I found the problem, I had the wrong libhal installed. For anyone else with this problem, do not install: libhal-2.5.7-7.i386.rpm, instead use: hal-0.2.98.cvs20040929-3.i386.rpm
I am running fedora core 2 and trying to install vlc. I downloaded the binary rpm package. After fooling around with a few --nodeps, and a --force or two I finally got everything installed. VLC then said it needed libtheora, libsysfs, and libhal, so I searched for these rpms and installed them. Now ...