Program fails to launch with "The name org.freedesktop.Hal was not provided by any .service files"

[Ian Gibbs]

After installing gnome-format from the Ubuntu Software Centre in Ubuntu 11.04 64-bit (fully patched), the program fails to launch. When run from the command line, the following output is seen, whether or not as root:

root@lancelot:~# gnome-format

(gnome-format:5269): Gtk-WARNING **: Ignoring the separator setting

(gnome-format:5269): Gtk-WARNING **: Ignoring the separator setting

(gnome-format:5269): Gtk-WARNING **: No object called:

** ERROR **: gnome-format-hal-storage-provider.vala:76: The name org.freedesktop.Hal was not provided by any .service files
aborting...
Aborted

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Andreas Heinlein (aheinlein)]

The package is missing a dependency on package 'hal' (or one of its dependencies, e.g. libhal - at least installing hal with all dependencies helped).

[Djordje Vujnovic (djordje-vujnovic)]

bug still exists.
ubuntu 12.04.4
Linux hp8570w 3.5.0-48-generic #72~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Tue Mar 11 20:09:08 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Bill Bruns (billbruns)]

This is still present as follows:
Ubuntu 12.04.4 Destkop 64 bit running on an Intel i3.
Installed kvm and used kvm Virtual Machine Manager GUI.
Created a new instance using the same base (ie, Ubuntu 12.04 Desktop 64 bit).
When adding a new network interface an error indication appeared in the form of an exclamation mark to the right of the Host device field (which contained "Virtual machine default:NAT")
Hovering over the exclamation point caused a small popup window with the error message:
"Could not virtualize HAL for interface listing:
org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Hal was not provided by any .service files"

The BIOS reports that vt-x is enabled but that the North Bridge does not support vt-d.