[intrepid] HAL installs a number of different joysticks as mice

I can confirm this behavior, with the addition that some other devices, such as tablets aren't detected properly either. Furthermore, I have written a fix against hal_0.5.11-4ubuntu3 and tested it with the following peripherals:

On a 32-bit machine:
 * THRUSTMASTER Firestorm Dual Analog 2 --> input.joystick
 * Wacom Volito --> input.tablet
 * SynPS/2 Synaptics Touchpad --> input.touchpad

On a 64-bit machine:
 * THRUSTMASTER Firestorm Dual Analog 2 --> input.joystick
 * Wacom Volito --> input.tablet

Ari, thanks! There was a slightly easier patch proposed by Matthew Garrett on the upstream list:

  http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/hal/2008-October/012398.html

I'll try that, too. If that does not work for you, or you think it's incomplete, maybe you can join the upstream discussion?

I pointed the upstream list to your patch, too.

The patch proposed on the mailing list works for joysticks, but still incorrectly detects tablets as touchpads since the check for touchpads just tests for pressure, which is common to both tablets and touchpads. The actual check for tablets is inside a block whose condition is never true, and even if the execution ever got there, the tablet would be marked as a joystick as well... So my patch isn't so simple because the situation isn't so simple for all the device types involved and because some parts of the original code were incorrect.

I subscribed to the HAL mailing list in case further discussion is needed.

This bug was fixed in the package hal - 0.5.11+git20081110-0ubuntu1

---------------
hal (0.5.11+git20081110-0ubuntu1) jaunty; urgency=low

  * Merge with Debian unstable; remaining Ubuntu changes:
    - debian/{hal.init,rules}: Use /var/run/hald/ as PID file directory, not
      /var/run/hal/, since the former is needed for sockets, ACL caches, etc.
      (LP #205496)
   - debian/rules: Enable MacBook (Pro) support on i386 and amd64. Add
     pciutils-dev build dependency.
   - debian/preferences.fdi: Disable automounting for fixed disks. On session
     startup it is not done anyway (since that disables the gnome-mount UI
     which would ask for authentication) and it leads to confusion when
     restarting hal while a session is running. (LP #138537)
   - Use PolicyKit/:
     + Add libpolkit-dev build dependency and policykit, consolekit, acl
       runtime dependencies.
     + debian/rules: Enable PK, CK, and automatic ACL management.
     + hal.install, debian/hal.manpages: Ship usr/share/PolicyKit/ and
       hal-is-caller-privileged.1.
     + hal.postinst: Allow haldaemon user to query the PolicyKit database to
       enforce privileges.
     + debian/README.Debian: Adapt description for dynamic privileges.
     + debian/hal.postinst: Do not create the powerdev/plugdev system groups.
     + Drop Debian's 01_hal_debian_dbuspolicy.patch (which assumes
       powerdev/plugdev system groups).
    - Enable input-hotplug for xorg:
       + 85_set_property_direct.patch: a patch from Fedora to add --direct
         option to hal-set-property.
       + debian/debian-setup-keyboard: modify a callout script from Fedora to
         work with console-setup.
       + debian/10-x11-keymap.fdi: add a callout to run debian-setup-keyboard
       + debian/rules, debian/hal.install: install 10-x11-input.fdi again.
   - 05_removable_block_acl_support.patch: Add support for adding ACLs to
     removable block devices (such as USB keys) on insertion.
   - Various bug fixes, see their patch headers:
     + 01_default_suspend_quirks.patch
     + 02_long_storage_size.patch
     + 03_increase_helper_timeout.patch
     + 04_read_brightness_not_actual_brightness.patch
     + 05_dell_backlight_lockups.patch
     + 06_smart_card_readers_acl.patch
     + 96_uinput_device_support.patch
     + 99_new-kernel-rfkill-interface.patch
     + 100_dell_killswitch.patch
     + ubuntu_01_ignore_single_slash_label.patch
   - 83_ssb_bus_support.patch: Add support for devices on the SSB bus; patch
     by Matthew Garrett (not applied upstream yet, this needs to update the
     spec, too).
   - 84_memstick_bus_support.patch: Add support for devices on the "memstick"
     bus; patch by Matthew Garrett (not reported upstream yet, this needs to
     update the spec, too).
  * Update to current git head snapshot.
    - Works with ConsoleKit 0.3 API. Bumped consolekit dependency
      accordingly, and add libck-connector-dev build dependency, so that
      configure can check the available ConsoleKit version. (LP: #273711)
    - Delete patches applied upstream:
      + 02_long_storage_size.patch
      + 05_dell_backlight_lockups.patch
      + 56_revert_ntfs_locale_mount_option.patch
 ...