hal 0.5.11 completely stalls X

[Bartosz Fabianowski]

Hi list

The most recent updates to sysutils/hal have rendered my X unusable and 
I am trying find out how to fix this. My system is running 6-STABLE/i386 
with KDE launched via kdm. After upgrading to sysutils/hal 0.5.11 and 
sysutils/policykit 0.7, my X has started misbehaving: All input and 
output processing (including disk I/O) is stalled unless I move the mouse.

When my session is starting up, I type something into a window or an 
application produces some new output, I have to wiggle the mouse to 
actually see changes happen on my screen. Most annoyingly, no mouse 
button events are generated either when the mouse is not in motion. 
Thus, I can drag (mouse-down, move, mouse-up), but cannot click on 
anything (mouse-down, mouse-up).

After downgrading sysutils/hal to 0.5.8.20080203 and sysutils/policykit 
to 0.1.20060514_4, the problem goes away (the two ports can only be 
downgraded together as they depend on particular versions of each other).

Unfortunately, sysutils/hal 0.5.11 does not produce any error messages 
while stalling the system, making it impossible for me to figure out 
what is going on. I am hoping that someone on this list will be able to 
point me in the right direction.

Of course, I have tried restarting X and rebooting. I have also tried 
two different mice - my laptop's built-in touchpad and a USB mouse; both 
lead to the same stalls.

Thanks in advance for any tips,
- Bartosz Fabianowski