So I am running my new Slackware 12 installation and all my usb devices seem to be managing fine with hal.

However my sansa e280 mp3 player does not seem to like hal.

When I plug it in the dialog eventually comes up asking whether I want to open it in a new window. If I select this option it will not mount in a new window. If I do not select this option it becomes unmountable due to a bad block error.

So I disabled Hal. The result is that I can mount the device fine manually.

Now if you watch the device when you first plug it in the screen comes on.

In Slackware 11 and in Slackware 12 with Hal disabled it displays 'connected', then 'disconnected' then 'connected' then settles on 'disconnected'.

In Slackware 12 with hal it displays 'connected', then 'disconnected' then settle on 'connected'. It seems that Hal induces the device to settle in a 'connected' state and it then becomes resistant to mounting.

Well I can manage without Hal but it seems a pity to have to disable it. Any ideas what is going on?

The Sansa Experess straight out of the box and connected to a Slack_12 box with USB_1 ports did exactly the same thing. I then connected the Sansa player to a Slack_12 box with USB_2 ports, and everything worked as expected. After letting the mp3 player charge up a bit, I connected it back to the box with usb_1 ports, and it has been perfect since then. This told me it needed the higher power of a usb_2 to bump start it, and charge it.

But then, I may be way way off base. But it works.

Having played with it a bit I have found the following.

If I remove the sansa line from fstab and the sansa line from udev rules then the sansa will open fine in the konqeror window under hal. However the gadget does not seem to work well with the combination of hal/fstab/udev. Funny, because I had thought that hal would not interfere with anything I had swt up in fstab.

My options are either to operate without my entries in fstab/udev and let hal do its thing. Or to disable hal and have everything working as in slackware 11 with fstab/udev and Amarok handling the mounting.

I prefer the latter option.