When starting the hald daemon via /etc/init.d/hald start the following processes are started: root 10098 0.3 0.1 10748 2140 pts/1 S+ 16:02 0:00 /bin/bash /sbin/runscript.sh /etc/init.d/hald start root 10221 0.0 0.0 10752 1576 pts/1 S+ 16:02 0:00 /bin/bash /sbin/runscript.sh /etc/init.d/hald start root 10226 0.0 0.0 17980 1012 pts/1 S+ 16:02 0:00 /usr/sbin/hald --use-syslog --verbose=no 102 10227 82.1 0.3 29828 6152 ? Rs 16:02 0:07 /usr/sbin/hald --use-syslog --verbose=no root 10228 0.0 0.0 15280 1052 ? S 16:02 0:00 hald-runner As you can see the cpu load is very high and hal doesn't finish to intialize itself properly. after that I killed all the hald processes and started it manually: hald --verbose=yes --daemon=no Here is the output that should be interesting. I don't know if the error "got a connection 79ae00" has anything to do with it nor do I know what it actually means. It totally gets stuck here, this is what causes the high cpu load: 16:12:36.286 [W] device_info.c:983: Unhandled rule (0)! 16:12:36.286 [W] device_info.c:983: Unhandled rule (0)! 16:12:36.286 [W] device_info.c:983: Unhandled rule (0)! 16:12:36.286 [W] device_info.c:983: Unhandled rule (0)! 16:12:36.286 [W] device_info.c:983: Unhandled rule (0)! 16:12:36.286 [W] device_info.c:983: Unhandled rule (0)! 16:12:36.286 [W] device_info.c:983: Unhandled rule (0)! If any more information is necessary please let me know. hald --verbose=yes --daemon=no 15:45:36.180 [I] hald.c:533: hal 0.5.9 15:45:36.180 [I] hald.c:598: Will not daemonize 15:45:36.180 [I] hald_dbus.c:4807: local server is listening at unix:abstract=/var/run/hald/dbus-JvGVsBy1Ad,guid=bae561f11571bf1470b3e900463b3900 Runner started - allowed paths are '/usr/libexec:/usr/lib64/hal/scripts:/usr/bin' 15:45:36.183 [I] hald_runner.c:299: Runner has pid 9465 15:45:36.183 [W] ci-tracker.c:200: Could not get uid for connection: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner Could not get UID of name 'org.freedesktop.DBus': no such name 15:45:36.183 [E] hald_dbus.c:4462: Cannot get caller info for org.freedesktop.DBus 15:45:36.183 [I] hald_runner.c:180: runner connection is 0x6552f0 15:45:36.184 [I] mmap_cache.c:251: cache mtime is 1178286283 15:45:36.185 [I] mmap_cache.c:81: preprobe: offset=00000014, size=3972 15:45:36.185 [I] mmap_cache.c:83: information: offset=00000f98, size=152144 15:45:36.185 [I] mmap_cache.c:85: policy: offset=000261e8, size=27184 15:45:36.185 [I] osspec.c:749: Synthesizing sysfs events... 15:45:36.186 [I] coldplug.c:89: dev_root is /dev 15:45:36.206 [I] coldplug.c:126: found (udevdb export) '/sys/block/hda' -> '/dev/hda' 15:45:36.206 [I] coldplug.c:126: found (udevdb export) '/sys/block/loop0' -> '/dev/loop/0' ------------------------------------snip---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15:45:36.354 [I] osspec.c:762: Done synthesizing events Run started hald-probe-smbios (10000) (0) ! full path is '/usr/libexec/hald-probe-smbios', program_dir is '/usr/libexec' 15:45:36.357 [I] hald_dbus.c:4766: *************************** 15:45:36.357 [I] hald_dbus.c:4767: ********* got a connection 79ae00 15:45:36.357 [I] hald_dbus.c:4768: *************************** 15:45:36.358 [D] hald_dbus.c:1550: udi=/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer, key=system.firmware.vendor [9468]: 15:45:36.364 [D] probe-smbios.c:78: Setting system.firmware.vendor='American Megatrends Inc.' 15:45:36.365 [D] hald_dbus.c:1550: udi=/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer, key=system.firmware.version [9468]: 15:45:36.365 [D] probe-smbios.c:78: Setting system.firmware.version='P1.20' 15:45:36.365 [D] hald_dbus.c:1550: udi=/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer, key=system.firmware.release_date [9468]: 15:45:36.365 [D] probe-smbios.c:78: Setting system.firmware.release_date='08/26/2005' 15:45:36.365 [D] hald_dbus.c:1550: udi=/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer, key=system.hardware.vendor [9468]: 15:45:36.365 [D] probe-smbios.c:78: Setting system.hardware.vendor='' 15:45:36.365 [D] hald_dbus.c:1550: udi=/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer, key=system.hardware.product [9468]: 15:45:36.365 [D] probe-smbios.c:78: Setting system.hardware.product='939Dual-SATA2' 15:45:36.365 [D] hald_dbus.c:1550: udi=/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer, key=system.hardware.version [9468]: 15:45:36.365 [D] probe-smbios.c:78: Setting system.hardware.version='1.00' 15:45:36.365 [D] hald_dbus.c:1550: udi=/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer, key=system.hardware.serial [9468]: 15:45:36.365 [D] probe-smbios.c:78: Setting system.hardware.serial='00000000' 15:45:36.366 [D] hald_dbus.c:1550: udi=/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer, key=system.hardware.uuid [9468]: 15:45:36.366 [D] probe-smbios.c:78: Setting system.hardware.uuid='00020003-0004-0005-0006-000700080009' [9468]: 15:45:36.366 [D] probe-smbios.c:99: Copying system.hardware.vendor -> smbios.system.manufacturer 15:45:36.366 [D] hald_dbus.c:1550: udi=/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer, key=smbios.system.manufacturer [9468]: 15:45:36.366 [D] probe-smbios.c:99: Copying system.hardware.product -> smbios.system.product 15:45:36.366 [D] hald_dbus.c:1550: udi=/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer, key=smbios.system.product [9468]: 15:45:36.366 [D] probe-smbios.c:99: Copying system.hardware.version -> smbios.system.version 15:45:36.366 [D] hald_dbus.c:1550: udi=/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer, key=smbios.system.version [9468]: 15:45:36.369 [D] probe-smbios.c:99: Copying system.hardware.serial -> smbios.system.serial 15:45:36.369 [D] hald_dbus.c:1550: udi=/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer, key=smbios.system.serial [9468]: 15:45:36.369 [D] probe-smbios.c:99: Copying system.hardware.uuid -> smbios.system.uuid 15:45:36.369 [D] hald_dbus.c:1550: udi=/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer, key=smbios.system.uuid [9468]: 15:45:36.371 [D] probe-smbios.c:99: Copying system.firmware.vendor -> smbios.bios.vendor 15:45:36.371 [D] hald_dbus.c:1550: udi=/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer, key=smbios.bios.vendor [9468]: 15:45:36.372 [D] probe-smbios.c:99: Copying system.firmware.version -> smbios.bios.version 15:45:36.372 [D] hald_dbus.c:1550: udi=/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer, key=smbios.bios.version [9468]: 15:45:36.372 [D] probe-smbios.c:99: Copying system.firmware.release_date -> smbios.bios.release_date 15:45:36.372 [D] hald_dbus.c:1550: udi=/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer, key=smbios.bios.release_date 15:45:36.372 [I] hald_dbus.c:4711: ************************ 15:45:36.372 [I] hald_dbus.c:4712: Client to local_server was disconnected for 79ae00 15:45:36.372 [I] hald_dbus.c:4713: ************************ 15:45:36.372 [I] hald_dbus.c:4752: *************************** 15:45:36.372 [I] hald_dbus.c:4753: ********* unregistered 79ae00 15:45:36.372 [I] hald_dbus.c:4754: *************************** /usr/libexec/hald-probe-smbios exited 15:45:36.373 [W] device_info.c:983: Unhandled rule (0)! 15:45:36.373 [W] device_info.c:983: Unhandled rule (0)! Then the console gets flooded with the following which eats around 11% of my cpu resources and of course never stops. https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=172830