OK I just booted and plugged in a USB mp3 player (USB Storage) it  automounted and opened a window in gnome.
I did this because I tried to do the same just before rebooting and I needed to stop/start udev in order to get the /dev/sdc1 device created. The difference ?  .. before the reboot I had been running stress stress  -d 100 -i 100 plus other work to create load on my disk (I have a failing seagate 1.5Tb disk). So I have a failing case followed by a working case:


# udevd --version
147

Most recent (working) /var/log/messages:

Feb 13 17:12:43 eddie kernel: [  482.284514] usb 4-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
Feb 13 17:12:44 eddie kernel: [  482.455130] usb 4-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 13 17:12:44 eddie kernel: [  482.486055] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Feb 13 17:12:44 eddie kernel: [  482.486275] scsi4 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Feb 13 17:12:44 eddie kernel: [  482.486409] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
Feb 13 17:12:44 eddie kernel: [  482.486414] USB Mass Storage support registered.
Feb 13 17:12:49 eddie kernel: [  487.492841] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access     JUNGSOFT  MUZIO JM-300    0000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
Feb 13 17:12:49 eddie kernel: [  487.493898] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
Feb 13 17:12:49 eddie kernel: [  487.543801] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] 1013760 512-byte logical blocks: (519 MB/495 MiB)
Feb 13 17:12:49 eddie kernel: [  487.629792] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
Feb 13 17:12:49 eddie kernel: [  487.767789]  sdc: sdc1
Feb 13 17:12:49 eddie kernel: [  487.911793] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk

previous:

# grep udev /var/log/messages
Feb  8 18:46:32 eddie kernel: [    8.961440] udev: starting version 147
Feb 10 08:13:27 eddie kernel: [    8.928125] udev: starting version 147
Feb 11 18:31:02 eddie kernel: [   13.560037] udev: starting version 147
Feb 12 19:44:27 eddie kernel: [   13.585444] udev: starting version 147
Feb 13 12:27:31 eddie kernel: [60199.243449] udev: starting version 147   <------ this is me doing stop/start
Feb 13 17:05:02 eddie kernel: [    8.832194] udev: starting version 147

From start of day ...  (I guess popularity-contest ignores my proxy settings :-) )
Feb 13 08:03:45 eddie popularity-contest: unable to submit report to http://popcon.ubuntu.com/popcon-submit.cgi.
Feb 13 08:03:45 eddie popularity-contest: unable to submit report.
Feb 13 12:06:47 eddie kernel: [58955.212026] usb 4-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
Feb 13 12:06:47 eddie kernel: [58955.387137] usb 4-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 13 12:06:47 eddie kernel: [58955.532833] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Feb 13 12:06:47 eddie kernel: [58955.533249] scsi4 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Feb 13 12:06:47 eddie kernel: [58955.533853] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
Feb 13 12:06:47 eddie kernel: [58955.533858] USB Mass Storage support registered.
Feb 13 12:06:50 eddie kernel: [58958.448047] usb 4-1: USB disconnect, address 2
Feb 13 12:07:50 eddie kernel: [59018.244527] usb 4-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
Feb 13 12:07:50 eddie kernel: [59018.419138] usb 4-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 13 12:07:50 eddie kernel: [59018.422214] scsi5 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Feb 13 12:07:53 eddie kernel: [59021.688041] usb 4-1: USB disconnect, address 3
Feb 13 12:08:04 eddie kernel: [59033.000027] usb 4-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 4
Feb 13 12:08:05 eddie kernel: [59033.175148] usb 4-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 13 12:08:05 eddie kernel: [59033.178206] scsi6 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Feb 13 12:08:10 eddie kernel: [59038.180803] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access     JUNGSOFT  MUZIO JM-300    0000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
Feb 13 12:08:10 eddie kernel: [59038.181382] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
Feb 13 12:08:10 eddie kernel: [59038.256785] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] 1013760 512-byte logical blocks: (519 MB/495 MiB)
Feb 13 12:08:10 eddie kernel: [59038.342775] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
Feb 13 12:08:10 eddie kernel: [59038.494780]  sdc: sdc1
Feb 13 12:08:10 eddie kernel: [59038.636793] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
Feb 13 12:10:10 eddie kernel: [59158.725309] __ratelimit: 24 callbacks suppressed

At this point /dev/sdc1 did NOT exist.

I also note these (which may be of interest):

# grep udevd /var/log/daemon.log
Feb 13 12:11:10 eddie udevd[543]: worker [780] unexpectedly returned with status 0x0100
Feb 13 12:11:10 eddie udevd[543]: worker [780] failed while handling '/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb4/4-1/4-1:1.0/host6/target6:0:0/6:0:0:0/block/sdc'
Feb 13 12:17:18 eddie udevd[543]: worker [12316] unexpectedly returned with status 0x0100
Feb 13 12:17:18 eddie udevd[543]: worker [12316] failed while handling '/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb4/4-1/4-1:1.0/host7/target7:0:0/7:0:0:0/block/sdc'


I'm not sending this as a problem, just in case the data is useful WRT this bug.