HAL initialize failure after update

Hi Folks, I have had an Aspire One with the SSD & Linpus lite for a few months now, worked without issues until today when I downloaded the latest live updates, then upon reboot, I was greeted with "Internal error failed to initialize HAL!' thus the wireless, webcam battery and other things under HAL are broken. Computer is essentially dead in the water. Is there any way to fix this without doing a restore?

Michael

 

Well, to answer my own post, Having googled "failed to initialize HAL" came up with pretty much no fix solutions and no answers... so I decided to do a recovery from the Acer disc and start anew as I had backups. And being brave, after recovery I re-ran auto update again, let it update all, and this time it worked. Not sure if I want to let auto update do its thing again in the future...
Michael

 

I too have had problems since the last update - in my case NetworkManager has decided it doesn't want to start automatically - but it will start manually...
when I query the status of NetworkManager (before starting it manually) I get "NetworkManager dead but subsys locked".

I know it has something to do with /var/lock/subsys which I know is deleted and recreated at boot time (in /etc/rc) but beyond that I'm stuck

 

After I did the live update yesterday, everything seemed to work fine. Then today, everything went pear shaped:
- strange clicking sound when I pressed the power button (and I have an 8GB SSD!)
- the AAO would start to boot up but then would shut down again. This happened several times. Sometimes I'd get as far as the desktop, sometimes it shut down before that. After removing and reinserting the battery, it seemed to boot up fine.
- but now none of the drives will mount! Cards and external HD that were working fine yesterday failed to mount. Got the following message:
"Failed to mount "/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/volume_uuid_11CF_E097".
Given device "/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/volume_uuid_11CF_E097" is not a volume or drive."
I tried to fix it using the How To by Tybor on automounting, but that didn't work.
- AAO won't shutdown when I press the power button. The desktop icons all disappear leaving only the search bar and then it just stays there. If I shutdown via the terminal, it works.

WTF??? I've been googling for hours and am now tearing out my hair in frustration. I would really appreciate any help because I'm a noob.

 

Hi all,

Perhaps the new HAL package is kinda messed up.
If you know how to install RPM's manually look here: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3776
Download and extract to /home/user/Downloads and open a terminal.
use:

Code:

cd /home/user/Downloads
sudo rpm -e --nodeps hal hal-libs hal-info
sudo rpm -i hal-0.5.10-2.fc8.i586.rpm
sudo rpm -i hal-libs-0.5.10-2.fc8.i586.rpm
sudo rpm -i hal-info-20071030-2.fc8.noarch.rpm

Restart and cross your fingers.
This might help, but no guarantee!

greetz,
Tybor

 

I'd recommend "sudo rpm -Uvh <rpm_file_name>" rather than "rpm -i <rpm_file_name>" unless you want two copies of those packages on your system with the ensuing mess that can cause

 

You missed the second line of my instructions (sudo rpm -e) which erases the current packages.
I prefer erasing them when downgrading instead of forcing update (you need --force in your instruction).

greetz,
Tybor

 

You're right, I missed the removal. Your method is fine. However, rpm -U shouldn't require forcing unless you're trying to avoid installing a dependency; it never has for me. I've forced a few in my day, and I've also extracted files from the rpm file and installed them manually; I recommend that the average user to neither!

 

Hi Tybor, I did as you suggested. I got the following errors (sorry I can't paste in the actual terminal results because now wifi is also screwed so I can't connect to the internet with the AAO) :

error: Failed dependencies:
hal-info is needed by hal-0.5.10-2.fc8.i586
hal-libs = 0.5.10-2.fc8 is needed by hal-0.5.10-2.fc8.i586
libhal-storage.so.1 is needed by hal-0.5.10-2.fc8.i586
libhal.so.1 is needed by hal-0.5.10-2.fc8.i586
hal >= 0.5.10 is needed by hal-info-20071030-2.fc8.noarch

While terminal was running, this message also popped up on the taskbar : error, haldeamon may not be running

After terminal completed, I tried to shutdown, but now the shutdown and restart buttons are greyed out so I can't select. I have to poweroff via the terminal (I can't use shutdown command because it says I need to be root to run the command. When I switch to root, it says shutdown is not recognized.)

When I reboot, I notice the following :
- I get this message : Internal error; failed to initialize HAL
- nothing happens when I click My Files. I have to use the terminal to launch Thunar
- the power indicator is greyed out. When I mouse over it, this message pops up : No info about battery and AC status available
- the wifi status icon is missing from the taskbar
- wifi no longer works. Even though the orange LED is on, I can't scan for new networks and I can't connect to my existing networks

Am I seriously screwed or what?? I'm not even sure I can reflash the BIOS if my USB drive can't mount. HEELLLPPP!!!

 

Reflashing the BIOS and using an external drive to do so, has nothing to do with drives mounting in Linpus. Linpus isn't even running when the BIOS is flashed. But that is beside the point. Flashing the BIOS won't solve your problem at all, because that isn't what your problem is. Your problem is because your Linpus system is screwed up, possibly because of a bad update from Acer? In any case, it looks like you're going to have to use Acer's Recovery System to get your AAO functioning again. Either that, or spend hours trying to tweak the thing back into functioning, which sounds highly unlikely if you can't get an Internet connection. Maybe in future, you'll consider backing up a working system before installing updates or screwing around with things?

Sorry if I come off sounding unsympathetic. But, surely, folks by now should realize the value of backing up their systems? And I'm not trying to promote my backup solution here. There certainly are many ways to backup ones system and every compluter user, no matter what computer/operating system they use, should have reliable backups or be prepared to live through the grief of starting from scratch. End of story.

Cheers.

 

Dear Tybor and rbil, thanks for taking the time to help me with this (and the Fail to mount post). I think rbil has a good point... my system is so screwed that it's probably best if I use the recovery disk. I was really relieved to read rbil's post that I can still do the recovery even though external drives/USB won't mount in Linpus.

 

Hi jellybean,

Yes, recovery would be best.

The package install problem is caused by dependency problems. The packages rely on each other.
So change the install order might help.

greetz,
Tybor

 

1. Go to the directory where you downloaded the rpm files. Make sure there are no other rpm files sitting around there.
2. Type the following:

Code:

sudo rpm -Uvh --nodeps *.rpm

3. Reboot

 

Dear Tybor, I did try changing the order of install, but got the same messages; when I tried to install A it said I need B, when I tried to install B it said I need A. Kinda like a circular reference in a spreadsheet.

Dear Rock Doctor, thanks for your reply. However, I took the cowards' way out and used the recovery disk. On the upside, Amarok now installed without a hitch.

My first foray into Linux has certainly been interesting, but I'm enjoying it so far. Thanks to everyone!

 

I've also got a HAL initialize failure after editing some config files trying to change the default desktop. I reckon in principle it should be possible to change back the alterations I've made, but I've tried putting the settings back, without success.