As per the subject, my debian system is fowled up somehow.. I have purged and reinstalled the pygtk 2.6.x package so many time I can't beging to count them and yet I keep getting this SAME error msg..
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mike@cptnkirk:~ $ hal-device-manager
** ERROR **: PyGTK (2, 6, 0) required, but (2, 4, 1) found.
aborting...
Aborted
-------
To keep it short and simple, I've done all the pkg-config --modversion and looked at the pygtk pc file and everything says version 2.6.2 is insalled NOT 2.4.1.... I finally looked at the one application that I can run from the CLI and get the error to the screen to see if it could tell me anything... This is what I did..

_____
mike@cptnkirk:~ $ hal-device-manager << run the application to get the error..
** ERROR **: PyGTK (2, 6, 0) required, but (2, 4, 1) found.
aborting...
Aborted

mike@cptnkirk:~ $ locate hal | grep 'bin/h' << find what 'bin/ directory the executable was in
/usr/bin/hal-get-property
/usr/bin/hal-set-property
/usr/bin/hal-device-manager << ah, haaa, here it is...
/usr/sbin/hald
/sbin/halt
mike@cptnkirk:~ $ cat /usr/bin/hal-device-manager <<dump it to the screen
#!/usr/bin/python

"""This is the main executable for DeviceManager. GTK+/Glade code is based
on simplepy from Shannon -jj Behrens <jjinux@yahoo.com>"""

import sys
import pygtk << MAYBE THIS is where the problem is?
import gtk
import gnome

I have absolutely NO idea where the 'pygtk' is located that this script is wanting to import NOR do I have any idea how it determines what the version number of the pygtk is...

Seems if I could solve this mistery, I MIGHT be able to solve this long time problem... I really think this is also the cause of several applications like GDM and GIMP and others to just DIE without a trace of evidence of what the hell happened to them..

PLS... I'm getting disperate over this one.. if I can't solve it, I'm gona have to backup all my data and try 'yet another' fresh install and I thought those days were all behind me..

Mike..

i don't have or use that module so please forgive errors
try
(all seperate commands)
python
import gobject
gobject.pygtk_version

should return a triple i think
Cntrl d
to exit

python can be a bit tricky about it's modules but i have also noticed people missusing version checking code as well

you could try in that file finding what is most likely a line calling
if gtk.pygtk_version >= (2,6,0):
....

or
pygtk.require('2.6.0')
or something similar
just change it to 2.0 and see if it still works

well you were right about the triplet and it is (2, 4, 1)
soo... now to see if I can find where it is demanding version 2.6 and maybe I can alteast skirt the one problem with hal-device-manager...

will keep you posted..

thanks for the help..
mr mike..