I tried 'halt' ,'shutdown' and 'poweroff' but my pc hangs at the message"power down"-cursor just blinks.

What's wrong?

2 Things:

You must be sure that the BIOS of the PC have the APM turned on! (Advanced Power Management)

And also, that the kernel use it...

You can open /etc/rc.d/rc.modules with an editor and check the section that talks about this thing... (APM)... And there must be a commented line with a module for this... Just un-comment the line that is supposed to activate the APM...

worked ok with the APM bios active.thanks!

I am wondering why power off works in mandrake without altering the bios.anybody knows why? why does mandrake make it easier and not slack?

My default installation of Slack9.0 was shutting down my PC fine at FIRST TIME USE!...

Maybe you selected another type of Kernel when installing????

I used the bare.i kernel.

Mandrake makes things too easy...like... ermm... windows easy... and very much annoying as well

All distros should be like mandrake so that it can attract users! Why do you equate "easy" with "annoying"?

It is like buying a car. Windows is a typical new car-it runs "out of the showroom". Linux like Slackware,is the "do it yourself kit" type. You have to be a mechanic-i.e a computer wizard, or have one on hand to make it run. I tried and am still running Mandrake and I should say it is closing in on windows. I have also tried Knoppix and it does a good job in detecting majority of hardware without user intervention. Knoppix also has a very good hd installation script.

I was attracted to the small size of the slackware installation cd and the apparent number os users that use it in this forum. It also was very good in detecting hardware just like mandy and knoppix.

My aim now is to make a live cd version similar to knoppix and minicd of mandy.

I hate wi... nay I loathe windows and anything that looks similar...

Windows and the like is oversimplified to the point where it becomes painful/annoying to use it. And it's always fun to try things the hard way. You learn more and enjoy yourself when tackling a challenge.

Yes it's true if YOU HAVE THE TIME! For the ordinary PC user to spend hours trying to make things work? That is annoying!