I have sys-apps/hal-0.5.5.1-r3 and sys-apps/dbus-0.61-r1 installed. I have hald in the default runlevel. Upon booting, hal is not aware that my root partition is mounted. It is, however, aware that my home partition is mounted. # fgrep /dev/sda /etc/fstab /dev/sda1 / reiserfs noatime 0 1 /dev/sda2 /home reiser4 noatime 0 2 # hal-find-by-property --key block.device --string /dev/sda1 /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/volume_uuid_5a88953b_899d_44f7_8020_8a209e172f8c # hal-get-property \ --udi $(hal-find-by-property --key block.device --string /dev/sda1) \ --key volume.is_mounted false # hal-get-property \ --udi $(hal-find-by-property --key block.device --string /dev/sda2) \ --key volume.is_mounted true This little problem confuses the heck out of the media: kioslave in KDE. I can hack a fix for it by adding this to my /etc/conf.d/local.start: ROOT_UDI=$(hal-find-by-property --key block.device --string /dev/sda1) [[ ${ROOT_UDI} ]] && \ hal-set-property --udi ${ROOT_UDI} --key volume.mount_point --string / && \ hal-set-property --udi ${ROOT_UDI} --key volume.is_mounted --bool true But it seems like hal really should be able to tell when it starts that my root partition is already mounted. I have not changed any of the hal configuration from the default as emerge installed it. Also, this is my initial installation of hal, so it's not an issue with outdated configuration files. # rc-update show acpid | default bootmisc | boot checkfs | boot checkroot | boot clock | boot coldplug | boot consolefont | cpufrequtils | boot crypto-loop | dbus | distccd | default domainname | boot famd | hald | default hdparm | boot hostname | boot hotplug | keymaps | boot local | default localmount | boot metalog | default modules | boot net.eth0 | default net.eth1 | net.lo | boot netmount | default nfs | nfsmount | nscd | ntpd | default numlock | portmap | powersaved | default pwcheck | rmnologin | boot rsyncd | samba | saslauthd | sshd | default svnserve | syndaemon | urandom | boot vixie-cron | default xdm | default
This is a known upstream bug. It's a mix of kernel bug and HAL bug. HAL uses the new interface which the kernel sends out bad data on. Fixed in 0.5.7 if it's an issue for you.
