path: root/NEWS

==========
HAL 0.5.0 "The family had a lot of buffers."
==========

Released Mar 7, 2005

 - Completely rewritten backend code including splitting work that
   requires privileges into separate processes
 - HAL daemon should be more restitant to broken kernel drivers thanks
   to the split into multiple processes
 - Test suite
 - New features
   - String list property type
   - New device information file features
   - ACPI/PMU/APM/hiddev UPS abstractions
 - Not backwards compatible since D-BUS broke ABI (porting effort is
   minimal though)
 - Updated list of TODO items providing a roadmap

Requires
 - Linux 2.6.10 or later built with hotplug and uevents
 - udev 050 or later with /sbin/udevsend as the hotplug helper/multiplexor
 - D-BUS 0.31 or later including glib and (optionally) Python bindings
 - glib2 2.4 or later

========================================================================

Branched sometime after 0.4.2 - all 0.4.x release are now on the
branch called hal-0_4-stable-branch in CVS.

==========
HAL 0.4.2 "Something like that. Tastes the same anyway."
==========

Released Dec 1, 2004

 - Add blacklist for not polling certain IDE slave drives as that
   decreases performance
 - Support for Linux kernels 2.6.10-rc2 and onwards
 - Only lazy unmount devices if {storage.volume}.policy.should_mount is
   TRUE - e.g. don't lazy unmount devices we don't care about
 - Support for IDE Zip and Jaz drives (treated as floppy drives)
 - Various fdi-parsing enhancements
 - Don't add 'ro' to optical drives as it prevents DVD-RAM usage
 - Support 256 partitions instead of only 16
 - small h-d-m UI bugfix (Sjoerd Simons)
 - small h-d-m UI bugfix (Bryan Clark)

==========
HAL 0.4.1 "What's that? Chicken?"
==========

Released Nov 2, 2004

 - Make $(binpath)/hal-device-manager a real executable instead of a
   symlink to better work with strict SELinux (Colin Walters)
 - Change default storage policy such that SCSI optical drives are being 
   added to e.g. /etc/fstab
 - Refine PCMCIA socket location to better work with strict SELinux
   (from Dan Walsh)
 - Make configure.in require libcap development headers (Tim Müller)
 - Change default storage policy to not add fixed non-hotpluggable disks
   to e.g. /etc/fstab (as ATARAID detection is not yet complete)
 - Support PCMCIA 16-bit network devices (Dan Williams)
 - Change default storage policy to use 'auto' for filesystem instead of
   'udf,iso9660'
 - Probe ext3 filesystems before NTFS filesystems
 - Highpoint ATARAID detection (Kay Sievers)
 - Fixup detection of Orinico 802.11 devices (Dan Williams)
 - Portuguese translations (Pedro Morais)
 - Hungarian translations (Laszlo Dvornik)
 - Russian translations (Leonid Kanter)
 - Clarify fstab-sync man page
 - Fix crash in fstab-sync when no options are given
 - Change default storage policy to allow legacy floppy disks
 - Fixup order of mount options in libhal-storage as mount depend on that
 - Handle missing hotplug events
 - Change default storage policy to not never use UUID
 - Don't use O_NONBLOCK in volume_id when reading data block devices
 - fix fstab-sync clean

==========
HAL 0.4.0 "It's origin and purpose, still a total mystery"
==========

Released Oct 17, 2004

 - Use pamconsole mount option instead of user (David Zeuthen)
 - Remove fstab-sync configure options (David Zeuthen)
 - Unchecked buffer access fix in pci device detection (Martin Pitt)
 - Allow hal euid to AddProperty and other operations (Sjoerd Simons)
 - Fix netlink packets interceptor such that only packages from the
   kernel is processed - security fix (Steve Grubb)
 - Device information file parser fixes (David Zeuthen)
 - fstab-sync manual page (David Zeuthen)
 - Make fstab-sync use storage policy properties (David Zeuthen)
 - libhal-storage C glue to access new storage policy (David Zeuthen) 
 - RemoveProperty requires privileged user (David Zeuthen)
 - Add prop to computer obj saying if selinux is enabled (David Zeuthen)
 - Lots of new .fdi-file parser feature (David Zeuthen)
 - Define new storage policy properties (David Zeuthen)
 - Check that legacy floppy drive actually exists (From Bill Nottingham)
 - Fixup {pci, usb} fd leaks (Sjoerd Simons)
 - Look for BLKGETSIZE64 in configure.in (Jonathan Blandford)
 - Handle initial hotplug events more graceful (David Zeuthen)
 - Checks for sysfs path and unprivileged execution fixes (Martin Pitt)
 - libhal fix for hal_get_all_devices (Colin Walters)
 - vfat fs detection as the first thing (Martin Pitt) 
 - Fixup cdrom polling to be more safe (From Alexander Larsson)
 - Detect USB floppy drive by looking at USB if class (David Zeuthen)
 - Make fstab-sync use msdos partition id whitelist (David Zeuthen)
 - Dutch libhal-storage translations (Reinout van Schouwen)
 - Debian support for hal_hotplug_map (Sjoerd Simons)
 - Require superuser for SetProperty and AddCapability (David Zeuthen)
 - libhal shutdown 'fix' (David Zeuthen)
 - SATA disk checking (From Alan Cox)
 - Fix end-of-marker and FAT UUID conversion (Kay Sievers) 
 - storage.icon.drive, storage.icon.volume properties (David Zeuthen)
 - storage.require_eject property (David Zeuthen)
 - French libhal-storage translations (Jérôme Lodewyck)
 - LVM2/RAID detection fixes (Kay Sievers)
 - New libhal-storage library and i18n support (David Zeuthen)
 - Partition id fixes (Kay Sievers)
 - Unchecked buffer access fix in cdrom speed detection (Martin Pitt)
 - USB serial device support (Kay Sievers)
 - volume_id logging glue (Kay Sievers)

==========
HAL 0.2.98
==========

Released Sep 20, 2004

 - UUID for NTFS partitions (Kay Sievers)
 - Fixup --with-pid-file (Tim Gerla)
 - Volume ID fix for FAT32 label (Kay Sievers)
 - volume.num_blocks, volume.block_szie
 - Fix dev,suid security issue with fstab-sync
 - Use async,noatime for removable or hotpluggable drives smaller than
   2 GB in fstab-sync
 - Symlink device node checks in fstab-sync
 - Build fixes (Steve Grubb)
 - Reiser and swap versions
 - Require .hal extension for callouts
 - Introduce HALD_VERBOSE that works even if hal is not built with
   verbose mode. Make logging output nicer with timestamps
 - Rewrite of device detection code - huge performance wins
 - Make fstab-sync write to syslog when modifying fstab file
 - Invoke fstab-sync --clean on hald startup
 - Export HALD_VERBOSE to callouts
 - Volume id fixes (Sjoerd Simons)
 - Fixup symlink resolving in fstab-sync
 - fstab-sync name computation fixes
 - Add --enable-fstab-sync configure option
 - Add info.udi to computer hal device object
 - RAID probing in volume id (Kay Sievers)
 - Introduce new callout hal-hotplug-map to look at gphoto2 and
   libsane usermaps on Linux and tag devices accordingly
 - Fixup debug
 - fstab-sync doesn't require storage device on remove
 - Introduce volume.fsusage and use it in fstab-sync (Kay Sievers)
 - Don't check for a C++ compiler (Joe Shaw)
 - Add kernel.* properties to computer (Joe Shaw)
 - Fix libsysfs memory leak (Steve Grubb)
 - LVM probing and RAID version numbers in volume id (Kay Sievers)
 - Callout / Race condition fixes
 - Set priorities on hal.dev and hal.hotplug helpers so we run before
   linux-hotplug etc.
 - SELinux support for fstab-sync
 - Timeout fixes in hal.hotplug (Kay Sievers)
 - Respect the /sys/block/<dev>/removable file
 - Don't remove mount point entries for devices that are mounted with
   fstab-sync --clean
 - 64-bit unsigned integer properties (Jon Lech Johansen)
 - boolean property fixes (Joe Shaw)
 - Intercept unchecked ioctl's (Martin Pitt)
 - Introduce --drop-privileges (Martin Pitt)
 - Only add -lexpat for hald (Sjoerd Simons)
 - Ignore duplicate hotplug events
 - Volume ID vfat fixes on BE boxes (Sjoerd Simons)
 - Fixup hald.conf.in as I broke it earlier
 - Force initial poll even if drive is not removable
 - Fixup HFS+ volume id (Kay Sievers)
 - Multimedia device support (Kay Sievers)
 - Use 64-bit sequence numbers and use textual action (Kay Sievers)
 - HFS+ UUID fixes (Kay Sievers)
 - Support network device renaming
 - Rename networking properties to net.80203 and net.80211
 - Make hald write the pid file, not the init script (Steve Grubb)
 - Fix endless loop for broken FAT32 volumes in volume id (Kay Sievers)
 - Add advisory locking on devices (Joe Shaw)
 - SELinux fixes for fstab-sync (Dan Walsh)
 - Fixup volume.is_rewritable for some broken drives (Alexander Larsson)
 - Fix FD leak (Sjoerd Simons)
 - Update spec to catch up with code
 - Add volume.partition.* properties

==========
HAL 0.2.97
==========

Released Aug 16, 2004

 - fstab-sync: lock around the entire process (seems to work very well
   now)
 - use local sockets for communication between hotplug.d/dev.d helpers
   and hald (fixes d-bus limit issues)
 - reorder hotplug messages (fixes issues with hotplugging 20 usb
   devices at the same time (using a hub))
 - don't process next hotplug message before device from current message
   is fully processed and in GDL (fixes issues with usb devices needing
   firmware uploads and thus will hotplug rem to hotplug add as a new
   device)
 - turn off media detection for drives being driven by the ide-cs driver
 - don't use drive_id or volume_id on drives with media detection turned
   off (fixes infinite hotplug loop with e.g. ide-cs drives)

==========
HAL 0.2.96
==========

Released Aug 12, 2004

 - dist HACKING (Joe Shaw)
 - fix missing detection of optical disc when starting
 - enhanced hfs/hfsplus detection (Kay Sievers)
 - make libhal work with c++
 - validate incoming strings as UTF-8 (Joe Shaw)
 - try to reconnect to system bus if disconnected (Joe Shaw)
 - ethernet link status fixes (Dan Williams)
 - read vital product data from drives (Kay Sievers)
 - block device UDI computation enhancements
 - only return RESULT_HANDLED in libhal if we really handle the message
 - fix small memory leaks in libhal (Dan Williams)
 - spec now matches code
 - remove info.virtual concept
 - make USB interfaces a first class device object
 - fstab-sync no longer needs a wrapper (Ray Strode)
 - handle removable media without partition tables
 - fstab-sync: add entries for floppy/optical drives
 - fstab-sync: don't add entries if device is listed with LABEL=

==========
HAL 0.2.95
==========

Released July 22, 2004

 - Faster hotplugging; fork hack
 - Moved spec to hal module
 - Actually build Doxygen docs for libhal
 - Computer found in city of lost devices (Joe Shaw)
 - Experimental shutdown on SIGTERM
 - Use O_EXCL for optical disc detection
 - TODO update
 - libsysfs upgrade to 1.1  (Kay Sievers, Joe Shaw)

==========
HAL 0.2.94
==========

Released July 15, 2004

 - SCSI device detection fixes (Sjoerd Simons)
 - fstab-sync callout in C (Ray Strode)
 - hal-device-manager GTK+ error dialog (Sjoerd Simons)
 - Volume Label fixes (Kay Sievers)
 - Storage device detection and fixes (David Zeuthen, Sjoerd Simons)
 - No media detection for devices using floppy drivers, e.g. LS120 (davidz)
 - HAL commandline tool interface cleanups (Martin Waitz)


==========
HAL 0.2.93
==========

Released July 5, 2004

 - Volume probing and label additions fixes (Kay Sievers)
 - hal.dev doesn't slow down udevstart or udev anymore (David Zeuthen)
   http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2004-July/msg00261.html
 - Volume mount detection fixes (David Zeuthen, pointed out by Sjoerd Simons)
 - Persistent device store (still disabled) (Kay Sievers)
 - Fix of 802.3 link detection (Dan Williams)
 - Removal of wireless scanning (Joe Shaw, Robert Love)

====================================
HAL 0.2 "Open the Pod Bay Door, Hal"
====================================

So, I've promised a release of HAL before Christmas, so here goes
version 0.2. It's not at version 9000 yet, so it won't do any device
configuration (like closing your Pod Bay door device), and it probably
never will. That's right, HAL is a lot simpler than earlier envisioned.

To get an idea of what I'm talking about, you might want to read the
updated spec available at http://freedesktop.org/Software/hal and give
the tarball a testdrive.

Special thanks to Martin Waitz for patches to package HAL.


What is it?
===========

HAL is a hardware abstraction layer and aims to provide a live list of
devices present in the system at any point in time. HAL tries to understand
both physical devices (such as PCI, USB) and the device classes (such as 
input, net and block) physical devices have, and it allows merging of
information from so called device info files specific to a device.

HAL provides a network API through D-BUS for querying devices and notifying
when things change. Finally, HAL provides some monitoring (in an unintrusive
way) of devices, presently ethernet link detection and volume mounts are
monitored.

This, and more, is all described in the HAL specification


Where can I get it?
===================

 http://freedesktop.org/~david/hal-0.2/spec/hal-spec.html
 
 http://freedesktop.org/~david/hal-0.2/hal-0.2.tar.gz


How do I build and run HAL?
===========================

You'll need recent glib, expat and d-bus from CVS to build HAL. Also
pygnome and pygtk is required to run the GUI device manager. A Linux
2.6 kernel is also required. HAL integrates with udev (udev sends D-BUS
messages by calling udev_dbus in /etc/dev.d/). You'll also need a recent
version of linux-hotplug.

The client library, libhal, for use in desktop application, only
requires dbus (which doesn't have any dependencies) so both KDE and
GNOME people should be happy.

To build, do the usual ./configure; make; make install dance. Make
sure to install into same prefix as D-BUS, otherwise you'll need to
copy some files yourself.  Now restart D-BUS to reload the policy
configuration files and (as root) start hald - the HAL daemon.

You can now start hal-device-manager from a separate terminal. Try
plugging or unplugging USB storage or Cardbus (PCMCIA) devices and
check out the device list change. Also, try unplugging your network
cable while looking at the properties for that device.

If you're the advanterous type, you can try to run 

 examples/volumed/volumed.py

from the tarball while plugging in USB storage. This example shows how
a volume manager built on top of HAL could work. It doesn't really
mount anything, but it does print out a line when it would have
mounted or unmounted a volume. Obviously, you'll need udev for this.

It's also great fun (!) to fiddle around with writing .fdi files for
your devices. I've included a single .fdi file in the distribution to
match my digital camera. You can also play around with the
hal-get-property and hal-set-property tools; the latter can be used to
set the info.persistent property to keep unplugged devices in the
device list to retain the properties of the device while it is
unplugged.


Is this stable software?
========================

No way, not yet, at best consider this release a development
snapshot. It has been tested on Fedora Core 1 (i386) and Debian (ppc),
both with 2.6.0-test11 kernels.

There's still lots of small issues I'd wish was resolved before this
release, that's detailed in doc/TODO in the tarball. Most of the short
term issues will probably be addressed in the next release, 4-8 weeks
from this release. Also, important busses, such as IEEE1394, is not
supported yet.

However, even though the API may change somewhat, I think we have
now got the basic infrastructure necessary to start building
application and integrating HAL into desktop environments. That
was the grand plan anyway :-)

Please send bug reports, suggestions and patches to the xdg-list. Do
consult the TODO list to see whether the issue is already known.