For the record:

$ git grep libhal
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:#include <libhal.h>
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:      if ((platform = libhal_device_get_property_string (hal_ctx, udi, "pda.platform", NULL))) {
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:              libhal_free_string (platform);
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:          libhal_free_string (platform);
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:      } else if ((bus = libhal_device_get_property_string (hal_ctx, udi, "info.bus", NULL))) {
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:              libhal_free_string (bus);
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:          libhal_free_string (bus);
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:      vendor_id = libhal_device_get_property_int (hal_ctx, udi,
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:      product_id = libhal_device_get_property_int (hal_ctx, udi,
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:                      libhal_ctx_set_dbus_connection (hal_ctx, dbus_connection);
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:              libhal_ctx_free (hal_ctx);
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:      if (!(ctx = libhal_ctx_new ())) {
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:      libhal_ctx_set_dbus_connection (ctx, dbus_connection);
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:      libhal_ctx_set_device_added (ctx, hal_device_added);
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:      libhal_ctx_set_device_removed (ctx, hal_device_removed);
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:      if (!libhal_device_property_watch_all (ctx, &error)) {
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:              libhal_ctx_free (ctx);
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:      if (!libhal_ctx_init (ctx, &error)) {
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:              g_warning ("libhal_ctx_init failed: %s", error.message);
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:              libhal_ctx_free (ctx);
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:      if (!(devices = libhal_get_all_devices (ctx, &nr, &error))) {
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:              libhal_ctx_shutdown (ctx, NULL);
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:              libhal_ctx_free (ctx);
gpilotd/gpilotd.c:      libhal_free_string_array (devices);

This bug was reported against a version which is not supported any more. Developers are no longer working on this version so there will not be any bug fixes for it.
Can you please check again if the issue you reported here still happens in a recent version of GNOME and update this report by adding a comment and adjusting the 'Version' field?

Again thank you for reporting this and sorry that it could not be fixed for the version you originally used here.

Without feedback this report will be closed as INCOMPLETE after 6 weeks.

Hello Felipe,

yes, this is still an issue in current gnome-pilot git master

Hi, thanks for replying Javier, I was just checking some old bugs!

I'm finally getting around to looking at this.  The libhal code is being used for detecting usb devices.  After googling to learn a bit about DBUS/HAL/DeviceKit status, I'm now presuming this should be migrated to use udev (gudev) directly, via GUdevClient and GUdevDevice.  No dbus required.  Does that sound right?

Hello Matt,

yes, that is what others project are doing. See the blockers of tracker bug #593938

This should be resolved on master.  libhal remains for backwards compatibility, but it is not required and is not used unless specifically requested.  gudev is used by preference.