12.04 Hangs when I turn it off!

**Pontus Ohman** · May 16th, 2012

Hello folks!

Anyone know how to fix this bug when I we wan´t to shut down and the server hangs it self in the shut down sequence so I need to manually shut down it...

It´s fine when the server is nearby, but heck if it wasn´t!

**LHammonds** · May 16th, 2012

That's not a lot of info to go on.

Do you shutdown your application services before issuing the shutdown command? What exactly are you typing to shutdown the server?

If I am running a MySQL server, I shutdown MySQL first before typing shutdown -P now

If I am running a Nagios server, I shutdown Nagios....if a web server, apache, etc.

I would recommend trying to figure out just what is hanging up...such as shutting down each service you are running by hand and verify that it stopped. Make sure no services are running before issuing the final shutdown command.

LHammonds

**doogy2004** · May 17th, 2012

I've had something similar happen where the OS displays something like "System Halted" but the machine never powers off. For me this has only happened on certain hardware. For my hardware, my solution was to only restart the machine when I wasn't near by and only "shutdown" when I could remove power from the system. I welcome a better explanation of why this might happen.

**LHammonds** · May 17th, 2012

Originally Posted by doogy2004

I've had something similar happen where the OS displays something like "System Halted" but the machine never powers off. For me this has only happened on certain hardware. For my hardware, my solution was to only restart the machine when I wasn't near by and only "shutdown" when I could remove power from the system. I welcome a better explanation of why this might happen.

Again, this depends on EXACTLY what command you used to issue the shutdown.

Whenever I see "System Halted" when I expected it to be powered off, it was always due to my typing the command incorrectly. I know this because after I turned the server back on, I looked at my command history (by pressing up arrow) and would see where I issued the shutdown command without the "-P" option or incorrectly used the "-h"

As for reboots, a properly configured OS and well-behaving application should not require the server to reboot a lot or even on a regular schedule like Windows servers. But I assume that anyone wanting help with a "shutdown and power off" scenario actually needs the server powered off to work on hardware.

There may be an issue with BIOS settings but I would 1st look the the exact command used to take the server down before going on a bunny trail hunt.

LHammonds

**doogy2004** · May 17th, 2012

Originally Posted by LHammonds

Whenever I see "System Halted" when I expected it to be powered off, it was always due to my typing the command incorrectly. I know this because after I turned the server back on, I looked at my command history (by pressing up arrow) and would see where I issued the shutdown command without the "-P" option or incorrectly used the "-h"

Thanks for the tip. The man page for shutdown states http://linux.die.net/man/8/shutdown :

-h
Requests that the system be either halted or powered off after it has been brought down, with the choice as to which left up to the system.

Which seems to indicate that the choice is up to the hardware/bios, given my previous experience. However, most hardware performs an OS shutdown then hardware power off when the -h flag is given.

The OP should verify if they are using -h or -P. If -h is given and the system is hanging, they should try -P instead.

**trundlenut** · May 17th, 2012

sudo halt will halt the system but not power off.

sudo poweroff or sudo halt -P will work.

This might not be a bug but more of a feature in 12.04

**trundlenut** · May 17th, 2012

sudo halt will halt the system but not power off.

sudo poweroff or sudo halt -P will work.

This might not be a bug but more of a feature in 12.04

**CharlesA** · May 18th, 2012

Originally Posted by trundlenut

sudo halt will halt the system but not power off.

sudo poweroff or sudo halt -P will work.

This might not be a bug but more of a feature in 12.04

There are a few bug reports filed on that. It happened in 11.10 from what I have read as well.

**Pontus Ohman** · May 18th, 2012

Originally Posted by trundlenut

sudo halt will halt the system but not power off.

sudo poweroff or sudo halt -P will work.

This might not be a bug but more of a feature in 12.04

Ah, that solved my problem...

Earlier on 10.04.3 when I did the sudo halt, the server shut down, but now on 12.04 it just freeze on the way down and I need to manually switch it off.

Topic solved! Thx man