How to activate HAL in Slackware 11?
 

Hi,

in preparation of re-installing some of my machines with Slackware 11.0 once it is released I have experimented with RC3 a bit. Trying to mount a USB storage drive by clicking on it in KDE used to work in Slackware 10.2, but does no longer work in 11.0 RC3. Error message: "Feature is only available on systems with HAL" or so.

So, what exactly do I need and what do I have to do step by step in Slackware 11.0 in order to activate HAL?

(And no, neither reading Arthur C. Clarke's book nor watching Stanley Kubrick's screen adaptation haven't helped me, so far, with this...) ;-) Thanks in advance, gargamel

You need to:

1. Install HAL
2. Recompile KDE with HAL

Installing HAL: Would you recommend me to use a binary, like the one available for Slack 10.2 at LinuxPackages.net? Should I wait for an 11.0 package?
Or would you suggest to compile my own HAL? If so: Which version should I choose for Slack 11?

Thanks again.

gargamel

Well, the first wise thing would be for you to wait untill stable 11 is officialy released, then it just depends on you... if you like to get your hands a bit dirty and do it like you want just compile it yourself if not just wait for a release on linuxpackages.net ! As for HAL version... I think latest will work just fine, as it will not have any dependencies which 11 doesn't satisfy. I suggest you should look for a SlackBuild for HAL to make your life easier and also use the SlackBuild scripts for KDE too from the source dir and just add the HAL support feature to the ./configure command.

Thanks. In fact, I plan to install 11 once it is out. But in order to prepare for things to watch when doing the update I thought I'd try RC3 in advance. The HAL thing is one issue, that annoys me a bit, to be honest, as it means that a comfortable functionality that is available in 10.2 will vanish.

Now, in 10.2 there was no HAL, either, but KDE used to be able to use fstab for the same thing. Unfortunately there appears to be a bug in KDE 3.5.4 that prevents the desktop to offer the same comofort. Combined with no HAL in Slack 11 this means, that a nice feature (that was optional, you could turn it on or off just by adding or removing options in fstab) is no longer there.

And I am still not quite convinced that it is a good idea to not have HAL in Slack... But Pat usually knows what to do, how and why, much better than I do. So, he'll have good reasons for this, which I am just too humble to understand.

gargamel

Because HAL and DBUS are for sissies... :eek: Just kiddin....:D

Here is a good resource for building it if your interested. I'm sure you might have already looked at it.

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs...neral/hal.html

When you say clicking on it in kde what do you mean?
The reason I ask is that I am running current up to date as of 27Aug.
If I insert my usb stick, and click on my flash drive icon, it mounts it as before.
Perhaps a usb storage drive is different?
Is your version of kde a stock Slackware 3.5.4?

tobyl

edit: my kernel is 2.6.16. I have the new udev scripts etc running in /etc/rc.d, and have not changed my fstab...

I agree. Gnome does the same thing without using HAL/DBUS... Something else is going on. Now, if you wanted your usb stick to automagically appear mounted on the desktop after inserting it, then go the HAL route.

I don't use KDE tho... If it worked before and now it doesn't AND your running the same KDE packages then it shouldn't be a HAL issue despite what the error says. As Tobyl suggested, sounds like a UDEV problem more than anything. I would imagine it's not finding the device node anymore (udev upgrade?) and it tried to call on HAL to create it but couldn't find HAL so gave up on mounting it.

It's very strange if it's working at you. Would you try to open in Konqueror media:/ URL and point on required device ?
I'm running Slackware-current with stock KDE 3.5.4 and it fails with "Feature available only with HAL". I've reported this as a bug and it seems I'm not alone with this. Bug 132281
Although I knew it has nothing to do with udev I've even tested it with older versions 064 and 071 and the problem persists as expected.

EDIT: Added missing doublequote in Bug URL. Thanks to theoffset for pointing out.

I don't think that you need HAL to get the USB drive mounted by just a few clicks.

Here's what I do.
That entry from my /etc/fstab file. It just allows to mount and umount the device at will. Just add a Link to device on your desktop and you can mount it and umount it from there ;)

I know it is not automount but I never liked that "feature" popping out on my face a-la windoze

dunric
yes, you are quite correct. I have never used this method before.
Indeed, I do exactly as raska does in the post above.
Good luck with the bug report...

tobyl

The problem has definitly nothing to do with UDEV, the main problem seems to lay in the application of some patches by the "Coolo" developer (who maintains a branch of KDE, if I'm not mistaken) which solved some other bugs, but also added new features (somebody at kde thought that doing a partial feature-unfreeze for KDE 3.5.4+ was a good idea), and apparently, one of those features was an almost-HAL-only mediamanager kioslave...

file: http://websvn.kde.org/tags/KDE/3.5.4...65343&view=log
important diff:
http://websvn.kde.org/branches/KDE/3...5343&r2=550578

file:
http://websvn.kde.org/tags/KDE/3.5.4...65692&view=log
important diff:
http://websvn.kde.org/tags/KDE/3.5.4...65343&view=log

And a bunch of other files.

From the changelog of the last file:
Actually, I've been lurking through the SVN source code of KDE and I'm finding a few ugly hacks all around, looks like the KDE-team is more disorganized than I thought.

EDIT:
Also, your bug link is missing the closing quote (")

OK,
Have compiled and installed HAL, DBUS and latest version Slack (current, 29-08-2006) and recompiled KDEBASE using the Slackbuild script by inserting the --with-hal requirement. Guess what? still no hal capabilities. Kinfocentre still tells me that KDE has been built without hal support,and incidentally, enable CD polling is greyed out as well, and clicking on media under konqueror still gives the error Feature only available with HAL. Anyone any more suggestions.

What kernel are you using ? Are you positive that DBUS and HAL are working properly and started at boot time , or you start them ? Did you check in any way for errors ?

Hi nykey,

Am running kernel 2.6.17.2 compiled for my laptop. Dbus and Hal both report to be running according to process table, and the compiling of kdebase raised zero errors. But, have had a look through the log for the kdebase compile, and I notice this extract:-

configure:51658: checking for the HAL
configure: 51672: /opt/kde/include/libhal.h
configure: 51672: /opt/kde/include/libhal-storage.h
configure: 51672: /usr/include/libhal.h
configure: 51672: /usr/include/libhal-storage.h
configure: 51672: /usr/include/hal/libhal.h
taking that
configure: 51694: /opt/kde/lib/libhal.so
configure: 51694: /opt/kde/lib/libhal-storage.so
configure: 51694: /usr/lib/libhal.so
taking that
configure:51818: result: headers -I/usr/include/hal libraries -L/usr/lib -lhal -lhal-storage
configure:51833: checking for DBus
configure: 51847: /opt/kde/include/dbus/dbus.h
configure: 51847: /usr/include/dbus/dbus.h
configure: 51847: /usr/include/dbus-1.0/dbus/dbus.h
taking that
configure: 51864: /opt/kde/include/dbus/dbus-arch-deps.h
configure: 51864: /usr/lib/dbus-1.0/include/dbus/dbus-arch-deps.h
taking that
configure: 51886: /opt/kde/lib/libdbus-1.so
configure: 51886: /usr/lib/libdbus-1.so
taking that
configure:52020: result: headers -I/usr/include/dbus-1.0 -I/usr/lib/dbus-1.0/include libraries -L/usr/lib -ldbus-1
configure:52033: checking for DBus-Qt bindings
configure: 52047: /opt/kde/include/dbus/connection.h
configure: 52047: /usr/include/dbus/connection.h
configure: 52047: /usr/include/dbus-1.0/dbus/connection.h
configure: 52047: /usr/local/include/dbus/connection.h
configure: 52047: /usr/local/include/dbus-1.0/dbus/connection.h
configure: 52074: /opt/kde/lib/libdbus-qt-1.so
configure: 52074: /usr/lib/libdbus-qt-1.so
configure: 52074: /usr/local/lib/libdbus-qt-1.so
configure: 52098: /usr/include/dbus-1.0/dbus/connection.h
configure: 52098: /usr/lib/dbus-1.0/include/dbus/connection.h
configure:52147: result: searched but not found
configure:52157: checking if the HAL backend for media:/ should be compiled
configure:52172: result: no

So am at a bit of a loss here.

I have also tried the information at this link:- http://www.linuxpackages.net/forum/v...ic.php?t=15477

And still get no further forward. Do you have any more ideas?

Thanks