Why does haldaemon service refuse to start?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Issue

  • haldaemon service fails to start 
    # service haldaemon start
    Starting HAL daemon:                                       [FAILED]

Resolution

  • One of the reasons haldaemon service will fail to start if the haldaemon user has not been created. Verify that the haldaemon user exists as shown below 
    $ grep haldaemon /etc/passwd /etc/shadow /etc/group /etc/gshadow

       /etc/passwd:haldaemon:x:68:68:HAL daemon:/:/sbin/nologin
       /etc/shadow:haldaemon:!!:14572:0:99999:7:::
       /etc/group: haldaemon:x:68:                                              
       /etc/gshadow: haldaemon:x::
  • haldaemon user should be created during hal package installation.This can be manually created using the command below
   $ /usr/sbin/useradd -c 'HAL daemon' -u 68 -s /sbin/nologin -r -d '/' haldaemon

Diagnostic Steps

  • If this fails, we would need "debug" logs to help us identify the issue further
    $ hald --daemon=no --verbose=no 2>&1 | tee /tmp/hal.log

Comment

  • haldaemon service requires messagebus service to run. Please check, if the same is enabled 
   $ service messagebus status
   dbus-daemon (pid 1860 1377) is running...

   $ service haldaemon start
  • Component
  • hal

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