Problems running Hald after attempting to fix a corrupted /etc folder: dbus_bus_get(): Did not receive a reply.

[Andrew Maule]

So, I'm a total idiot, and managed to blast away a few of my /etc
configuration files while pulling some backup configuration of a gentoo
install I just made.  Unfortunately I managed to wipe out my passwd file
and group files.  I did have some backups of an earlier state of these
files, which I brought back in, but I get the following error message
when running hald on the command-line:


bliptrip etc # hald --daemon=no --verbose=yes --retain-privileges
10:08:10.788 [I] hald.c:533: hal 0.5.9
10:08:10.789 [I] hald.c:598: Will not daemonize
10:08:10.789 [I] hald_dbus.c:4807: local server is listening at
unix:abstract=/var/run/hald/dbus-hclRmXQR90,guid=b15e14d9b7991330dc902f004697874a
10:08:10.790 [E] hald_dbus.c:5086: dbus_bus_get(): Did not receive a
reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a
reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply
timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.


I've tried removing and rebuilding both dbus and hald, have had no luck.
I would normally email the gentoo package maintainers first, but I was
thinking this list might be more appropriate in case it is an obvious
permission issue due to a corrupted passwd or group file.  Whatever the
case, hald hangs starting up at boot.

For further info:

kernel version: 2.6.20-gentoo-r8
hald version: 0.5.9
udev version: udevinfo, version 104
hotplug: I have ebuilds installed for hotplug, but do not execute it
because it is no longer needed in the newer kernels.


Just in case you really need this:

bliptrip etc # emerge --info
Portage 2.1.2.9 (default-linux/x86/2007.0/desktop, gcc-4.1.2,
glibc-2.5-r4, 2.6.20-gentoo-r8 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.20-gentoo-r8 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
Gentoo Base System release 1.12.9
Timestamp of tree: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 03:20:01 +0000
dev-lang/python:     2.4.4-r4
dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r5
sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.17
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.61
sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2,
1.10
sys-devel/binutils:  2.17
sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.3.16
sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.23b
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.17-r2
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O2 -pipe"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /home/mythtv/ /usr/kde/3.5/env /usr/kde/3.5/share/config /usr/kde/3.5/shutdown /usr/share/X11/xkb /usr/share/config"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/gconf /etc/php/apache2-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cgi-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cli-php5/ext-active/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/terminfo"
CXXFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O2 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="buildpkg ccache digest distlocks fixpackages metadata-transfer
sandbox sfperms strict"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://ftp.gtlib.cc.gatech.edu/pub/gentoo
http://distfiles.gentoo.org
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/depot/gentoo/packages"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times
--compress --force --whole-file --delete --delete-after --stats
--timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages
--filter=H_**/files/digest-*"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.namerica.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="X a52 aac acl acpi alsa apache2 bash-completion berkdb bitmap-fonts
bzip2 cairo cddb cdparanoia cdr cli cracklib crypt cscope curl
curlwrappers dbus dri dvd dvdr dvdread eds emboss encode esd evo fam
fbcon ffmpeg fftw firefox ftp gd gif gnome gnustep gnutls gpm gstreamer
gtk hal hardened iconv idn imap imlib isdnlog jpeg jpeg2k ldap libg++
lirc logrotate mad midi mime mmap mmx mp3 mpeg mplayer mudflap mysql
mysqli ncurses nls nptl nptlonly oav ogg opengl openmp pam pcre pdf perl
php png pppd python qt3 qt3support qt4 quicktime rdesktop readline
reflection samba sdl session sharedmem spl sse sse2 ssl svg svga sysvipc
tcpd threads tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts unicode v4l vcd
vhosts video-cards-nvidia vorbis wifi win32codecs x264 x86 xcomposite
xine xinetd xml xml2 xorg xpm xprint xscreensaver xv xvid zlib"
ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci
emu10k1 emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0
intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci"
ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug
file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mulaw multi null
plug rate route share shm softvol" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard
mouse evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk
hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" USERLAND="GNU"
VIDEO_CARDS="fbdev nv nvidia"
Unset:  CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL,
LDFLAGS, LINGUAS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS,
PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY