automount down

[Eric P <eric.maillist@gmail.com>]

I noticed a few days ago that USB memory sticks and CDs/DVDs no longer
automount.

I also noticed a bajillion stalled(?) processes like the following:
23851 ?        S<     0:00 /bin/sh /sbin/hotplug usb
23852 ?        S<     0:00 /bin/sh /sbin/hotplug usb
23855 ?        S<     0:00 /bin/sh /sbin/hotplug scsi_host
23857 ?        S<     0:00 /bin/sh /sbin/hotplug scsi
23870 ?        S<     0:00 /bin/sh /sbin/hotplug block
23889 ?        S<     0:00 /etc/hotplug.d/default/20-hal.hotplug scsi
23890 ?        S<     0:00 /etc/hotplug.d/default/20-hal.hotplug scsi_host
23891 ?        S<     0:00 /etc/hotplug.d/default/20-hal.hotplug block
23894 ?        S<     0:00 /bin/sh /sbin/hotplug block
23896 ?        S<     0:00 /etc/hotplug.d/default/20-hal.hotplug block
23897 ?        S<     0:00 /bin/sh /sbin/hotplug scsi_device
23899 ?        S<     0:00 /etc/hotplug.d/default/20-hal.hotplug scsi_device

Any clue how to cleanly wipe these and restart the hotplug dameon?
Also, does hotplug take care of CDs/DVDs?

Thanks for reading.
Eric