gnerdman:
As mount -a has the desired effect, as root, enter that on it's own line at the end of /etc/rc.d/rc.local, press Enter to start a new line, then save the file.
Reboot, and all auto mount partitions will be.
That worked. I'm moderately annoyed that fstab doesn't, but a couple of days from now I'll forget all about it until I need it again. 
Thanks for hanging in there, old-polack, I really appreciate your efforts!
Fstab is just a
table, not an active script. Mount is supposed to
source /etc/fstab and mount
all the partitions listed there as being
auto mounted. The command for that is
mount -a. Having checked that the
entry in /etc/fstab is
correct, (contains no typos) and that
mount -a actually does work, I would guess there's a problem with a
module for the USB drive controller
loading late, after the initial mount -a command, so even though the partition is
properly listed, the kernel
can't yet see the
actual drive, at that time. As
/etc/rc.d/rc.local is the
last file sourced during the boot process, having an
extra mount -a command there insures that it is executed
after all modules are loaded.
There is
nothing wrong with your
/etc/fstab entry, and
nothing wrong with the
mount -a command, therefore it
must be a
timing issue alone, and this action
corrects for that.
