Which version of Xorg are you using?
If you install the Xsets on 5.0.1 you have 1.4.2 and if you installed the modular xorg from pkgsrc you'll have 1.6.5. The newer versions are highly dependent on a properly setup dbus and hal.
It is possible to set up the newer versions of Xorg with out hal
There is a sticky in this forum
http://www.daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=3935 that give the details