HAL daemon does not recognize a mounted partition as mounted
 

In Slackware 12, the hal daemon fails to recognize that my root partition (/dev/hda1) is, in fact, mounted. If I type in lshal to get a listing of the hal database, it reports that the block device /dev/hda1 has the following properties: volume.is_mounted = false and volume.mount_point = ''.

I have searched fairly extensively for an answer to this question and haven't found one, so I thought I'd share my research results in case anyone else is facing a similar issue. I've also been using Linux only a month, so please forgive me if I'm breaching etiquette by starting this thread.

One way to partially fix this problem is to write a fdi file and place it in the /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy directory. This is an example of the file I wrote to force the hal daemon to recognize that my root partition is mounted:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!-- To fix hal not seeing hda1 as mounted -->

<deviceinfo version="0.2">
<device>
<match key="info.udi" string="/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/volume_uuid_542ade2e_9b89_43c8_a32e_cd750850075f">
<merge key="volume.is_mounted" type ="bool">true</merge>
<merge key="volume.mount_point" type ="string">/</merge>
</match>
</device>
</deviceinfo>

If you wish to use this file, of course, you'd need to change the match and merge key values so they are relevant to your system. For example, change the info.udi key to match the device you are trying to get the hal daemon to recognize. Also, make sure root is the owner of the file.

While this has solved my immediate problem, it is not a complete solution. For example, if I su to another user, the hal daemon once again sees hda1 as unmounted. Nonetheless, this is a partial fix and you can always force the hal daemon to see the partition as mounted by using the program hal-set-property. You'll need to set both the volume.is_mounted and volume.mount_point properties.

Anyway, I hope this may help someone. Thanks for the great operating system.

Best,

Matthew

Does the /dev/hda1 show in KDE's media:/ ?

Hi,

I would check the '/etc/fstab' to confirm the mount point. You can also get some good information from rworkman's sticky '12.0 and HAL - READ THIS!'.

What does 'mount' show from the cli?

Thank you both for your replies.

SCerovec: /dev/hda1 does show in KDE's media:/ In fact, after I wrote the fdi file it would actually show as mounted. I think there is a problem with kde, though, because if I plug in an USB memory stick and then "Safely Remove" the memory stick, then kde once again thinks hda1 is unmounted (although the icon still appears). I tried to fix this over the weekend but nothing worked. For example, even if I manually reset the hald database to show that hda1 was mounted, kde would never again show it as mounted until I rebooted the computer.

onebuck: I confirmed the mount point in /etc/fstab and I read the sticky before I posted (which I agree is quite helpful but didn't seem to fix this problem). 'mount' shows that hda1 is mounted.

After spending some more time this weekend, I'm tempted to conclude this is a bug in kde. Someone reported a similar bug to the kde site, but they claimed it was a problem with HAL.

Thanks again for your help.

Best,

Matthew

I actually didn't pay attention if my Slack12 did this(?)
I must see for it today :(