noauto/fstab/gdm problem?

[Carl Hartung <suselinux cehartung com>]

Hi All,

This is really more of a GNOME problem than a GARNOME problem, but since I'm 
already subscribed here and all of you are extremely knowledgable about GNOME 
I thought I'd see if one of you might be able to explain what's going on. I'm 
running 'stock' GNOME 2.12.0 on SUSE Linux 10.0 on a plain vanilla i686 box 
with three standard IDE hard drives. Below are the entries in /etc/fstab 
pertaining to my question (Note the 'noauto' declaration in each entry and 
the fact that one is vfat and the other Reiserfs.):

/dev/hdb12    /mnt/hdb-bak         reiserfs   noauto,acl,user_xattr 1 2

/dev/hdc1     /mnt/hdc-bak         vfat       
noauto,users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8=true 0 0

I discovered, after booting, that hdb12 is not being mounted automatically 
(the desired behavior) but hdc1 *is.* I've narrowed the problem down to 
GNOME. :-/  Following is the test procedure that I used to determine this:

From my desktop:

a) Ctl+Alt+F1 to console
b) logged in as root
c) umount /dev/hdc1
d) exit (returned to login prompt)
e) Ctl+Alt+F7 (returned to desktop)
f) Desktop>Logout>checked 'Save current setup'
g) checked 'Restart the computer'

After rebooting:

h) at the gdm greeter, Ctl+Alt+F1 to console
i) logged in as root
j) 'mount' shows /dev/hdc1 is *not* mounted
k) exit and Ctl+Alt+F7 (return to greeter)
l) logged into desktop as user
m) Ctl+Alt+F1 to console
n) logged in as root
o) 'mount' shows /dev/hdc1 *is* mounted.

I didn't knowingly have any applications running that would have a need to 
mount hdc1... I'm running just a normal set of taskbar/panel(?) stuff: volume 
control, mixer, KOrganizer Reminder Daemon (I run Kontact), SUSEWatcher, 
KGpg, KSensors, Ethernet connection, Display information, clock/date. I've 
scanned hundreds of docs and spent hours on Google to no avail.

I may be missing something simple, I know, and I apologize but I'm really 
starting to pull my hair out. Any suggestions, explanations or even a cure 
would be very gratefully appreciated.

TIA & regards,

Carl