close down

[norman]

I am using the latest version of Ubuntu, which I upgraded from 7.10, on
my desktop machine. When I close down instead of just getting the moving
bar indicating the progress of the process I get a long list telling me
what the computer is doing, then the screen, with the place where the
bar should appear, comes on followed by the machine closing down. I
would like to return to the closing down process I am used to.

Can anyone please suggest what should be done?

Norman