Bug 18438

Summary: indicate in Xorg.0.log if HAL is not available
Product: xorg Reporter: Tobias Hain <tobias.hain>
Component: Server/GeneralAssignee: Xorg Project Team <xorg-team>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED QA Contact: Xorg Project Team <xorg-team>
Severity: enhancement    
Priority: lowest    
Version: git   
Hardware: x86 (IA32)   
OS: Linux (All)   
Whiteboard:
i915 platform: i915 features:

Description Tobias Hain 2008-11-08 04:25:01 UTC 
I happened to compile x-server without HAL support. Though I had hald, dbus installed on my system, I wasn't aware I'd need the development header files as well. Autoconf just ran over it and I didn't pay attention to 

checking for DBUS... no
checking for HAL... no

In consequence the x-server hat no HAL support, but its Xorg.0.log still wrote:

(II) The server relies on HAL to provide the list of input devices. If no devices become available, reconfigure HAL or disable AllowEmptyInput.

Trying to get HAL to work I traced for hours in the wrong domains (access rights etc.) until I recognized HAL wasn't compiled into the x-server.

In case of not having HAL compiled into the x-server I'd expect it not to print "The server relies on HAL" in Xorg.0.log.
Comment 1 James Cloos 2008-11-08 10:50:16 UTC 
I pushed a fix to master as commit 24383056d0513cc588cee5cee78f1cba2c0fbe89.

Now, when AllowEmptyInput is enabled, no input deviced were found and
HAL was diabled at configure time it writes:

HAL is disabled and no input devices were configured.
	Try disabling AllowEmptyInput.

I’ll leave this open pending a cherry-pick to 1.5 and any comments on
or improvments to the new message.
Comment 2 Jesse Adkins 2010-10-31 18:16:30 UTC 
If this hasn't been backported to 1.5 by now, it probably won't be. We're on 1.9 anyway, so no big deal.

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