USB stick umount locks up machine

[postid <postid@basicisp.net>]

Greetings:

When I unmount a USB memory stick my machine becomes completely 
unresponsive. I can't access a console and even the sysreq key sequences 
don't work. I end up shutting it down with the power button.

My /etc/fstab has this line:

# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
/dev/sda1       /media/usb      auto    rw,user,noauto  0       0

This is an IBM R40 laptop running Sarge.

Any ideas for using USB sticks successfully?

(Yes, I'll upgrade to Etch eventually, but right now I'm too busy for that.)

Please CC me as I'm not currently subscribed.

PostID