<!DOCTYPE busconfig PUBLIC
 "-//freedesktop//DTD D-BUS Bus Configuration 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/dbus/1.0/busconfig.dtd">
<busconfig>

  <!-- This configuration file specifies the required security policies
       for the HAL to work. -->

  <!-- Only root or user haldaemon can own the HAL service -->
  <policy user="haldaemon">
    <allow own="org.freedesktop.Hal"/>
  </policy>
  <policy user="root">
    <allow own="org.freedesktop.Hal"/>
  </policy>

  <!-- Allow anyone to invoke methods on the Manager and Device interfaces -->
  <policy context="default">
    <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Manager"/>
    <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Device"/>

    <allow receive_interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Manager"
           receive_sender="org.freedesktop.Hal"/>
    <allow receive_interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Device"
           receive_sender="org.freedesktop.Hal"/>
  </policy>

  <!-- Default policy for the exported interfaces -->
  <policy context="default">
    <deny send_interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.SystemPowerManagement"/>
    <deny send_interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.LaptopPanel"/>
    <deny send_interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume"/>
    <deny send_interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.Crypto"/>
  </policy>

  <!-- This will not work if pam_console support is not enabled -->
  <policy at_console="true">
    <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.SystemPowerManagement"/>
    <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.LaptopPanel"/>
    <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume"/>
    <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.Crypto"/>
  </policy>

  <!-- You can change this to a more suitable user, or make per-group -->
  <policy group="operator">
    <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.SystemPowerManagement"/>
    <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.LaptopPanel"/>
    <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume"/>
    <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.Crypto"/>
  </policy>

</busconfig>

My hal.conf as above. Are you saying I need to change any "deny" entries in here to "allow"? Anything else I need to change?

You need to remove all the cdrom/dvd/usb lines from /etc/fstab for hal to work properly. You also need to be member of the storage/optical group (take a look at etc/udev/rules.d/90-hal.rules (or a similar name) for the group permissions).

Any idea where else I might find those rules - I don't have an /etc/udev directory. Is there a command I can run to show me permissions for the storage/optical group?

This error appears as soon as I plug in my pen drive and the icon appears on the desktop. This is even before I try to mount it.

I've tried to find the message bus config file but I can't find it - where should it be? Btw, does thunar have a search files capability?  I can't see one anywhere.

Errr. you should replace <prefix> with the prefix you used to install Xfce: /opt/xfce4 or /usr or /usr/local ;D. You can probably find it with find /* -name "libthunar-vfs-1.so" or locate libthunar-vfs-1.so, if the slocate db is up2date.

Duh! I was in a major hurry when I ran that command and I totally forgot to substitute for "prefix" - not the first time I've done that either - you'd think I'd have learned my lesson 

I've managed to now get the KDE traymounter working - I can now mount all devices from there.

I still don't have either D-BUS or HAL daemons running - what are the commands to run those, or how do I configure them to run at startup? I'm thinking that if I got those running, this all just might work.

P.S. BTW, I ran that again and apparently thunar-vfs WAS installed with HAL support as it gave me the output you said was OK.

Thunar-vfs is the virtual filesystem library for Thunar. It provides a layer between the OS (linux, bsd, etc..) --> Thunar.

You can check if thunar-vfs was compiled with hal support by running: objdump -x <prefix>/lib/libthunar-vfs-1.so | grep libhal. If you see any lines like this:

  NEEDED      libhal-storage.so.1
  NEEDED      libhal.so.1

It's ok

Darn it. I guess this means it's NOT OK:

[carren@localhost /usr/home/carren]$ objdump -x <prefix>/lib/libthunar-vfs-1.so | grep libhal
bash: prefix: No such file or directory

So how do I rebuild thunar-vfs with HAL support? I already reinstalled thunar itself and this time added HAL support so wouldn't that have also built thunar-vfs with that support? Sorry, I'm new to all this and I'm still trying to get my head around compiling stuff.

I'll check this out. Thanks!

You can check if thunar-vfs was compiled with hal support by running: objdump -x <prefix>/lib/libthunar-vfs-1.so | grep libhal. If you see any lines like this:

  NEEDED      libhal-storage.so.1
  NEEDED      libhal.so.1

It's ok

The hal daemon has to run, this is a service, so maybe somewhere in /etc/rc.d or whatever you're distro uses to start services...

With some help from a friend I have reinstalled thunar - this time with HAL support. The thunar-volman plugin is also apparently installed.  However, I'm still seeing 

In the advanced tab in thunar. What IS thunar-vfs? Is that not the same thing as the thunar-volman plugin?
What do I have to do to get this volume management feature functioning, so that I can get the device icons onto the desktop where I can then mount my devices?

EDIT: OK, I must have done something right (for once) because volume management support is now enabled in thunar. I've configured it the way I want it, but when I insert my pen drive, or an audio CD, nothing happens. The CD doesn't autoplay in XMMS as I configured it to, and the pen drive isn't mounted or browsed.

How do I load/start the Hal daemon? I assume that has to be running, but as far as I can tell it's not.

I uninstalled Thunar, and reinstalled it but it didn't prompt me for input anywhere during the process, so I still don't know if it compiled it with HAL support or not. If I go to the advanced tab in Thunar I see a message at the bottom saying:

Build thunar-vfs with HAL support to use the volume management support in Thunar.

Now, I'm not sure if thunar-vfs refers to the thunar-volman plugin I see in /usr/ports/distfiles/xfce - or to something else.  I read the install notes for thunar-volman, and made a feeble attempt to follow them, but I have no idea what I'm doing.

Could someone please give me specific step by step instructions for how to install it?

I'm used to doing portinstalls from CLI (DBSD) or make install clean, but this make, configure stuff I haven't done before and I'm not sure what I'm doing.

Maybe if I can get this plugin installed the whole thing might work ... at least that's what I'm hoping.

umount your device (umount /media/sdb1) and compile Thunar with hal. Make sure you have hal and the devel files installed. After the ./configure stage you can see if Thunar will be compiled with hall support.

Tip: Run the latest Thunar and Exo and compile thunar-volman. Enable Thunar volman in the Thunar properties and start Thunar in daemon mode when you log in (Thunar --daemon). Even better is compiling Exo with libnotify support and install a notification daemon.

Which development files do you mean? The only entries I have (DBSD package manager) are hal and hal-device manager. I don't see any hal related devel files anywhere.

Is there any way I can check first to see if Thunar WAS actually compiled with hal support?

If it wasn't is the best way for me to do this to do a complete Thunar uninstall, then reinstall from ports with Hal support?  Sorry for the stupid questions but I'm new to DBSD and still finding my way around.

One other question while I'm here ... I'm not sure I have my head around the "let Xfce manage your desktop" feature. If I check that, I can select a desktop wallpaper, but if I unselect it (as in let me manage my own) there then doesn't seem to be any way to set a background image.  Am I missing something here?

Tip: Run the latest Thunar and Exo and compile thunar-volman. Enable Thunar volman in the Thunar properties and start Thunar in daemon mode when you log in (Thunar --daemon). Even better is compiling Exo with libnotify support and install a notification daemon.