Disable HAL in Xorg on Debian / Ubuntu

Ok, let’s go for another big issue on the road to build a complex distro .. Maintainers tend to include one feature after one .. and now Debian is getting closer to bloat ..

Anyway, sometime ago the HAL was introduced in Xorg. This allow you to hotplug mouse / keyboard … But if for a reason, your HAL is buggy .. you can’t use a keyboard or a mice in Xorg. That’s a bullshit ! I discover a bug in RAID + HAL, and HAL is now segfaulting on my computer .. so I need to get ride of this Xorg / HAL …

First you must modify /etc/X11/Xorg.conf with something like this :

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "AutoAddDevices" "False"
    Option "AllowEmptyInput" "False"
EndSection

This disable the hal support, but if you want to have the keyboard and mice, you must install the following packages :

  • xserver-xorg-input-kbd
  • xserver-xorg-input-mouse

That’s it… no HAL support Xorg anymore, that works fine …

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admin July 4th, 2009


6 Responses to “Disable HAL in Xorg on Debian / Ubuntu”

  1. # Noon 05 Jul 2009 at 9:58 pm

    So, wait, your OS accommodates you with sane defaults, and lets you modularly install the alternative, and you bitch about that?

    Way to go.

    By the way, why are you on Planet Python? You don’t post anything about Python.

  2. # adminon 06 Jul 2009 at 10:06 am

    No, I’m bitching cause Debian doesn’t provide anymore a good way to configure xorg.. and always trust HAL to do the right job, but if something goes wrong nothing will work .. and once again Debian provide any help how to re-install the “normal” way ..

    I searched a little time to discover that I need install kbd and mouse package by hand.

    For the Planet Python, open your eyes … and check the Python section of this site, you will discover some python posts no ? .. but you ‘re right, I asked Planet Python a couple of times to remove my main RSS feed .. but never received an answer.

    Bye Bye.

  3. # thankson 01 Aug 2009 at 9:44 am

    Thank you! Now I can run my Sidux box without HAL!

    In addition to your instructions, one might need to add to xorg.conf the “InputDevice” section for the mouse and the “InputDevice” section for the keyboard (I just copied these sections from on old xorg.conf).

    And, of course, one would also need to add the corresponding entries for these input devices to the “ServerLayout” section of xorg.conf.

    Thanks!

  4. # Wiegaldon 01 Aug 2009 at 12:43 pm

    Looks like people really, fucking, hate HAL:

    http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2009/07/msg00944.html

  5. # adminon 11 Aug 2009 at 1:56 am

    I missed this thread on debian-list .. that’s it .. anyways my current RAID + HAL segfault is now gone away ..

    Bye

  6. # DnSon 13 Aug 2009 at 7:36 pm

    I don’t know whats the hell going on BUT since many years , i haven’t had such broken system !

    Last month :
    - no keyboard + no mouse > what can we do with a broken computer even without a fonctionnal keyboard ?! Yeah baby : NOTHING !
    New feature ? Woo ! Perhaps a psychokinesis interface ? Let’s try ! ** concentration ** Too bad : doesn’t work. ;(

    Reverting to old fashion style : no problem.

    Yesterday :
    i’ve give a try again to see if it’s OK … well well well … almost.
    - the mouse work but just the 2 buttons ( nice try , insert coin , reload )
    - Keyboard is detected too ( *\o/* ) but when i type 1 caracter , the keyboard choose to type 3 caracters ( nice try again , insert coin , no coin : hey this is the crysis ! )

    Today :
    i want to automount at startup my second drive and let HAL do the job : the drive is detected BUT not mounted.
    Don’t panic , lets edit my fstab … restart … nice “sda” is now “sdb” and vice versa … restart … work … restart … doesn’t work.

    Thanks HAL , now i’ve suicidal tendencies …

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