hal has been deprecated and thoroughly dead for years. It's really not something you still want to use in 2012.
The proper way to get media key events is to listen for evdev events or for X11 key XEvents (if you have an X11 program). ** Changed in: gnome-settings-daemon (Ubuntu) Status: Incomplete => Invalid -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to gnome-settings-daemon in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/740988 Title: MediaKeys key press doesn't generate DBus signal Status in “gnome-settings-daemon” package in Ubuntu: Invalid Bug description: Binary package hint: gnome-settings-daemon Under Karmic, I used to be able to get DBus signals on interface "org.freedesktop.Hal.Device" member "Condition" generated upon mediakey key press. Now, these DBus signals are not generated. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10 Package: gnome-settings-daemon 2.32.0-0ubuntu3.1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-28.49-generic-pae 2.6.35.11 Uname: Linux 2.6.35-28-generic-pae i686 Architecture: i386 Date: Wed Mar 23 09:34:50 2011 EcryptfsInUse: Yes InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007) ProcEnviron: PATH=(custom, no user) LANG=en_CA.utf8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: gnome-settings-daemon To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/740988/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp