versions of hal and dbus. Its successor is halevt [1]. The configuration file for halevt has very much in common with ivman.

Debian users may install halevt from testing branch with:

# aptitude install halevt

Also, /etc/PolicyKit/PolicyKit.conf should contain something like

<match user="halevt">
    <match action="org.freedesktop.hal.storage.mount-removable">
        <return result="yes"/>
    </match>
</match>

for things to work.