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#1 2009-03-20 20:45:08

Buce
Member
From: Duluth, Minnesota, US
Registered: 2009-03-17
Posts: 23

HAL, and daemons in general

Hi. I'm new to the forums, and this is the third thread I've started; I haven't been getting any responses, so I hope I'm not posting in the wrong place, spamming, or being otherwise annoying.

When I boot up, I get a message about my hardware abstraction layer [failed]-ing. Here's my rc.conf:

#
# /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"
# USEDIRECTISA: use direct I/O requests instead of /dev/rtc for hwclock
# 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.utf8"
HARDWARECLOCK="UTC"
USEDIRECTISA="no"
TIMEZONE="America/Chicago"
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=(snd_pcsp)
MODULES=(fglrx !pcspeaker !snd_pcsp)

# 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="Bender"

# 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
#
#eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
eth0="dhcp"
wlan0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(lo !eth0 !wlan0)

# 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)
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 pulseaudio hal !network !dhcdbd !networkmanager wicd netfs @crond alsa @openntpd)
#DAEMONS=(@syslog-ng !network pulseaudio hal dhcdbd networkmanager netfs @crond alsa @openntpd)
#DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network netfs crond)

Anyone know what's wrong here? Also, is there a way to look at all those messages that scroll past when you're booting? Shift+UpArrow doesn't work because the screen is reset at the end, and about half the messages get lost.

Also, is there a one-stop place to go for a list of all the daemons with a basic description of what they do? I'd like to start as many as I can in the background, but I'm afraid I'll break something. I'd also like to know which daemons need other daemons to start before them, so I can reorder the ones that don't matter to my liking.

One last thing, and not really related to the topic title (hope that's okay, seems like such a minor thing it doesn't need to take up a whole thread): I've been using 'shutdown -h now' to power down. Is that good or bad? Is there a way to get rid of the *beep* when I do this?

Thanks a bunch!

Last edited by Buce (2009-03-20 20:50:54)

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#2 2009-03-20 20:51:00

Inxsible
Forum Fellow
From: Chicago
Registered: 2008-06-09
Posts: 9,183

Re: HAL, and daemons in general

Generally it is a good thing to start hal before anything else. Try putting pulseaudio after hal in the DAEMONS array and see if that gets rid of the hal issue.

And yes, its perfectly fine to use sudo shutdown -h now. There are other commands like halt and poweroff. But poweroff, AFAIK, is only a symlink to shutdown -h now

About which daemons to start in the background -- I start everything in the background except - syslog-ng - that's the daemon responsible for logging events and such, you do not want to miss the logging if something goes wrong.

Last edited by Inxsible (2009-03-20 20:52:33)


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#3 2009-03-20 21:03:42

Buce
Member
From: Duluth, Minnesota, US
Registered: 2009-03-17
Posts: 23

Re: HAL, and daemons in general

Inxsible wrote:

Generally it is a good thing to start hal before anything else. Try putting pulseaudio after hal in the DAEMONS array and see if that gets rid of the hal issue.

Worked like a charm, thanks!

And yes, its perfectly fine to use sudo shutdown -h now. There are other commands like halt and poweroff. But poweroff, AFAIK, is only a symlink to shutdown -h now

On my system, poweroff is a symlink to halt. But, either command makes a *beep* sound when I invoke it -- there must be some way to get rid of this. Shutting down didn't do that in Ubuntu when I hit the gui power button. How do they achieve that? Would it take a gui app to do? I'm running fluxbox, and I'd rather not go that route.

About which daemons to start in the background -- I start everything in the background except - syslog-ng - that's the daemon responsible for logging events and such, you do not want to miss the logging if something goes wrong.

Even hal? Seems like that's something I'd want to start before everything else, too.

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#4 2009-03-20 21:11:46

skottish
Forum Fellow
From: Here
Registered: 2006-06-16
Posts: 7,942

Re: HAL, and daemons in general

To kill the beeping. In /etc/rc.conf:

MODULES=(!pcspkr !snd_pcsp <WHATEVER_OTHER_MODULES_YOU_HAVE> )

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#5 2009-03-20 21:17:32

MoonSwan
Member
From: Great White North
Registered: 2008-01-23
Posts: 881

Re: HAL, and daemons in general

This isn't ubuntu as you're aware so a lot of stuff you would get handed to you on a platter doesn't work here.  I say this to illustrate the point that you finally asked questions that people will respond to (such as "where can I find more info on daemons?").  The answer to that is the wiki which is where you will find the answer to the majority of your questions.

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#6 2009-03-20 21:26:03

Inxsible
Forum Fellow
From: Chicago
Registered: 2008-06-09
Posts: 9,183

Re: HAL, and daemons in general

Buce wrote:

About which daemons to start in the background -- I start everything in the background except - syslog-ng - that's the daemon responsible for logging events and such, you do not want to miss the logging if something goes wrong.

Even hal? Seems like that's something I'd want to start before everything else, too.

Yes even hal. As long as you have it listed first and all others after hal are also backgrounded, hal will start before they do. I have no need to start any daemon before I login in...so I just background everything except syslog-ng


Forum Rules

There's no such thing as a stupid question, but there sure are a lot of inquisitive idiots !

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#7 2009-03-20 22:17:00

Buce
Member
From: Duluth, Minnesota, US
Registered: 2009-03-17
Posts: 23

Re: HAL, and daemons in general

skottish: That wasn't quite what I wanted (which was to disable the bell only when I shut down), but it looks like 'xset -b; halt' should do the trick. Thanks for the lead.

MoonSwan: I'm aware of the wiki; I've only been posting threads when I've exhausted all the searches I can think to put in Archwiki, Google, and the manpages. What I'm looking for, specifically, is a comprehensive list of daemons, with a short description for each, that I could look at to remind myself what, e.g., dhcbd does. If such a list doesn't exist, I'd be more than happy to dive into wiki editing and start one myself; but I'd rather not go to the trouble if I don't have to.

Inxsible: Gotcha, thanks.

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#8 2009-03-21 00:07:05

Buce
Member
From: Duluth, Minnesota, US
Registered: 2009-03-17
Posts: 23

Re: HAL, and daemons in general

Buce wrote:

xset -b; halt

Okay, so this didn't quite do what I wanted, which was to disable the system beep in my terminal emulator, but not at the virtual console. For anyone trying to do the same, the wiki describes how to disable the beep in X fine, but my speakers still beeped when I shut down. To fix that, I've now got an alias that does a 'modprobe -r pcspkr' before executing the halt command. This will probably suppress the beep when I'm shutting down from a VC, too, which isn't quite what I wanted, but it's close enough for me. Edit: correction -- my aliases aren't loaded into virtual console sessions, so no prob there.

Last edited by Buce (2009-03-21 00:09:13)

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