System won't shut down; Logs off instead

**flyingsolo** · January 21st, 2013

I've been away from this thread for some time. Sorry to see more people with same. I haven't a solution but I usually leave it on anyway; just need to shutdown for some updates & occasional need to use Windows.
Anyone else discover why this happens or a fix?

**Synnefo** · January 22nd, 2013

I just upgraded from 12.04 to 12.10 and am facing the same problem.
Googling it leads to other threads/forums with the same problem with no solution. A bug this common should be fixed soon!

**SlugSlug** · January 22nd, 2013

Am getting this on a remote Mint machine

**DaBungalow** · January 26th, 2013

Originally Posted by yoramdavid

If I may use your threat as well, I am experiencing the exact same problem. This happened after upgrading to Ubuntu 12.04.

I also have this problem. Have there been any solutions. I have found that

Code:

sudo shutdown -P now

does work as a temporary solution. Here is my error log after trying to shutdown.

Code:

[17755.647438] type=1400 audit(1359182078.488:100): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" parent=1 profile="/usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm/lightdm-guest-session-wrapper" name="/proc/1101/stat" pid=1990 comm="bamfdaemon" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=115 ouid=0

**yoramdavid** · January 26th, 2013

If there are solutions, I do not know. I am still having this problem for a very long time now.

Half of the times I shut down, it reboots.

What amazes me is that there have been many updates and none corrected that problem!

Regards,
Yoram

**TenLeftFingers** · February 1st, 2013

I'm having this problem on 12.04 since installing a backlog of updates in December 2011. Disabling networking altogether seems to fix it (or at least, on the next reboot).

It's not a viable solution but could you all verify that this fixes the issue? It may indicate the problem area.

**lonewohlf42** · February 1st, 2013

I have the same problem. I have 2 computers. 1 I built and an HP that I bought for my wife. Everything was working fine in 12.04 but since I upgraded both machines to 12.10 I can no longer shutdown my computers. When I try to shut them down I end up on the log in screen. I can log back in but I can never shutdown. I'm hoping a future update will fix them or maybe someone will come up with an idea. Maybe when 13.04 comes around the
problem will be fixed. It seems like a lot of people are having the same problem.

**technoshaman** · March 22nd, 2013

I have the same problem after upgrading to Ubuntu 12.10. If I log out, or command to shut down, I get back to the login screen. Sometimes it does a reboot, but just won't stay off.

**Dabo Ross** · April 5th, 2013

I am getting this in 12.10. It is a relatively new install, and this problem started 2 days ago. I re-installed Ubuntu 2-3 weeks ago.
I am the only user on the computer. When I click shutdown or restart in menu, I end up on log-in screen, with no error message.
When I try shutdown or restart from the login screen nothing happens.
I have been just hibernating for the past few days, to get around this problem.

I am getting This in /var/log/syslog:
Apr 5 10:48:43 DaboUbuntu gnome-session[30423]: WARNING: Unable to stop system: Authorization is required
When I try to shutdown.

I think I found what was happening to me. Someone had logged on to the guest account, and hadn't logged off.
Logging into then out of the guest account fixed it for me.

Oh, and BTW, I found these other things on this bug:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/71506...ithout-console
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...er/+bug/861171
http://askubuntu.com/questions/24363...to-greeter-now

And that last one has a solution:

Create a file named /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/usershutdown.pkla (the name must end in .pkla) and put the following in it:

Code:

[Allow Shutdown]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.stop-multiple-users
ResultAny=yes
ResultInactive=yes
ResultActive=yes

[Allow Restart]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.restart-multiple-users
ResultAny=yes
ResultInactive=yes
ResultActive=yes

**Allavona** · April 6th, 2013

I am experiencing a similar problem. Sometimes the computer will actually shutdown but more often than not it hangs on the screen with the Ubuntu name and the purple dots. Two dots will fill, and then nothing. I left it one night for about ten minutes thinking that it would "catch up" with itself, but it didn't. On a crazy note, I can shutdown properly with a sudo poweroff command in the terminal.