Ubuntu doesn't shutdown properly.

Ewan the moomintroll · 11-27-2008, 10:51 AM

Hi,

I've had Ubuntu for a few months now, and since I installed it has not shut down properly; I have to switch it off by holding the off button down for a few seconds.This problem happened in 8.08 and still happens in 8.10.
It gets to the end of the bar, so it is all black, there is a click and the keyboard switches off. Then nothing, it just hangs there.
When I start up I get a brief message about acpi force off, bios settings or something. I can't be sure because it's to brief to read.

I started a post on it here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=964767

I'll try everything I can and persist to get this fixed, because it really is annoying, and probably bad for my computer so if you can help it would be great.

Thanks,
Ewan

cmnorton · 11-28-2008, 08:54 AM

When you reboot, look in your logs (/var/log). Start with messages and syslog and the output of dmesg. This could be due to a number of things.
What kind of hardware is this?

rob33n · 11-28-2008, 09:32 AM

i have same problem for 1 week. which logs we should look? is it user.log

DragonSlayer48DX · 11-28-2008, 10:18 AM

This is a known issue - Bug #274995

The solution that works for most people is:

Open the terminal and type:

Quote:

sudo gedit /etc/init.d/alsa-utils

The file opens in Gedit and around line 353 you'll find the instruction "stop)". Below this instruction you should add these two instructions:

ifconfig wlan0 down
ifconfig eth0 down

So, the file should be this way:

Quote:

stop)
ifconfig wlan0 down
ifconfig eth0 down
EXITSTATUS=0

Save the file, close the terminal, and restart Ubuntu.

Hope this helps.

Ewan the moomintroll · 11-28-2008, 10:37 AM

And doing that won't mess anything up?

DragonSlayer48DX · 11-28-2008, 04:51 PM

I can't say personally, as I've never had this issue. But I googled your problem and found quite a lot of conversation about it on several sites, and it is a known bug. As for the solution, which was found on all of them, the worst-case scenario was one person who said that it simply didn't fix the problem. Everyone else who tried it was more than satisfied.

rgreeves · 11-28-2008, 08:55 PM

Dragonslayer*** your solution worked wonderfully for me. Shuts down without the delay now. Amazing how a few lines of code can make a difference.

Now if I could get my sound working.........

Thanks for you efforts.

DragonSlayer48DX · 11-29-2008, 08:16 AM

You're welcome, and thank you for letting us know it worked!

Cheers

oxleyk · 11-29-2008, 12:00 PM

Cool, it worked for me also. I didn't have the problem of my computer hanging up, it just took a long time to shutdown.

Kent

Ewan the moomintroll · 11-29-2008, 12:36 PM

Sadly, it didn't work for me.

jglen490 · 11-29-2008, 06:15 PM

According to your Ubuntu thread, you're using an epox 8k5a3+ motherboard. It's not exactly cutting edge, as near as I can see, so it may be a problem with the age of the BIOS and ACPI. I have that problem with my IBM T20 laptop. Open a terminal and enter

Code:

sudo lshw | less

.

There should be en try (probably under *-firmware) that lists your BIOS info. Here's what mine looks like:

Code:

john-laptop
    description: Notebook
    product: 264784U
    vendor: IBM
    version: Not Available
    serial: 78PLL39
    width: 32 bits
    capabilities: smbios-2.3 dmi-2.3
    configuration: boot=normal chassis=notebook uuid=A9BF1A80-4341-11CB-AEE8-97125F776C31
  *-core
       description: Motherboard
       product: 264784U
       vendor: IBM
       physical id: 0
       version: Not Available
       serial: J1D8E023757
     *-firmware
          description: BIOS
          vendor: IBM
          physical id: 0
          version: IYET60WW (1.21 ) (12/21/1999)
          size: 128KiB
          capacity: 448KiB
          capabilities: isa pci pcmcia pnp apm upgrade shadowing escd cdboot bootselect pcmciaboot edd int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer int10video acpi agp ls120boot biosbootspecification

Note the date (12/21/1999). When mine wouldn't shut down properly, I found an error message stating that the ACPI would not be loaded due to the age of the BIOS - even though I had loaded the latest update just a couple of years ago. AFter some research, I found a solution that works for me. Modify your /etc/modules file by making an entry in the last line. I've had no further problems

Code:

# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

fuse
lp
# This note is carried over from Kubuntu 7.10
# JHG 2-19-08 Tested /etc/init.d/halt and made changes that are
# related to "halt: ... " message on shutdown; incomplete power off.
# This is O.K. Have corrected S90halt and S90reboot to eliminate the "halt: ... "
# notice.  Took out the references to "hddown=", not needed, no RAID.
# Took out reboot -i and halt -i  since kernel takes care of IDE drives.
apm power_off=1

Ewan the moomintroll · 11-30-2008, 05:25 AM

thanks very much, but my /etc/modules file already had that entry.
My sudo lshw | less output looked very different to yours, but I think you're right that my motherboards BIOS is out of date.

Ewan the moomintroll · 12-11-2008, 09:21 AM

Um, any more help would be appreciated.

jglen490 · 12-11-2008, 08:34 PM

Look in your /boot/grub/menu.lst file and see if you have boot parameters such as "acpi=force" or anything else related to acpi. If that exists, it may be that a forced install of acpi is trying to give messages to your BIOS that the BIOS can't process.

Just a wild guess.

Ewan the moomintroll · 12-13-2008, 01:48 PM

I don't have acpi=force in there.