Ok so here's the update after the reinstall.
Automounting is gone. I haven't checked yet if udisks2 is installed.
I'm almost convinced it was something I did.
We shall see after I install the rest of the packages.

Now, however, whenever I plug in a usb hd, it doesn't show up on the desktop.
When I set it to show umounted hd vols, it also shows me root drive. Not good.
In the previous bigdaddy iso, I could plug a usb hd and it would pop up on the 
desktop as would a USB drv.

Any suggestions as to what to look into?

Kate

Hey Doc, I'll see if I can uninstall udisks2 and the like before adding 
packages to see what calls it.