I played around with this some more. Among the things I did uninstalling (purging) hal and reinstalling.
$ sudo apt-get remove --purge hal Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: python-crypto libboost-regex1.34.1 python-paramiko guile-g-wrap python-dev python-rpm libboost-iostreams1.34.1 guile-library xfdesktop4 g-wrap libtext-template-perl libpurple-bin openoffice.org-l10n-en-gb xfce4-utils openoffice.org-l10n-en-za libsexymm2 xfdesktop4-data libglademm-2.4-1c2a libgwrap-runtime0 Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them. The following packages will be REMOVED: gnome-mount* gnome-power-manager* gnome-session* gnome-volume-manager* hal* hal-cups-utils* hal-device-manager* hwdb-client-common* hwdb-client-gnome* hwdb-client-kde* kde-guidance-powermanager* kubuntu-desktop* network-manager* network-manager-gnome* network-manager-kde* sound-juicer* thunar-volman* ubuntu-desktop* update-notifier* xfce4-session* xubuntu-desktop* 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 21 to remove and 5 not upgraded. 21 not fully installed or removed. Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 38.5MB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y (Reading database ... 247241 files and directories currently installed.) Removing xubuntu-desktop ... Removing thunar-volman ... Purging configuration files for thunar-volman ... Removing ubuntu-desktop ... Removing gnome-volume-manager ... Purging configuration files for gnome-volume-manager ... Removing gnome-mount ... Purging configuration files for gnome-mount ... Removing gnome-session ... Purging configuration files for gnome-session ... Removing gnome-power-manager ... Purging configuration files for gnome-power-manager ... Removing xfce4-session ... Purging configuration files for xfce4-session ... Removing update-notifier ... Purging configuration files for update-notifier ... Removing sound-juicer ... Purging configuration files for sound-juicer ... Removing network-manager-kde ... Purging configuration files for network-manager-kde ... Removing network-manager-gnome ... Purging configuration files for network-manager-gnome ... Removing network-manager ... Purging configuration files for network-manager ... Removing kubuntu-desktop ... Removing kde-guidance-powermanager ... Removing hwdb-client-kde ... Removing hal-device-manager ... Purging configuration files for hal-device-manager ... Removing hwdb-client-gnome ... Removing hwdb-client-common ... Purging configuration files for hwdb-client-common ... X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 171 Major opcode: 149 Minor opcode: 3 Resource id: 0x0 Failed to open device X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 171 Major opcode: 149 Minor opcode: 3 Resource id: 0x0 Failed to open device Removing hal-cups-utils ... Removing hal ... * Stopping Hardware abstraction layer hald [ OK ] Purging configuration files for hal ... * Reloading system message bus config... [ OK ] Processing triggers for libc6 ... ldconfig deferred processing now taking place $ sudo apt-get install hal Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: python-crypto libboost-regex1.34.1 python-paramiko guile-g-wrap python-dev python-rpm libboost-iostreams1.34.1 guile-library xfdesktop4 g-wrap libtext-template-perl libpurple-bin openoffice.org-l10n-en-gb xfce4-utils openoffice.org-l10n-en-za libsexymm2 xfdesktop4-data libglademm-2.4-1c2a libgwrap-runtime0 Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them. Suggested packages: hal-device-manager The following NEW packages will be installed: hal 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded. Need to get 0B/689kB of archives. After unpacking 1733kB of additional disk space will be used. X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 171 Major opcode: 149 Minor opcode: 3 Resource id: 0x0 Failed to open device X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 171 Major opcode: 149 Minor opcode: 3 Resource id: 0x0 Failed to open device Selecting previously deselected package hal. (Reading database ... 245978 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking hal (from .../hal_0.5.9.1-6ubuntu1_i386.deb) ... Setting up hal (0.5.9.1-6ubuntu1) ... * Reloading system message bus config... [ OK ] * Starting Hardware abstraction layer hald invoke-rc.d: initscript hal, action "start" failed. dpkg: error processing hal (--configure): subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1 Errors were encountered while processing: hal Saving new apt-history status... E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) ----------------------------- I can't find anything in the syslog that points to anything related to this. But I'm probably not looking in the right place (?). I'm not all that familliar with this stuff. Before purging hal I tried stopping and starting, then stopping and restarting then stopping and reloading hal. It would just hang on the start/restarts. -- [Gutsy] HAL won't start https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/147963 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is the bug contact for Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs