Lucid (10.04) wont shutdown my computer

[Da9eI]

Hello, this will be my first post..

My ubuntu won't shut down, it stops at the ubuntu logo (with the dots under it). It seems like the OS completely and successfully shuts down, also the harddrive spins down too, except for the computer. I belive this might have happened after I updated my bios. (due to hybrid gpu trouble)

I did search on the internet, and found that it might be some ACPI related issues, and that I have to edit the grub's menu.lst file and add acpi=force. However my menu.lst file is blank, there is nothing in there.

I have tried to shutdown via the terminal too, but the same happens there. Last time I checked it successfully reboots, and standby works correctly. For me to shutdown this laptop, I have to remove the battery and the power cord for it to shutdown, or hold the power button for 10 secs, which is really annoing.

Anyone who have the best answer?
Thanks.

[Monotoko]

When you get into the GRUB menu, press "e" to edit your entry and add acpi=force to the parameters.

GRUB 2 acts slightly differently to legacy and doesnt have the menu.lst

[colorlessprism]

open a terminal and type
"sudo gedit /etc/default/grub"
you should see something like this:
----------------------------------------
If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT="10"
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console
-----------------------------------------
where it says "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" is where you will add acpi=force. it should look exactly like this:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi=force"

save your file and get in your terminal again and type:
"sudo update-grub"

[Da9eI]

Thanks for your reply(es)!

Adding the acpi=force to "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX" did not help. However I accidetely hit ESC during shutdown, and got some text info (verbose?) on screen

* All processes ended within 2 seconds....           [ OK ]

* Deconfiguring network interfaces...                [ OK ]

* Deactivating swap...                               [ OK ]

* Unmounting weak filesystems...                     [ OK ]

* Will now halt
               [  150.465539] Power down.
_

This were the last lines.
And the marker on the bottom of the screen " _ " does not blink. There are no advanced settings in bios to config acpi. I might however update the bios firmware to a last newest version as there was 4 different versions avaiable as a last option.

[colorlessprism]

try this instead:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi=force"

i guess some people report bugs when adding to options to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX. try editing your /etc/default/grub and moving the acpi option as seen above. dont forget to:

"sudo update-grub"

i have always thought it was a good idea to keep the latest firmware on my computer. although you dont usually know there is a new one until you start having problems. when i updated to 9.10 i had major screen flickering and serious usb issues. a simple bios update corrected all of that. try changing your grub and if you still have problems update your bios.

[Da9eI]

try this instead:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi=force"

i guess some people report bugs when adding to options to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX. try editing your /etc/default/grub and moving the acpi option as seen above. dont forget to:

"sudo update-grub"

i have always thought it was a good idea to keep the latest firmware on my computer. although you dont usually know there is a new one until you start having problems. when i updated to 9.10 i had major screen flickering and serious usb issues. a simple bios update corrected all of that. try changing your grub and if you still have problems update your bios.

That didnt help either, it seems like the harddrive shuts down (spindown) to early in the shutdown process, preventing the os reading\writing the last data needed for shutdown. Just a theory..

But thanks anyway, unfortunately I have to use windows to upgrade the Bios firmware. Acer, my computer manufacturer, doesn't provide any way of updating bios through linux. Luckily thats only a harddrive change away.

By the way, its an Acer Aspire 5810TG (timeline series), which doesn't run win very well.

[BrokeMahPC]

Have you updated your bios to the latest version?
Give that a try. Mine was giving me a few acpi and apm hiccups.
It solved a suspend/resume problem which may be related to this.

You will need to change the bios boot order to make sure the cd/dvd drive boots with an Ubuntu CD in it. Apart from that try it with the default settings.
I had the same shutdown problem and could not find a solution - ended up doing a fresh install. It's ok now.
Also have you checked your install cd with md5sum?

[Futurian]

Colorlessprism,

I had to reinstall 10.04 on my ancient Gateway desktop, and it would not shutdown cleanly, so it checked the disks each and every time I rebooted. Your fix eliminated this problem
Thank you!