Incomplete shutdown on some LTSP clients (shutdown hangs/freezes)

Phill Whiteside PhillW at Ubuntu.com
Sun Sep 2 20:59:01 UTC 2012


Hi,

I've had what appears to be very similar behaviour reported on a VM, again
we await some guidance on how & where to file this. I'm probably as guilty
as most in that I use 'force shut-down' from my virtual machine manager to
issue a 'force quit' with a shrug and blindly accepting that is just the
way it happens with virtual machines....

BUT if the same thing is affecting 'real' kit, then there is a bug which
needs addressing.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

Regards,

Phill.

On 2 September 2012 20:27, John Hupp <lubuntu at prpcompany.com> wrote:

>  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> 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> 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.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
>
>
>   --
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/phillw
>
>
>   --
>
> Sincerely,
> Aere
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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