<--snip-->

> > >

> > > The udisksd man page says the daemon is started by dbus-daemon or
> > > systemd. However, it is not started by inserting a USB device.

> > > tried starting it manually (with USB device inserted) and received
> > > this:
> > >

> > > root@aragog:/home/fred# /usr/lib/udisks2/udisksd &
> > > [1] 5 3
> > > root@aragog:/home/fred# udisks-Message: 07:27:15.642: udisks daemon
> > >

> > > version 2.8.1 starting
> > >

> > > ** (udisksd:523): WARNING **: 07:27:15.773: failed to load module
> > > mdraid: libbd_mdraid.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such
> > > file or directory
> > >


You read it in the man page, you do not start udisksd that way.
what does the following command display when run with root privileges...

udisksctl dump