Reboot instead of shutdown on Dell Dimension 4100?

Astro96 · 05-07-2005, 11:52 PM

Hello,
I am using Fedora Core 3 on a Dell Dimension 4100 with the standard power supply and motherboard. The system is used mostly for recording TV (using MythTV) and it works great. However, often (although certainly not always) after recording a show the system will automatically shut it self down (it is supposed to do that) but about 3 seconds after shutdown (the drives spin down and everything) it powers up. Then the system boots. It acts like it was given a reboot comand.

I am not using any funny commands to shut the system down and often it works. Can anyone think of a reason why it would reboot instead of shutdown so sporadically?

Thank you!
Astro96

tredegar · 05-08-2005, 03:18 AM

I have never managed to get mythtv working, but I am aware that it has the facility to "wake up" a turned-off computer, if your BIOS supports this feature. The idea is that you can tell the BIOS to turn on the computer at a certain time (ie a few minutes before you want to start recording). Maybe you have this feature enabled? Check your myth setup / BIOS settings.

Astro96 · 05-08-2005, 11:05 AM

No, I know for a fact that my BIOS does not support that function. It would have saved me a huge wake-on-lan hassle!

Also, in case anyone wanted to know the command that I am using to shut the system down is

sudo /sbin/halt -p

it is being run as root so I guess that the sudo is unnecessary

I tried running that command from the terminal and it shutdown correctly.

Astro96

Astro96 · 05-14-2005, 08:46 PM

Hi,
I have one more thing to add -- Once the machine is in a reboot instead of shutdown cycle, the only way to turn it off is to pull the power. Everything I tried short of that produced a reboot.

Astro96

tredegar · 05-15-2005, 03:00 AM

Well, something must be telling your PC to restart.

Above, you mention having had a "wake on LAN hassle", and I wonder if this is somehow waking your PC up. Does it shutdown properly if you have the LAN disconnected?

Astro96 · 05-19-2005, 07:46 AM

Hi,
Thanks for your reply. I did tried disconnecting the LAN cable during a cycle like this and it did not make a difference so I don't think it is wake on LAN. It seems like Fedora Core 3 is telling the machine to reboot instead of shutdown even though it goes to run level 0.

Thanks!
Astro96

tredegar · 05-19-2005, 03:43 PM

Sorry, I am not familiar with FC3 but something appears to be misconfigured. It is probably quite simple - but... where to find it?

As you & I are the only ones following this thread, may I suggest you re-post it and hope someone else has the experience to help you? Altenatively, you might try another distribution of linux, sometimes this helps.

One other thing, and this is just a guess - you say in the above (8-5-2005) that you are running as root : root has global permissions, maybe you should try running these programs as a regular user that doesn't default to root's permissions. Perhaps there is something in your local user defaults that is needed but not being applied correctly because you are running as root.

I'd sugggest you do some investicgations, and repost your queries.

Good luck, and persevere -it is worth it in the end!

gd2shoe · 05-24-2005, 05:08 PM

It may be worth verifying that your system does indeed go into runlevel 0 instead of runlevel 6. There are distribution dependant issues with where these things are, and I'm using a SuSE system right now. Things are probably the same, but no guarantees.

You should have a folder at /etc/inittab.d and in it there should be a bunch of scripts and folders. These are used when runlevels are changed. Two of the folders, rc0.d and rc6.d are for shutdown and reboot (respectively). In each of them, there should be one script each (usually a link to a script, but who's counting). These are the scripts that actually prepare your system to halt or restart. I'd try this:

add a bunch of echo statements to each of the two scripts right after the initial comments, something like:

Code:

#! /bin/sh
#
#This program was written by so-and-so
#And is meant to do such-and-such and reboot the system
#written on 01-01-01 in never never land

#added code to learn what is wrong with shutdown
echo "rebooting..."
echo "rebooting..."
echo "rebooting..."

If you have different text in each file, you will be able to see it when you tell the system to shut down. This way, you will know if you are entering runlevel 0 or runlevel 6. This will not solve anything on it's own, but will be valuable to learn where the problem might be.

Astro96 · 05-27-2005, 01:31 PM

Thanks. I will give that a try (although I think it is going to runlevel 0 becuase it says "INIT: Entering runlevel 0")

Astro96

gd2shoe · 05-30-2005, 01:11 AM

Yeah, that would be a pretty big hint

jrehm · 06-22-2005, 10:46 AM

I'm having the same reboot issue on two new Dell OptiPlex machines with WinXP Pro. I'm wondering if there's something going on with Dell in general.

Astro96 · 06-28-2005, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jrehm
I'm having the same reboot issue on two new Dell OptiPlex machines with WinXP Pro. I'm wondering if there's something going on with Dell in general.

Hmmm, that is interesting. I still haven't solved my issue, but if you find anything let me know.

Does yours reboot every time? My will shutdown normally about half of the time.

Astro96