Pazau,
This is a possibility. If there was a kernel update for Ubuntu since you edited grub's menu.lst, it may have replaced your menu.lst file with a new kernel entry. Check your menu.lst to see if acpi=force is still there in the kernel line for booting Ubuntu. It only needs to be in the first entry for booting Ubuntu.

If things were working ok before you started turning off services with sysv-rc-conf (as in the link to the thread in the Ubuntu forums), then turn those services back on to see if the problems go away. You should not turn off services unless you know what they are for, and you are sure that you don't need them.

And one more thing,
If you want to disable ACPI, you don't need to mess aroud with stopping services with sysv-rc-conf. All you need to do is edit your grub's menu.lst and change the acpi=force to acpi=off that you added to the kernel line for booting Ubuntu. Then reboot, and ACPI will be disabled.

I have had a similar problem as initially described by Pazau on an Acer 5700GX desktop system, in fact i was preparing 5 of them and they all did the same. What worked for me was a simple modification in the /etc/default/halt file. apparently this was a sound driver related issue, although sound worked fine during each session and for that reason it did not seem like a logic thing to do. I did not question the solution as it worked immediately and every time. I added this line to the top of the file:

rmmod snd_hda_intel

and now all five of them shut down fine.

trying won't hurt so just give this a try and see if this works for you, providing your system has an intel sound card.

Tommcd:

Now, I reinstalled Ubuntu because I destroyed the file system by using FSCK while the file system was mounted.
I have so formatted 4 times in a row with KillDisk.

So far I have not changed anything, and Ubuntu seem to close properly. I do not know, however if the problem occurs again in the near future.

Wabbalee:

I have an AMD processor, and then there is something with Intel, I do not believe that your suggestions will help, unfortunately.

In your case i would say no too, to this suggestion. good processor though, AMD, should work well with linux.

Linux runs excellent with my AMD Turion64 processor, it also runs excellent with AMD Powernow which is embedded in my processor.
In Vista, the battery keep power in 1½ hour. On Ubuntu, the battery keep now power in 2½ hour!

The problem was just with ACPI, but preliminary work it through acpi=force command.

Tommcd:

As you describe, then acpi = force inserted at the boot settings.
But at another site says that you must insert the command anywhere else in the same file.

Website: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=836042

Which place is the right thing?

You could do it that way, as it says in the link you posted. The # defoptions=quiet splash acpi=force will be applied to all kernels in grub's menu.lst. (As far as I know anyway!). Adding it to the kernel line as I suggested will only apply to the kernel you are using.
It may be preferable to add it to the defoptions section. This way, when there is a kernel update for Ubuntu, you won't have to re-edit menu.lst to add acpi=force to the new kernel line. When ever a new kernel is installed grub will put it first in the list and leave the old kernels below it. Either way will work though.

If the shutdown problem comes back, you may want to try Wabbalee's suggestion of adding rmmod snd_hda_intel to the /etc/default/halt file. This applies to your sound card, not the CPU. To see if you are using the snd_hda_intel driver run " lsmod | grep -i snd" from terminal. If it reports snd_hda_intel is running, then you might consider trying Wabbalees's suggestion. If there is no snd_hda_intel, then then this does not apply to you.

Tommcd: To my great surprise, so was there anything with Intel when I wrote that you suggested. So now, I've put the line in from Wabbalee.

Wabbalee:

Everything that was written in /etc/default/halt, I have just been shifted one line down and inserted the line you proposed at the top. Is it so it must be added?

yes, that is the way. as you can see (well in my case anyway) there are also some lines with a '#' in front of it, these lines are being ignored by the OS, and are there (in this case) for your information. I will insert a example copy of my /etc/default/halt file, but use your own not mine:

#! /bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: halt
# Required-Start: umountroot
# Required-Stop:
# Should-Start: lvm raid2
# Should-Stop:
# Default-Start: 0
# Default-Stop:
# Short-Description: Execute the halt command.
# Description:
### END INIT INFO

rmmod snd_hda_intel

PATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
[ -f /etc/default/halt ] && . /etc/default/halt

. /lib/lsb/init-functions

do_stop () {
if [ "$INIT_HALT" = "" ]
then
case "$HALT" in
[Pp]*)
INIT_HALT=POWEROFF
;;
[Hh]*)
INIT_HALT=HALT
;;
*)
INIT_HALT=POWEROFF
;;
esac
fi

# See if we need to cut the power.
if [ "$INIT_HALT" = "POWEROFF" ] && [ -x /etc/init.d/ups-monitor ]
then
/etc/init.d/ups-monitor poweroff
fi

# Don't shut down drives if we're using RAID.
hddown="-h"
if grep -qs '^md.*active' /proc/mdstat
then
hddown=""
fi

# If INIT_HALT=HALT don't poweroff.
poweroff="-p"
if [ "$INIT_HALT" = "HALT" ]
then
poweroff=""
fi

log_action_msg "Will now halt"
sleep 1
halt -d -f -i $poweroff $hddown
}

case "$1" in
start)
# No-op
;;
restart|reload|force-reload)
echo "Error: argument '$1' not supported" >&2
exit 3
;;
stop)
do_stop
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 start|stop" >&2
exit 3
;;
esac

:


it is very possible that your file is not as bloated as this one (from the Acer 5700gx), my laptop's halt file for example is only 2 lines.

Wabbalee,
Did you put all that stuff in /etc/default/halt yourself? And if so, could you explain what all that does? My /etc/default/halt in my Acer 3680 laptop is only the 2 lines you mentioned:
On Debian on my desktop the /etc/default/halt file looks exactly the same.

Pazau,
If your /etc/default/halt file looks like mine, you could put "rmmod snd_hda_intel" above the "HALT=poweroff" line. This of course only applies if lsmod reports that snd_hda_intel is running.

Tommcd: My file is also only two lines. This is how my out after having deployed rmmod snd_hda_intel:

Tommcd: But now that I seem to have found a way, can I just remove acpi=force from /boot/grub/menu.lst, and Ubuntu will still close properly?

If lsmod reports that snd_hda_intel is running, and then adding "rmmod snd_hda_intel" to /etc/default/halt fixes the shut down problem, then yes, you could try removing acpi=force from grub's menu.lst and see if it still shuts down properly. If the shut down problem returns you could always put acpi=force back in menu.lst.

Tommcd & Wabbalee:

I fell over this tutorial for Linux on HP dv6000. Nvidia driver version 177 is reported to cause problems with standby and shutdown in Ubuntu 8.10, so I switched to version 173, and it works just as good as before. But thank you very much for your good help!