The HAL on Redbox Kiosks is a suite of software that aid in communicating with the various hardware functions on the Kiosk. As many parts of the Kiosk communicate over COM serial ports, these applications act as an “Abstraction” on top of the complex serial communication between the various PCBs and devices on the kiosk.

HAL Service

The HAL Service, displayed as “halsvc” and running as “halsvc-win32.exe”, serves as the main means of interfacing with most Kiosk hardware.

HAL communicates with both the auxboard, as well as the Proteus XES motor controller board.

AUX Board is commonly on COM3 (Windows 7) or COM1 (Windows 10)
Proteus XES is commonly on COM1 (Windows 7) or COM3 (Windows 10)
Ingenico Card Reader is commonly on COM5
5th Generation Barcode Scanner is commonly on COM6
Sunix PCIE card is commonly on COM4 (Dell)

HAL says fail to communicate on a fresh install using the store installer

You will need to source the hal.xml file from another kiosk if your Hard Drive was DOA (Dead on Arrival). If you are upgrading and want to do a fresh install, you will need to back up this file before hand.