diff --git a/modules/services/hardware/hal.nix b/modules/services/hardware/hal.nix
index 11cda8d4cc4b..56bcf1fb4d8f 100644
--- a/modules/services/hardware/hal.nix
+++ b/modules/services/hardware/hal.nix
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ in
         
         # !!! TODO: make sure that HAL starts after acpid,
         # otherwise hald-addon-acpi will grab /proc/acpi/event.
-        startOn = if config.powerManagement.enable then "acpid" else "dbus";
+        startOn = if config.powerManagement.enable then "started acpid" else "started dbus";
         stopOn = "shutdown";
 
         environment =
@@ -100,15 +100,13 @@ in
             
             rm -f /var/cache/hald/fdi-cache
 
-            # For some weird reason HAL sometimes fails to start at
-            # boot time, which seems to be timing-dependent.  As a
-            # temporary workaround, sleep for a while here.
-            sleep 2
-
             # !!! Hack: start the daemon here to make sure it's
             # running when the Upstart job reaches the "running"
             # state.  Should be fixable in Upstart 0.6.
-            ${hal}/sbin/hald --use-syslog # --verbose=yes 
+            # The `PATH=' works around a bug in HAL: it concatenates
+            # its libexec directory to $PATH, but using a 512-byte
+            # buffer.  So if $PATH is too long it fails.
+            PATH= ${hal}/sbin/hald --use-syslog # --verbose=yes 
           '';
 
         postStop =
diff --git a/modules/services/system/dbus.nix b/modules/services/system/dbus.nix
index 8e1d9bd4d10b..d91be4eb88b3 100644
--- a/modules/services/system/dbus.nix
+++ b/modules/services/system/dbus.nix
@@ -113,8 +113,7 @@ in
       };
 
     jobs.dbus =
-      { startOn = "udev";
-        stopOn = "shutdown";
+      { startOn = "started udev";
 
         preStart =
           ''