Unstable hal problem
 

I am running Debian unstable 2.6.15-1-amd64-k8. When I try to install hal (0.5.6-2) I get this error:

groupadd: GID 104 is not unique
adduser: `/usr/sbin/groupadd -g 104 hal' returned error code 4. Aborting.
dpkg: error processing hal (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 4
Errors were encountered while processing:
hal
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)


Does anyone know if this can be resolved? I am lost.

Unless you want/need the hal/udev set of packages then dpkg -P hal your system will run just fine without them.

Unstable hal problem
 

My ultimate goal is to have gnome-volume-manager installed so that it will automount my external USB drives. But that fails because it needs hal. Everything is fine if I do a manual mount - I just want to have it done for me.

Ok then I would suggest going the http://bugs.debian.org searching on the hal package to see if the bug has been reported which I think it would be by now. In many case the solution/work around to the bug is posted by the reporter or someone else bitten by the same bug. If no solution/work around is there then you may have to wait a couple of days for the package to be fixed so it will install.