The computer was still freezing at shutdown 60% or more of the time, especially when I have used it for hours. A computer by another manufacturer also with Linux Mint installed, which I rarely use, appears to have the same problem.

However when searching for "shutdown" in the Linux Mint Software Manager, there is more than one program listed.

I installed KShutdown, a small program, and have been using the option for immediate shutdown. It has worked every time, and has gone through the shutdown process without ever freezing.

It would be nice if the software from KShutdown, or something like it, could be incorporated into Mint distributions.

So now, after only however many years it is, this problem is really and finally solved.

Edit: I wrote too soon - after writing the above and shutting down using KShutdown, it froze.

In my first post I asked which log to look at and where to find it, but no-one has answered the question. I believe there are dozens of different logs as BleachBit seems to delete an awful lot of them.

So which log should I look at, and most importantly where do I find it? And then, what am I looking for?

Thanks.

You were answered by frankbell in post #2.


Also, as per posts #5/#6, a systemd-based OS uses the systemd journal, "journalctl". (You may need to enable persistent logging - see "man systemd-journald")

I have since been using the "Now!" button of the program qshutdown, which so far has never frozen and thus I prefer. It says its gives a "sudo shutdown -P now" command after all other methods fail.

The are twenty-seven different files that include "log" in the name in var/log, not including twenty or thirty files that describe themselves as backuplog, plus several files and subfolders that do not include log in the name.

From their date and time of modification I cannot see anything that obviously relates to previous shutdowns. At least some of them appear to be binary files, so very difficult to read or understand.

I will investigate "man systemd-journald", thanks.

Update: Systemd-journald could be more trouble than it is worth, according to this - https://www.debugpoint.com/systemd-journald-clean/

For whatever reason, probably some update, pressing the escape key does now show a list of things shutting down.

Is there any way to have this happen by default, without needing to press the escape key please?

The computer has continued to keep freezing sometimes, usually when it has been on many hours and I have been busy with it, and I now see that it always reaches the final power-off stage but has a "kernal-panic!" instead of switching off. This problem is described many times on the internet, and although there is no cure at least it seems to be harmless as far as I can see.