Incomplete shutdown on some LTSP clients (shutdown hangs/freezes)
John Hupp
lubuntu at prpcompany.com
Sun Sep 2 19:27:45 UTC 2012
So is it time to file a bug report on this?
Trying to go through channels as instructed at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/kernel, I emailed the ACPI
maintainer (lenb at kernel.org) on 8/27, but have had no response. Of
course, my report format was not as specified there, but as a non-dev
and Linux newbie I did the best I could to be thorough.
If it is time for that, I would appreciate it if someone who has the
knowledge and experience to do a proper job of it would take the helm.
Although if it turns out that documenting the problem such as I have
done in these email posts is sufficient, then I'm willing.
As I see it, the problem is now summarized:
- On some machines running Ubuntu/Edubuntu/Lubuntu/Kubuntu 12.04 either
as standalone desktops or as LTSP clients, the shutdown process hangs
either at a console window (the right term?) after reporting "System
halted," or "SysRq : Power Off ..... Power down," or else at a blank
all-black or all-white screen. Which particular way it hangs is
dependent on the distro and on the machine hardware.
- Since the problem also occurs with Kubuntu, it does not seem to be
Gnome-specific.
- At least on one such machine so affected, no change of BIOS settings
("ACPI Aware O/S: No/Yes" or "Power Management/APM: Disabled/Enabled")
affected the behavior.
- Other users report that shutdown worked properly in some previous
version of *buntu, but the reports vary some on which version last worked.
I would add my understanding that
http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/+bug/491940 does
not refer to this problem, but instead refers somehow to the current
tedious shutdown behavior where one has to click Main Menu: Shutdown,
then from a dialog window click Shutdown again, and then from the login
window click Preferences: Shutdown.
On 9/2/2012 2:51 PM, John Hupp wrote:
> I downloaded Kubuntu 12.04 and made a Live DVD.
>
> On one of the clients with the shutdown problem, I booted the Live
> DVD. I didn't have a working pointer (500 MHz Celeron and 256 MB, so
> maybe not enough resources), but the "sudo poweroff" command from a
> console window resulted in shutdown hanging after "System halted" was
> reported onscreen, and I had to force the machine off.
>
> I take it that this confirms it is not a Gnome-specific problem.
>
> ----------------------------
>
> I also played with the BIOS Power Control settings. For "ACPI Aware
> O/S: Yes/No" and "Power Management/APM: Enabled/Disabled." I tried
> all four permutations of settings and all resulted in the same hung
> shutdown.
>
> There was also "Power Button Function: On/Off," "Suspend Time Out:
> Enabled/Disabled" and <various devices>: "Monitor/Ignore," but I took
> those to be irrelevant.
>
> On 9/2/2012 1:22 PM, Aere Greenway wrote:
>> Nicholas:
>>
>> I don't think Kubuntu would run on a 450 megahertz, 512 RAM machine,
>> though they have improved it this last release, so perhaps I should
>> try it.
>>
>> I do run Xubuntu on it, which has the same problem.
>>
>> Years ago, there was an error message that appeared during shutdown
>> (or boot), stating that the BIOS did not pass the ACPI cutoff (I
>> think it was a date before which they did not rely on ACPI).
>>
>> Ever since then, that machine would not power-down, on every
>> successive Linux release.
>>
>> I used to use Kubuntu on that machine (8.04?) and I think the problem
>> might have been evident back then.
>>
>> - Aere
>>
>>
>> On Mon, 2012-08-27 at 12:06 -0400, Nicholas Skaggs wrote:
>>> Hmm, my first thought was that this appears to be perhaps some ACPI
>>> interaction, specific to the bios of each pc. You might be able to
>>> change some settings in the bios's on the pc to produce the intended
>>> results.
>>>
>>> Reading the bug, perhaps there is something wrong on the software
>>> side here. Since the bug is marked as being in gnome-session, can
>>> you try and see if it affects you if you don't run gnome session?
>>> For instance, does kubuntu exhibit this behavior?
>>>
>>> Short-term you could get a package with the patch in it and test
>>> that. Longer term, helping get a fix in is of course best. I would
>>> likely open a new bug for this after you've narrowed the cause of
>>> what's going on.
>>>
>>> Nicholas
>>>
>>> On 08/25/2012 04:11 PM, Phill Whiteside wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi John,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> it was marked as a "will not fix" [1]. This seems completely stupid
>>>> to me, as the ltsp team agreed the fix.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> @ nicholas, can you chase this up? ltsp [2] have simply wished me
>>>> luck to get the bug fixed..... It appears that people do not
>>>> consider it a task worth doing?.... wtf...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Phill.
>>>> 1. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/+bug/491940
>>>> 2. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuLTSP/
>>>>
>>>> On 25 August 2012 20:03, Phill Whiteside <PhillW at ubuntu.com
>>>> <mailto:PhillW at ubuntu.com>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi John,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I've asked on the ltsp team. I do not think it is a lubuntu
>>>> issue, nor an edubuntu one, but a generic issue.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I have cc'd this to the guy who looks after general QA, I'm
>>>> sure that he will chase it up for you.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> For your information LTSP are at [1].
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Phill.
>>>>
>>>> 1. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuLTSP/
>>>>
>>>> On 25 August 2012 19:31, John Hupp <lubuntu at prpcompany.com
>>>> <mailto:lubuntu at prpcompany.com>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On my Lubuntu and Edubuntu 12.04 LTSP test networks, I find
>>>> that some clients do not shut down completely.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On the Lubuntu network, one eMachine client stops at a
>>>> black-and-white text screen that says:
>>>> Ubuntu 12.04
>>>> .... * Asking all remaining processes to terminate ...
>>>> [255.161402] SysRq : Power off
>>>> [255.173722] Power down.
>>>> [OK]
>>>> [255.280060[ SysRq : Power Off
>>>> [255.280220] Power down.
>>>> * All processes ended within 1 seconds .... [OK]
>>>> A simple press of the power button does not turn off the
>>>> machine at that point. I have to press and hold it 5
>>>> seconds or so.
>>>>
>>>> Also on the Lubuntu network, an HP stops at the same
>>>> screen, but a simple press of the power button turns it off.
>>>>
>>>> A Dell on the Lubuntu networks shuts off cleanly and
>>>> completely within a few seconds.
>>>>
>>>> ---------------------
>>>>
>>>> On the Edubuntu network, all clients have to invoke
>>>> Shutdown from the desktop and from the login screen. After
>>>> choosing Shutdown from the desktop (and then presenting a
>>>> dialog for Shutdown or Restart), it drops back to the login
>>>> screen, and there one chooses Preferences: Shutdown. [Very
>>>> tedious, but that's not my real interest in this post. And
>>>> as a footnote, the server shuts down cleanly after the two
>>>> clicks on the desktop.
>>>>
>>>> But regarding specific client machine behavior on the
>>>> Edubuntu network, the above eMachine hangs at a black
>>>> screen after Preferences: Shutdown from the login screen.
>>>> I forgot to make a note of whether a simple press of the
>>>> power button shuts it off from here, or whether a
>>>> press-and-hold was required as it was on the Lubuntu net.
>>>>
>>>> The above HP hangs at a white screen after Preferences:
>>>> Shutdown from the login screen. A simple press of the
>>>> power button shuts it off from here.
>>>>
>>>> The above Dell shuts down cleanly after Preferences:
>>>> Shutdown from the login screen.
>>>>
>>>> ---------------------
>>>>
>>>> One other behavior that was of interest to me but that I
>>>> did not thoroughly document was that even on machines where
>>>> Shutdown hangs, it seems generally to be the case that
>>>> Restart does not hang. The machine proceeds smoothly to
>>>> POST and reboot.
>>>>
>>>> ---------------------
>>>>
>>>> So I am wondering if I can get all the clients to shut down
>>>> cleanly via the interface Shutdown commands.
>>>>
>>>> If not, is there a script that will produce a clean shutdown?
>>>>
>>>> Or failing that, can I insert a splash screen at the end of
>>>> the shutdown process something like Windows 95/98 used on
>>>> machines where it could not execute a complete shutdown
>>>> automatically? (The screen said something like "It is now
>>>> safe to turn off your computer.")
>>>>
>>>> Speaking of Windows 95/98's shutdown process, I recall that
>>>> the issue had to do with power management drivers not fully
>>>> supporting the hardware on some motherboards, or not
>>>> finding the hardware that power management did fully
>>>> support. But beyond that, it was possible to
>>>> not-install/uninstall/disable power management on machines
>>>> that did support full shutdown, then
>>>> install/reinstall/re-enable power management but not
>>>> recover the ability to do a full shutdown. So it wasn't
>>>> always just a question of supported hardware.
>>>>
>>>> Also regarding Win 9x, that splash screen may have been an
>>>> integrated part of all shutdowns. I recall seeing it flash
>>>> on-screen for a split second even on machines that were on
>>>> their way to a full automatic shutdown.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Lubuntu-users mailing list
>>>> Lubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
>>>> <mailto:Lubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -- <https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/lubuntu-users>
>>>> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/phillw
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/phillw
>>>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Aere
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
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