[SOLVED] Reboot instead of shutdown after fresh install

x-rix · 2012-08-30 08:12:24

Note: I'm posting this in the Installation forum because it happens directly after a clean fresh install and because I have no clue what exactly could be causing it. Please move to the appropriate forum if I did do wrong

I've installed Arch with the latest installation medium on my new Acer Aspire V5. I got most things (such as X) up and running before I noticed that after shutting down the PC (via

sudo shutdown -h now

), the PC remained off for ~three to five seconds and then it started again. I suspected that I had mixed something up, and since I hadn't done anything fancy already, I just did a clean fresh install (incl wiping and repartitioning the HD). Didn't change. From the installation medium, I can shutdown the PC without a reboot, from the installed OS I can't. (So, what is it that makes the difference between Installation Medium OS and real one?)

I have only base and base-devel installed; obviously I am operating in the ttys exclusively for now. I followed the Beginner's Guide precisely and encountered no problems. ... I don't really know what else to say. Before this reboot, the system message is POWER OFF and as I said the whole PC seems to be off for a few seconds (seconds of terror waiting to see if the latest try worked ) in contrast to the real reboot where it doesn't wait some seconds but goes directly into the reboot.

I read the threads about this issue in the forum and I tried many things:

Contrary to what many others experienced, the problem is quite regular for me.
It happens on battery aswell as on AC
It happens no matter what shutdown command I use; (including halt, /sbin/poweroff -d -f -h -i, a simple poweroff and shutdown -hP)
I reset the BIOS to default options and I disabled Wake on Lan and Wake on Wlan
Starting with the kernel param acpi=off as thiemel suggested DID HELP ... kind of. The system halted, but remained with a blinking _ visible on the display ... kind of not what I was shooting for.
robegrassi's hack (manipulating wakealarm) didn't work for me
DonVIa's suggestion of echoing "shutdown" into /sys/power/disk didn't work either
juanpablo's solution of running RUNLEVEL=o && halt didn't do the trick
I looked at various fixes that involved changing/uninstalling laptop-mode, plymouth ... which I don't have installed.
EDIT: trying linux-lts didn't change this, either.

There were other things, I think, and I will keep trying and update this list. I just want to have this post out there as soon as possible to get more ideas.

What I will try over the course of the next two days (on Friday or Saturday I need to have a running system, meaning that I will dedicate Friday to installing a WM, configuring X and my graphics Drivers, sync my Firefoxes etc; if the issue isn't resolved until then I'll just have to kill the PC directly after the reboot.)

ATM, I have syslinux installed. I will give GRUB a try although I don't know how my bootloader should affect the reboot.
Anything else you can think of, because I can't.

If you have any idea what I could do to solve this, I'll gladly try it.

Last edited by x-rix (2012-08-31 20:36:37)

DSpider · 2012-08-30 08:38:18

Try the linux-lts kernel.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/En … ts_package

x-rix · 2012-08-30 08:59:04

Nope, didn't change a thing, sadly. (Except that the linux-lts did a strange thing with my screen, it cut off some pixels from the left, like the first 1.5 letters on screen, and appended them to the right.) Thanks for the idea, though.

DSpider · 2012-08-30 09:35:23

Post the output of:

$ groups

x-rix · 2012-08-30 10:40:13

I am root atm.

I haven't sudo installed yet (or anything else) and, frankly, I can't imagine it would make a difference. I'll try though if you think otherwise!

DSpider · 2012-08-30 10:56:37

Running everything as root is a bad idea.

I think you need to be in the "power" and "wheel" group in order to use shutdown and poweroff.

Create a user and properly configure it's ~/.xinitrc to load a ConsoleKit session. See your WM/DE wiki (from the top):

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xfce
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Openbox
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GNOME
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/KDE
etc.

That file should look something like:

exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch openbox-session

...unless you have a login manager installed (SLiM, GDM, etc). I read that it launches a ck session automatically. Not sure about dbus...

enrique · 2012-08-30 11:11:08

Hi

I have the same problem with my HP probook 6360b, and I'm 99% sure that it's a bios "feature" (or bug depending on how you look on it), and it happens in Arch and Ubuntu for me, an has _allways_ been there for me.

If I suspend the laptop with really low battery, it will wake up instantly, and if the laptop is running off battery I will say there is a 80% chance that it turns back on after a shutdown. I'm not sure how often it happens when it's connected to AC.

I once saw a entry on the thinkpad wiki that says it also happens on some Lenovo laptops, and apparently there was a bios fix for that. What laptop do you have?

x-rix · 2012-08-30 11:55:53

@DSpider: As I said before, I don't use the laptop just yet, in the hope of finding and solving the cause for this issue. On my desktop PC (which I am writing from right now), I do have a WM (i3) installed and of course I am operating in usermode. I wouldn't dream of running a WM or anything that doesn't need root rights as root.

On my laptop, atm, there is only base and base-devel installed. There is no X, which is why I don't need an .xinitrc file. I'm operating from the bare-boned tty.

As I said, my main question is why I can shut down the PC properly from the installation medium, but I can't do the same thing after having installed the system.

(Sorry if I sounded harsh; if you think that being in usermode would change the problem, I will add a user and install sudo.)

@enrique: As I wrote in my original posting, it's an acer Aspire V5. Have you tried the same things I tried? I have linked to some solutions that have worked for others in my original post.

teateawhy · 2012-08-31 13:41:10

There are reports, that powersaving for pci devices causes this issue.

askubuntu wrote:

cat /sys/bus/pci/devices/*/power/control
and see if it outputs some "auto" values. "auto" causes the shutdown problems on my machine while "on" does not.

On my laptop (thinkpad) i get only "on" values using arch.

x-rix · 2012-08-31 15:42:50

Me, too (only "on" values, that is).

I am now going to install everything else (X, i3, firefox yaddayadda) which means that I'm still trying to fix this, but I'll be more careful with things that could be harmful.

(My desktop will have to stay in a different town, so I'll need this one.)

I'll still try everything you propose though.

x-rix · 2012-08-31 20:35:53

Ok, I am confused. To no end. Because my problem is solved (well, not really).

And I don't know why.

My laptop shuts down all right if on AV now; the reboot bug occurs only on battery.

WTF?

I did install laptop-mode-tools; but I didn't configure them a lot. Other than that, I only installed normal stuff; sudo, X, i3, firefox ...

I'll mark this als [SOLVED] though, since it is an issue a lot of people have; it is unresolved but it doesn't belong here anymore.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-08-30 08:12:24

[SOLVED] Reboot instead of shutdown after fresh install

#2 2012-08-30 08:38:18

Re: [SOLVED] Reboot instead of shutdown after fresh install

#3 2012-08-30 08:59:04

Re: [SOLVED] Reboot instead of shutdown after fresh install

#4 2012-08-30 09:35:23

Re: [SOLVED] Reboot instead of shutdown after fresh install

#5 2012-08-30 10:40:13

Re: [SOLVED] Reboot instead of shutdown after fresh install

#6 2012-08-30 10:56:37

Re: [SOLVED] Reboot instead of shutdown after fresh install

#7 2012-08-30 11:11:08

Re: [SOLVED] Reboot instead of shutdown after fresh install

#8 2012-08-30 11:55:53

Re: [SOLVED] Reboot instead of shutdown after fresh install

#9 2012-08-31 13:41:10

Re: [SOLVED] Reboot instead of shutdown after fresh install

#10 2012-08-31 15:42:50

Re: [SOLVED] Reboot instead of shutdown after fresh install

#11 2012-08-31 20:35:53

Re: [SOLVED] Reboot instead of shutdown after fresh install

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