From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Oct 29 23:57:59 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A2FE31065679 for ; Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:57:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rloefgren@forethought.net) Received: from mzpi3.forethought.net (mzpi3.forethought.net [216.241.36.12]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7C6C28FC08 for ; Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:57:59 +0000 (UTC) Received: from 216-241-45-95.static.forethought.net ([216.241.45.95] helo=auden.jmla.com) by mz1.forethought.net with esmtpa (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1N3esO-0004yl-VZ; Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:57:57 -0600 Message-ID: <4AEA2C04.8030703@forethought.net> Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:57:56 -0600 From: Reed Loefgren User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (X11/20090906) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Freminlins References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: Paul Schmehl , FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: Effing HAL X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:57:59 -0000 Freminlins wrote: > 2009/10/29 Paul Schmehl > > >> Far be it from me to pile on when you're already so frustrated, but I run >> into these sorts of problems myself from time to time. It's usually because >> I didn't bother to read /usr/ports/UPDATING first, which in this case might >> have warned you. >> >> > > > Yeah, thanks for that. I knew about that file, but don't often read it. > There's even more to the saga - Xkblayout doesn't work. This whole HAL thing > stinks horribly. IF X is built with HAL basically certain options specified > in xorg.conf no longer work. HAL thinks it knows best. But it doesn't, cos > it's broken. > > What really gets my goat about this is that things that used to work, and > people understand how they worked and how they were configured, no longer > work. And I'm 18MB of RAM worse off into the bargain. > > There's a thread about other people's experience here: > http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?p=10924#post10924. One of the posts > contains these words "I've been fighting this one for two days now, and > still don't have a fully working system." That's seriously nasty for anyone. > > The whole Xorg thing, at least on FreeBSD, is just a minefield. I like to > remove unnecessary packages, to save space for when I do backups. I don't > have an Nvidia card on this box so: > > pkg_delete xf86-video-nv-2.1.13 > pkg_delete: package 'xf86-video-nv-2.1.13' is required by these other > packages > and may not be deinstalled: > xorg-drivers-7.4_1 > xorg-7.4_1 > > Great. So what is the point in having a separate package if I can't remove > that damn thing? I know I can pkg_delete -f, but why make it hard? > > > >> Paul Schmehl, Senior Infosec Analyst >> > > > MF > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > > Yes, HAL does stink. As I understand it it drifted over from the Linux world. People smarter than I saw a need for it. (I'm not second guessing them here, after the typical hair pulling I read UPDATING and some of the angry but concise posts about HAL and everything has worked great since.) Imagine my surprise then to read in a recent Ubuntu write-up that, with the release of Karmic Koala, their (Ubuntu's) use of HAL is on its way to deprecation. How long has it been around? A year? Two? And now it's headed for Linux's ever-expanding dustbin of ideas that were once sold as the greatest thing since sliced bread. This is why I use FreeBSD; as a counter-irritant to Linux's willy-nilly approach to development.