Shutdown pauses when others are connected

[Clay Weber]

On Monday, March 07, 2011 04:36:48 PM Homer wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 5:39 AM, Clay Weber <claydoh at claydoh.com> wrote:
> > On Monday, February 28, 2011 12:40:13 AM Michael Hirsch wrote:
> >> On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 12:20 PM, Bruce Marshall <bmarsh at bmarsh.com>
> > 
> > wrote:
> >> > On Friday, February 25, 2011, Homer wrote:
> >> >> I'm the only user that will ever be on these machines.  Unless I'm no
> >> >> longer employed here, then the next person will be the only user.  Do
> >> >> you know how to disable this feature?
> >> > 
> >> > Fine, then tell the developers that you need your own version of a
> >> > single-user linux.   I think you are picking at nits.
> >> 
> >> No, he's not.  When a user has a desired behavior to tell that that
> >> they are wrong is counterproductive.  Just because Linux may be
> >> potentially multiuser, doesn't mean it is for everyone.  My wife's
> >> computer is single user, my kids computers are single user.  Even my
> >> computer is single user, most of the time.
> >> 
> >> When I tell my computer to shutdown (usually by hitting CTRL-ATL-DEL
> >> in KDE then hitting return, that is what I expect it to do.  I don't
> >> like coming back to it the next evening and discovering that it didn't
> >> shut down because a) I had lagged in remotely from work, or b) I
> >> logged in on a VC.
> >> 
> >> Apparently some people would like the computer to stay on forever in
> >> that circumstance.  That is fine with me.  But I know a fairly large
> >> number of people who would like to set an option to have the machine
> >> shut down when it is told to.
> >> 
> >> This is a pretty common complaint, and I have yet to see an answer to
> >> it.
> > 
> > Haven't followed this one all the way, but has anyone looked at the
> > options in /etc/kde4/kdm/kdmrc? There are a *lot* of well-commented
> > options in there........
> 
> I just scanned that file and nothing jumped out at me, though I won't
> claim 100% understanding of all the settings.  The shutdown section
> only has these three:
> 
> [Shutdown]
> BootManager=None
> HaltCmd=/sbin/halt
> RebootCmd=/sbin/reboot
> 
> On further consideration...  I see both halt and reboot have a --force
> option.  I'll try -f when I get some time and report back.

look at this section:
# The default choice for the shutdown condition/timing.
# "Schedule" - shut down after all active sessions exit (possibly at once)
# "TryNow" - shut down, if no active sessions are open; otherwise, do nothing
# "ForceNow" - shut down unconditionally
# Default is Schedule
#DefaultSdMode=ForceNow

try uncommenting the last line above, I think that is the option you need

clay