About HAL

MTK358 · 12-23-2010, 01:02 PM

In Arch, I very often get errors about HAL when mounting a drive using a GUI file manager, especially after updates.

I wonder what HAL really does, how to fix it, or is there a better alternative?

Mr. Alex · 12-23-2010, 01:04 PM

Paste your /etc/rc.conf here.

MTK358 · 12-23-2010, 01:27 PM

Code:

#
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
#

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# LOCALIZATION
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# LOCALE: available languages can be listed with the 'locale -a' command
# HARDWARECLOCK: set to "UTC" or "localtime", any other value will result
#   in the hardware clock being left untouched (useful for virtualization)
# TIMEZONE: timezones are found in /usr/share/zoneinfo
# KEYMAP: keymaps are found in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps
# CONSOLEFONT: found in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (only needed for non-US)
# CONSOLEMAP: found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans
# USECOLOR: use ANSI color sequences in startup messages
#
LOCALE="en_US.UTF-8"
HARDWARECLOCK=""
TIMEZONE="America/New_York"
KEYMAP="us"
CONSOLEFONT=
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# HARDWARE
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# MOD_AUTOLOAD: Allow autoloading of modules at boot and when needed
# MOD_BLACKLIST: Prevent udev from loading these modules
# MODULES: Modules to load at boot-up. Prefix with a ! to blacklist.
#
# NOTE: Use of 'MOD_BLACKLIST' is deprecated. Please use ! in the MODULES array.
#
MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
#MOD_BLACKLIST=() #deprecated
MODULES=(vboxdrv)

# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="no"

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# NETWORKING
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# HOSTNAME: Hostname of machine. Should also be put in /etc/hosts
#
HOSTNAME="michael-desktop"

# Use 'ifconfig -a' or 'ls /sys/class/net/' to see all available interfaces.
#
# Interfaces to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each interface then list in INTERFACES
#   - prefix an entry in INTERFACES with a ! to disable it
#   - no hyphens in your interface names - Bash doesn't like it
# 
# DHCP:     Set your interface to "dhcp" (eth0="dhcp")
# Wireless: See network profiles below
#

#Static IP example
#eth0="dhcp"
eth0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(eth0)

# Routes to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each route then list in ROUTES
#   - prefix an entry in ROUTES with a ! to disable it
#
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)
 
# Enable these network profiles at boot-up.  These are only useful
# if you happen to need multiple network configurations (ie, laptop users)
#   - set to 'menu' to present a menu during boot-up (dialog package required)
#   - prefix an entry with a ! to disable it
#
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
#
# This now requires the netcfg package
#
#NETWORKS=(main)

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# DAEMONS
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
#   - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it
#   - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background
#
DAEMONS=(@syslog-ng dbus hal network netfs @crond @atd @alsa @cups @openntpd @sensors)

Still I though I heard a few times that HAL is deprecated, but what's it's replacement and why do all GUI file managers use it?

markush · 12-23-2010, 02:57 PM

Hello MTK358,

there is a package "device-kit" which is designed to replace hal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeviceKit
Otherwise it seems that more and more functions of hal are carried to udev itselv. You know that hal and udev work closely together. I see that the hal policy-files (*.fde) become fewer nowadays whereas more configurations are done via the udev-rules.

So I think one cannot speak about a "replacement" for hal, it seems to be more and more deprecated.

Markus

i92guboj · 12-24-2010, 01:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTK358

In Arch, I very often get errors about HAL when mounting a drive using a GUI file manager, especially after updates.

I wonder what HAL really does, how to fix it, or is there a better alternative?

HAL stands for "hardware abstraction layer", it aims to be sitting in between your software and your hardware, and it manages things like disks, audio cards, optical drives, usb gadgets or whatever you wish.

If you have a problem with HAL at a given point, open a thread and be specific about the symptoms, errors, messages, etc. Maybe we can help you.

As for your question, there's no 1:1 alternative for HAL. You can't just replace HAL with anything else and continue working just like yesterday. Most software is migrating to many components (udev, upower, policykit and devicekit, and a few others) which do the work that HAL did, but as I said, the software needs to be migrated for this to work.

Being that said, most up to date distros should not depend much on HAL any longer for most stuff. So, this depends to a large degree on your distros and desktop environment. In my Gentoo box, as an example, the only packages still depending on HAL are phonon (which is mostly used for desktop notifications in kde) and k3b (the kde burning tool).

Remember that if you have software that depends on HAL you must make sure that the hald services is being started when you boot your system. Otherwise they will not operate correctly, if at all.

MTK358 · 12-24-2010, 06:44 AM

Is there any GUI file manager that doesn't depend on HAL to mount plugged-in devices?

MTK358 · 01-09-2011, 01:45 PM

Anyone?

i92guboj · 01-10-2011, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTK358

Is there any GUI file manager that doesn't depend on HAL to mount plugged-in devices?

Well, I am not sure about the current status of HAL in kde. I know that the solid backend needs hal for sure to detect sound devices, but maybe the storage devices work without it under dolphin and konqueror. I think that gnome no longer depends on hal either. You can also check pcmanfm and thunar.

I am not sure of the current status of things, but no one else answered, so... Just make sure you always check the latest available version for each one of these programs.

mlangdn · 01-10-2011, 10:39 AM

I have disabled hal with no ill effects running the RC2 of KDE. Even K3b in RC2 no longer depends on hal. This is on Slackware64-current using Alien's KDE packages.