The laptop doesn't turn off every other time

seth · 2026-11-10 13:22:42

The main point was that the frequency does not allow to assume a regression.
There's still gonna be *something* that's different when this occurs - suspend or hibernation cycles? Low or full battery charge? Some external device being used?

Finding that pattern will be key to addressing this - tedious as it sounds

besstsoft@gmail.com · 2026-11-10 14:06:33

seth wrote:

The main point was that the frequency does not allow to assume a regression.
There's still gonna be *something* that's different when this occurs - suspend or hibernation cycles? Low or full battery charge? Some external device being used?
Finding that pattern will be key to addressing this - tedious as it sounds

I followed your suggestion and removed the additional kernel parameters. My current `/etc/default/limine` configuration now looks like this:

MAX_SNAPSHOT_ENTRIES=10
KERNEL_CMDLINE[default]+=root=PARTUUID=4a94c7ce-f378-4b0d-9ed9-1e026506aa3b zswap.enabled=0 rootflags=subvol=@ rw rootfstype=btrfs quiet

One positive thing I've noticed so far is that the laptop seems to boot and shut down a little faster.

Regarding the circumstances in which the issue occurs, previously I experienced it while the laptop was plugged into AC power. Yesterday, however, it happened while running on battery power.

Honestly, I haven't been able to find any pattern or regularity. After creating this forum thread, I was shutting down the laptop almost every 30 minutes, trying to reproduce the issue, but it simply wouldn't happen. At some point, I even thought the problem had somehow resolved itself.

There is another interesting detail: I have a second ASUS laptop, also running Arch Linux with Limine. It uses the default kernel parameters without any additional tweaks. Its hardware is quite different: an Intel Core i5 processor, 4 GB of RAM, and an HDD. It runs XFCE, whereas my main laptop uses KDE Plasma.

Interestingly, the same shutdown issue occurred on that laptop twice within approximately two weeks.

So far, I haven't found any clear connection to the desktop environment, power source, or kernel parameters.

besstsoft@gmail.com · 2026-11-10 14:09:57

Sometimes I even think about switching to Ubuntu, but honestly, I've become so attached to Arch Linux that I don't really want to leave it. I like it so much that I install it everywhere and even recommend it to my friends.

But seriously, I think switching to another distribution might not necessarily solve this problem. I suspect I could run into similar issues on Ubuntu or Fedora as well.

I'd rather understand what's causing the problem and find a proper solution than simply switch distributions.

seth · 2026-11-10 14:48:15

If it's the ACPI, switching distros won't do anything.

Interestingly, the same shutdown issue occurred on that laptop twice within approximately two weeks.

Around the same time or just w/ the same frequency?
But the frequency alone (which does not seem to relate to reboot counts b/c of "hutting down the laptop almost every 30 minutes") indicates that there must be some external condition pattern.
Are the systems in the same LAN?

On a formal note, please don't bump - edit your previous post to mend it if nobody has yet replied.

besstsoft@gmail.com · 2026-11-10 15:50:11

seth wrote:

If it's the ACPI, switching distros won't do anything.
Interestingly, the same shutdown issue occurred on that laptop twice within approximately two weeks.
Around the same time or just w/ the same frequency?
But the frequency alone (which does not seem to relate to reboot counts b/c of "hutting down the laptop almost every 30 minutes") indicates that there must be some external condition pattern.
Are the systems in the same LAN?
On a formal note, please don't bump - edit your previous post to mend it if nobody has yet replied.

Yes, both laptops are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

The only things they have in common are that they are both ASUS laptops (manufactured around 2018–2020), both run Arch Linux with Limine and kernel 7.x.

However, there are some differences:
- My main laptop is regularly updated, while I rarely update the second one.
- My main laptop uses KDE Plasma, while the second one uses XFCE.
- They have different hardware configurations.

I also started wondering whether I'm missing something in the ASUS-specific configuration.

I came across these two ArchWiki articles:

Laptop/ASUS

ACPI modules

I've read through them, but I'm not sure whether I should configure or enable any additional ACPI modules for my laptops.

The second article seems to focus mainly on ACPI modules and troubleshooting, with a separate section about boot-looping issues. I couldn't find anything specifically related to shutdown problems there.

seth · 2026-11-10 20:10:11

The biggest factor here is the intermittency.
If there was a problem w/ a module or a bug in the kernel etc. this would be a consistent issue.

seth wrote:

[Did the failures happen] Around the same time or just w/ the same frequency?

Are those boots maybe generally slower? Maybe some watchdog times out?
Can you post or upload the complete journal of one of the boots w/ a failing shutdown?
eg.

sudo journalctl -b -3 | nc termbin.com 9999

(-3 for 3 boots ago)

besstsoft@gmail.com · Yesterday 06:39:43

seth wrote:

The biggest factor here is the intermittency.
If there was a problem w/ a module or a bug in the kernel etc. this would be a consistent issue.
seth wrote:
[Did the failures happen] Around the same time or just w/ the same frequency?
Are those boots maybe generally slower? Maybe some watchdog times out?
Can you post or upload the complete journal of one of the boots w/ a failing shutdown?
eg.
sudo journalctl -b -3 | nc termbin.com 9999
(-3 for 3 boots ago)

I found the journal from the boot session during which the shutdown problem occurred on November 9, at approximately 21:50.

I've uploaded the journal here:

https://termbin.com/7iw4/

From a quick look, systemd appears to shut down KDE Plasma and most system services normally. The last recorded messages show that it started unmounting filesystems, but the journal ends there.

I couldn't find any obvious ACPI errors or watchdog timeouts in the log.

I'm not sure if this is enough to identify the problem, but hopefully the full journal will be useful for further investigation.

Last edited by besstsoft@gmail.com (Yesterday 07:04:53)

seth · Yesterday 08:20:19

The upload ends abruptly during your login in line 6255, possibly quota'd (there's plenty spam from nordvpn and drkonqi cause baloo crashes a lot, 3k lines are just baloo crashes - you might want to clean that up regardless)
You'll have to find some other upload location resp. maybe just compress the file (likely 1:10 or better)

besstsoft@gmail.com · Yesterday 11:05:35

seth wrote:

The upload ends abruptly during your login in line 6255, possibly quota'd (there's plenty spam from nordvpn and drkonqi cause baloo crashes a lot, 3k lines are just baloo crashes - you might want to clean that up regardless)
You'll have to find some other upload location resp. maybe just compress the file (likely 1:10 or better)

I've uploaded the compressed journal from the boot session when the shutdown problem occurred to Google Drive. Hopefully, the complete log will be useful for further investigation.

Could you also explain what exactly Baloo is, why it might be crashing so frequently, and how I can troubleshoot or fix these issues?

Thanks for your help!

Google Drive

seth · Yesterday 15:44:59

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Baloo

лис 09 20:00:12 AsusX510UF limine-snapper-sync[11125]: Snapshot limit mismatch: 16 Snapper snapshots exceed configured MAX_SNAPSHOT_ENTRIES=10
лис 09 20:00:12 AsusX510UF limine-snapper-sync[11137]: Snapshot limit mismatch: 16 Snapper snapshots exceed configured MAX_SNAPSHOT_ENTRIES=10
лис 09 20:00:12 AsusX510UF limine-snapper-sync[11125]: To remove this warning, increase MAX_SNAPSHOT_ENTRIES or lower the Snapper limit.
лис 09 20:00:16 AsusX510UF limine-snapper-sync[11125]: Updated: /boot/limine.conf

does this happen every boot (even when the shutdown succeeds)?

Does the other system also use NM+iwd(+NordVPN)?

лис 09 21:50:36 AsusX510UF systemd[1]: Started Show Plymouth Power Off Screen.

Do you use that on both systems?

seth, couple of times wrote:

[Did the failures happen] Around the same time or just w/ the same frequency?

besstsoft@gmail.com · Yesterday 16:21:34

seth wrote:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Baloo
лис 09 20:00:12 AsusX510UF limine-snapper-sync[11125]: Snapshot limit mismatch: 16 Snapper snapshots exceed configured MAX_SNAPSHOT_ENTRIES=10
лис 09 20:00:12 AsusX510UF limine-snapper-sync[11137]: Snapshot limit mismatch: 16 Snapper snapshots exceed configured MAX_SNAPSHOT_ENTRIES=10
лис 09 20:00:12 AsusX510UF limine-snapper-sync[11125]: To remove this warning, increase MAX_SNAPSHOT_ENTRIES or lower the Snapper limit.
лис 09 20:00:16 AsusX510UF limine-snapper-sync[11125]: Updated: /boot/limine.conf
does this happen every boot (even when the shutdown succeeds)?
Does the other system also use NM+iwd(+NordVPN)?
лис 09 21:50:36 AsusX510UF systemd[1]: Started Show Plymouth Power Off Screen.
Do you use that on both systems?
seth, couple of times wrote:
[Did the failures happen] Around the same time or just w/ the same frequency?

On the second laptop, which runs XFCE, I use the standard NetworkManager configuration. NordVPN is not installed there.

I use Plymouth only on my main laptop (ASUS VivoBook with KDE Plasma). The second laptop with XFCE does not have Plymouth installed.

Regarding the freezes, if I remember correctly, they may have happened about a day apart, but I'm not entirely sure. I haven't noticed a consistent pattern.

Do you suspect that the issue could be related to NetworkManager using iwd as its Wi-Fi backend?

Would you recommend switching to the default NetworkManager + wpa_supplicant configuration to see if it makes any difference?

When installing Arch Linux with archinstall, I selected iwd because I thought it was the default option. As far as I remember, there were also other networking options available, but I'm not entirely sure which ones.

Do you think it would be worth testing wpa_supplicant instead of iwd?

One more detail: sometimes the shutdown process takes unusually long.

If I press Esc during shutdown to display the Plymouth logs, I occasionally notice that the NordVPN daemon takes around 30 seconds to stop. However, this does not happen every time; it is quite rare.

I'm not sure if this is related to the shutdown freezes, but I thought it might be useful information.

Last edited by besstsoft@gmail.com (Yesterday 17:17:52)

seth · Yesterday 19:16:51

Do you suspect that the issue could be related to NetworkManager using iwd as its Wi-Fi backend?

I could imagine it being related to the wifi NIC not being released (because that ties into the active sleep on windows and is generally sensitive to ACPI shenanigans) - the two week frequency could mean that it relates to something that changes on the other end of the connection (notably if this happens in lockstep)
You *might* be able to side-step that w/ wpa_supplicant (which is still the default NM backend) - or by trying to remember to always disconnect well before the shutdown

besstsoft@gmail.com · Yesterday 20:04:39

seth wrote:

Do you suspect that the issue could be related to NetworkManager using iwd as its Wi-Fi backend?
I could imagine it being related to the wifi NIC not being released (because that ties into the active sleep on windows and is generally sensitive to ACPI shenanigans) - the two week frequency could mean that it relates to something that changes on the other end of the connection (notably if this happens in lockstep)
You *might* be able to side-step that w/ wpa_supplicant (which is still the default NM backend) - or by trying to remember to always disconnect well before the shutdown

Is it difficult to switch from iwd to wpa_supplicant? Is it relatively straightforward to change the NetworkManager backend without breaking the current network configuration?

One more thing: my second laptop, which runs XFCE, already uses wpa_supplicant. So far, I haven't noticed the same shutdown issue there.

Could this be another indication that iwd might be involved in the problem?

seth · Yesterday 20:08:05

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Networ … Fi_backend

my second laptop, which runs XFCE, already uses wpa_supplicant. So far, I haven't noticed the same shutdown issue there

Is that a 3rd system? I thought we had this w/ two systems?

Could this be another indication that iwd might be involved in the problem?

I guess there's only one way to figure

besstsoft@gmail.com · Yesterday 20:43:23

seth wrote:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Networ … Fi_backend
my second laptop, which runs XFCE, already uses wpa_supplicant. So far, I haven't noticed the same shutdown issue there
Is that a 3rd system? I thought we had this w/ two systems?
Could this be another indication that iwd might be involved in the problem?
I guess there's only one way to figure

Sorry, I didn't explain that correctly. The second laptop also has the shutdown issue, but it uses wpa_supplicant instead of iwd.

So, both laptops experience shutdown problems, but they use different Wi-Fi backends.

The first laptop (ASUS VivoBook with KDE Plasma) uses iwd, while the second laptop with XFCE uses wpa_supplicant.

Arch Linux

#26 2026-11-10 13:22:42

Re: The laptop doesn't turn off every other time

#27 2026-11-10 14:06:33

Re: The laptop doesn't turn off every other time

#28 2026-11-10 14:09:57

Re: The laptop doesn't turn off every other time

#29 2026-11-10 14:48:15

Re: The laptop doesn't turn off every other time

#30 2026-11-10 15:50:11

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#31 2026-11-10 20:10:11

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#32 Yesterday 06:39:43

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#33 Yesterday 08:20:19

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#34 Yesterday 11:05:35

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#35 Yesterday 15:44:59

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#36 Yesterday 16:21:34

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#37 Yesterday 19:16:51

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#38 Yesterday 20:04:39

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