I have been using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS for several months and recently the system has stopped closing down cleanly. It starts okay and runs just fine, but when I come to closing down it doesn't do anything after I've clicked on the shut down button. The same happens with the restart button. I have been closing the system by pressing the power button on the front of my tower. I have no idea as to why it won't close ... I haven't installed any extra software, so I guess it's a system problem. Closing down by pressing the power button cannot be doing the OS any good, so I could do with a fix ASAP on this one.
I'm not a techie so please keep your replies as simple as possible.
Thank you.
gael.

does shutting down do anything at all or does it just sit there? (does it go back to log in screen?)

Thanks for taking an interest
No, it just doesn't do anything ... when closing down I go to the desktop and make sure that there are no open programs. I then click on the shut down button ... the button disappears, but the computer doesn't shut down. the exact same happens when I click on the restart button ... nothing happens.
The computer starts okay and runs okay ... it's just when shutting down I have problems.

have you tried removing the button from the panel and then adding it back?

I just tried that and it worked
I cannot believe that something so simple as removing a button and then reinstalling it could fix the problem :0

Thank you very much.
gael.

dont forget to hit the thanks button under my name.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi,

does it shut down when you issue one of the following commands
in a terminal?

I appear to have solved the problem by removing the shut down button from the panel and then reinstalling it again.
However, I will try those terminal commands and let you know the answer to you question ... probably tomorrow

Thanks
gael.

My thanks to linuxishard!
I had the same problem - click Shutdown button in the panel, click on Shudown or Restart in the form that appears, then form siappears and nothing else happens.
I had previously tried altering an /etc/default/grub line to
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi=force"
But by right-clicking on the panel Shutdown button, then selecting Remove, got rid of the button. Then I right-clicked in a blank area of the panel, selected Add to Panel, then chose the Shut Down... icon from the displayed list. That restored the button. The first time I tried it, it didn't work. But, after using a terminal to do
sudo shutdown -r now
The Shutdown button now works. Thanks to linuxishard, and all others who contributed!
Phil