In current Linux versions, removable media are handled by HAL (hardware abstraction layer, not the Space Odyssey kind) and no longer through automount.

Users of desktop environments like Gnome and KDE, should just be able to mount any type of removable media through their desktop (e.g. cdrom, dvd, usb stick, usb digital camera). In Gnome:

  Open the "Computer" window
  Double-click on the device you want to mount
  Most types of media even get mounted automatically when inserted 

In KDE:

  Right-click on the device icon for the device you want to mount
  Select "mount" from the menu
  Now click on the device icon to access it in Dolphin (the KDE file manager) 

For access to removable media from outside the desktop, users can mount the devices themselves. You can use the command pmount /dev/cdrom to get the cdrom mounted. The mount points end up under /media and usually get the 'name' of the cd as their mountpoint name. Device names are usually /dev/cdrom, /dev/dvdwriter for optical drives; /dev/fd0 for the flopy drive and /dev/sd?? for usb drives (but note: /dev/sd* might also be an internal harddisk, in which case you won't have permission to mount it).

To unmount, use pumount /dev/devicename

For cdroms and dvds, you can use the command mountcd and umountcd instead. Those commands should take care of most of the peculiarities mentioned here, and mountcd will print the location of the mounted media for you. However, if your machine has multiple cd/dvd drives, it is hard to predict which one these commands will operate on.