Kubuntu 6.10 not shutting down properly

[Edmund Laugasson]

>> I go Start-Log Out-Shutdown, the screen goes black but the shutting-down
>> sequence doesn't appear and the machine doesn't actually shut down - I have
>> to turn it off manually. Can I fix this and if so how?
> I have the exact same problem.
> I have found that if you repeat the process a few times, it does work 
> eventually. I can't say what it could be.
> 
> For myself, I like to have a minimum KDE session; say konqy and xmms, you 
> know, a few apps. Then I change my settings (kcontrol) so that I must 
> manually save a session which I then do by K->Save session. I do this once 
> only, or as the mood strikes.
> 
> So, I close all my apps, kmail and akregator too (as they have startup issues 
> where they claim another process is already running) and after everything is 
> closed, I do the K -> Logout tango. Usually gets it on the second try.
> 
> If that still does not work for you, then you can always hit ALT-F2 and type 
> sudo shutdown -h now, for shutdown and sudo reboot for reboot :)


I have also this problem with Kubuntu 6.06 LTS. I installed new 686 
kernel, because I use VM Ware a lot and last times I made shut down 
properly. Perhaps new multiprocessor kernel helped. I use currently 
version 2.6.15-28-686 of my kernel. Motherboard is Gigabyte 8IPE1000 
with Intel 865PE chipset and power supply is QTec 500W ATX Bigfan LN 
(Item 13981-02). CPU is Intel Pentium IV by 2,4 GHz.
Sometimes I mentioned, that logging off before shutting down might also 
help.

Certainly are those things very disturbing and I already think, that is 
really Ubuntu the distro I want... If it is so broken and there are more 
bugs than allowed to work properly...

One tip for crashed system - press keyboard keys as followed with few 
seconds between them and monitoring HDD activities:
1) ALT+SysRq+R - enable keyboard raw mode
2) ALT+SysRq+S - synchronize filesystems (this step prevents data loss)
3) ALT+SysRq+E - terminate all programs
4) ALT+SysRq+I - kill all programs (in case terminate didn't work)
5) ALT+SysRq+S - sync again (might also not necessary)
6) ALT+SysRq+U - unmount all filesystems
7) ALT+SysRq+B - reboot computer
8) ALT+SysRq+O - shut down computer

If keyboard raw mode does not work then you may need to add to 
/etc/sysctl.conf the following row:
kernel.sysrq = 1

... and do restart to service:
sudo /etc/init.d/procps restart

Or you can also recompile your kernel and allowing magic SysRq key.

Actually in Kubuntu is keyboard raw mode allowed by default even you 
don't see this row in /etc/sysctl.conf
But I should unfortunaltey say, that if Kubuntu is crashed, I mean it 
will not do shut down properly, then this keyboard raw mode trick does 
not work :(

But sometimes this trick will work and is quite useful. I found also 
some links:
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Keyboard-and-Console-HOWTO-9.html
http://asm.sourceforge.net/articles/rawkb.html
http://club.mandriva.com/xwiki/bin/view/KB/MagicSysRqKey


Best Regards,
Edmund