For some reason whenever I try to logout/reboot/shutdown from X it starts to shutdown, but then switches to a blank screen and hangs there. I've tried waiting for a while and I'm quite sure that I'm not just being impatient. When I hit the reset button and reboot it tells me that my system was shutdown improperly. I have the latest graphics drivers from nvidia, I have the proper specs in XConfig for my monitor (I double-checked) Everything seems to be working fine except for this (that I know of). Does anyone have any ideas? It seems like it should be a relatively simple thing, but I'm fairly new to linux so I'm at a loss.

I would be grateful for any input.

Thanks,

Benjamin

I do not know why X hangs on logout. Are you using Gnome or KDE?

In any case there is a better way to handle the situation. Until you get it fixed then use this procedure to shutdown:
<cntrl> <alt> <F3>
login as root
shutdown -h now

You could also try this command sequence when X hangs. It will probable work then too.

ctrl-alt-bksp to terminate X.
i am a newbie, but if i am not wrong ctrl-alt-F3 goes into tty3? (which probably won't have X running though).
For some reason if you su into root, shutdown won't work, you have to type /sbin/shutdown.
Login as root works ok. WHY?

The problem is with my drivers. I had installed the nvidia 1.0-4496 graphics driver. While searching for similar problems I came across the nvidia linux forum. I solved the problem by reverting back to the generic gforce4 driver. I don't think there is a fix yet. Also I think that previous versions of the nvidia driver don't have this problem so those might work. Good luck.

Benjamin

I'm having the same problem with a Matrox G450. So it's not just the nvida drivers.

-Helios007

"i am a newbie, but if i am not wrong ctrl-alt-F3 goes into tty3?"

Yes. I intended you to use tty3 as an emergency procedure until you got the problem straightened out. Shutting down through tty3 saves you the fsck delay in boot up.

"For some reason if you su into root, shutdown won't work, you have to type /sbin/shutdown."

When you su to root you have a very skimpy PATH. You have to give the full pathname for a lot of commands.

"Login as root works ok. WHY?"

I don't know. Also your solution of switching drivers does not explain why root worked and user did not.

Same problem: Dell Inspiron 3700 laptop, ATI Rage Mobility 128 video card. Looks like the problem may originate from the OS, rather than from any specific vendor. I don't have a solution, I just wanted to expand the scope of the discussion.

Thanks,
oklitig8r: