Can't shut down computer [SOLVED]

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otdrne · #1 Post by **otdrne** » Tue 03 Nov 2009, 20:23

Hi all. I'm fairly new to Linux, used xubuntu for a month and now I just installed puppy on my old computer and by the first look I love it, but I have a couple of problems.

First I can't shut down my computer. When I try to I get just a black screen saying:
mounted directly, session already saved.
The system is going down now
Sent SIGTERM to all processes
Sent SIGKILL to all processes
Requesting system poweroff
System halted

That's all and it stays on and I can't even shut it by pressing the button, I have to interrupt the power

Second problem is less important, when using Skype other people can't hear me, I have to keep the microphone really close to my lips and speak out loud.

DM was on fire! · #2 Post by **DM was on fire!** » Tue 03 Nov 2009, 20:26

Although I can't help you with the main topic at hand, I can help with the latter.

Go into AlsaMixer and turn the microphone volume up all the way, and turn the boost on (by pressing the M button) if needed. :

Wheres One · #3 Post by **Wheres One** » Tue 03 Nov 2009, 21:59

I've encountered this problem before; the ACPI on Dell machines is supposed to be weird, or so I've heard, which leads to your problem. In order to correct it, go to /mnt/home/boot/grub if you're in a frugal install or /boot/grub if you're in a full install. From there, open the configuration file "menu.lst" and make the following additions, which will be in red:

# Linux bootable partition config begins
title Puppy Linux 430 frugal
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
kernel /puppy430/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=puppy430 nosmp acpi=force
initrd /puppy430/initrd.gz
# Linux bootable partition config ends

In order to see if this worked, shutdown your machine, reboot, and shutdown again; it will not work the first time around. If it worked, you should not have to press the power button to turn off your machine. If it didn't work, reomve the above additions and add the following:

# Linux bootable partition config begins
title Puppy Linux 430 frugal
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
kernel /puppy430/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=puppy430 nosmp acpi=off
initrd /puppy430/initrd.gz
# Linux bootable partition config ends

Repeat the above process for testing.

Hope this helps,

Wheres One

designengineer · #4 Post by **designengineer** » Wed 04 Nov 2009, 02:22

Thanks. This worked like a charm.

Wheres One · #5 Post by **Wheres One** » Wed 04 Nov 2009, 02:30

@designengineer:

Glad to be of help.

Hope you're enjoying Puppy,

Wheres One

otdrne · #6 Post by **otdrne** » Wed 04 Nov 2009, 19:25

It's not solved, it didn't solve the problem for me (I opened the thread) it was some other guy who found it useful. My computer actually after that couldn't boot at all, had to reinstall Puppy. I don't use a Dell.

Wheres One · #7 Post by **Wheres One** » Wed 04 Nov 2009, 22:44

Sorry, that's what I get for not reading posts fully.

Did you add only the items in red, and as they appeared in the previous post? Which one did you try? If your system won't boot after one of them, you don't have to reinstall; just go in from the liveCD and remove the addition in menu.lst.

If you've tried both, you might want to try acpi=on, saw this mentioned in another post. Also, I read a post that said that ACPI can be turned on or off from within the BIOS; might want to take a look at that, not sure if it will apply to your's, though. Lastly, how old is your machine? Some older machines can be especially cranky when it comes to ACPI.

Sorry I wasn't paying attention,

Wheres One

EDIT: If you would provide the make and model of your machine, I would be glad to do a little research on it and its implications with ACPI.

davids45 · #8 Post by **davids45** » Wed 04 Nov 2009, 23:11

G'day otdrne,

Try this option -

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=46934

In some Pups, it's now on line 249 of rc.sysinit that the power_off=1 has to be added.
And once you've saved the modified rc.sysinit, you need to re-boot to see if this change works. I have to boot with acpi=off as well or these Pups wont even run on the affected computer.

This partial shut-down problem seems common to newer kernels but the fixes are probably very hardware related.

David S.

otdrne · #9 Post by **otdrne** » Sat 07 Nov 2009, 12:36

Sorry I haven't written but I haven't been home for a couple of days so I couldn't test your advice.
It turns out that the fact that I couldn't boot after the change in the menu.lst must have been a coincidence because it happened again, out of the sudden, without me having made a change at all, I had just browsed the Internet and I had no problem previously, booted all right several times.

So now I've installed puppy for a third time applied the change "acpi=force" to the menu.lst and it shut down perfectly so thanks very much for your help and patience, this can be marked as solved.
In case you're still interested on the brand of the computer, no known model to you, I purchased it in a local supplier (I live in Albania so a tiny scale computer shop) which bought the parts and assembled them locally.
As for the problem with the mic it's still low though the boosting helped somewhat, however it's usable.

I'll open an other thread if I won't be able to load again, but just in case someone has a ready answer, it stops after loading kernel modules, swap partitions, usb, recognising optical devices etc right at the point where it normally says "this script will run X windows for you" all I get is # and nothing happens.

#10 Post by **BÃ©Ã¨m** » Sat 07 Nov 2009, 15:39

Good, but you have to mark is as [SOLVED] yourself by editing the subject line of your initial post.

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Can't shut down computer [SOLVED]

Can't shut down computer [SOLVED]