Computer does not completely shut down

[bob58]

I have a COMPAQ presario 1247 [yuk!] That HAD to be liberated to a better OS, such as LINUX. It runs fine except it will not completely shut down when I log out. The display goes off but HDD is still spinnin'. I have to yank out battery or power cable to shut it off. I went into BIOS and disabled the power management. There is no option in the BIOS to shut down computer after OS closes. Any suggestions? bob

[lark]

OK, well looks like we have the same problem. There isn't any setting in my BIOS that fixes it, I've been through it MANY times and no help. Flashing the BIOS to the newest version didn't help. Really a shame as I've been EXTREMELY pleased with the OS, especially the ease of hardware config <NONE!> and the quality of the browser(s) etc. Oh well, I'll keep searching the Internet for a clue, if I find something I'll post it. Hoping you'll let me knowif you find something..

[lark]

Bob,

I did figure out that I can shut mine down by holding the power button in for 10 seconds. Not exactly a high-tech approach, but might help.

[bob58]

Thanks Lark, that sure solved the problem! As soon as I log off, when display finally goes dark I hold the power button down for about 5 seconds or so, and whole thing shuts right down! Thanks! bob[/quote]

[nmcphillips]

Would your respective machines shut down completely using Windows?

[bob58]

Yes, when WIN98 was on it, the computer would automatically just shut down. I looked in the BIOS but couldnt find anything that made reference to power shutdown adjustments....not realy sure what to look for but the bios in that thing does not have many options.

[lark]

Yes, When this PC ran with W98, it would shut itself down completely.

[garyng]

The power management function in linux is way behind Windows. Of course, in most case it is the problem of the motherboard vendor's problem in wrongfully interpret the spec(well that is what the linux kernel guys said) but still it is difficult to convince Joe users when Windows can handle them perfectly.

BTW, the pressing the power button for extended period of time is a 'hard reset' that is equivalent to pulling the power cord or the 'real power off' when there was no such thing as power management in the old PC days, just FYI.

[TheTempest]

the reason that windows is so far ahead of linux is because that windows had created a priproitray aproach to shutting down the computer. Linux programmers have been working on a way to reverse engineer this method and their work is what allows some people's computers to be completly shutdown via linux.

From what i hear though, its realted to APM BIOS...or something like that.

[garyng]

the reason that windows is so far ahead of linux is because that windows had created a priproitray aproach to shutting down the computer. Linux programmers have been working on a way to reverse engineer this method and their work is what allows some people's computers to be completly shutdown via linux.

From what i hear though, its realted to APM BIOS...or something like that.

I am not sure if I can agree with that. It is not propriotary(both ACPI and APM are open industry standard). The sad fact is, they are complex and sometimes ambigious so either the hardware vendor did it wrong or they may just follow Microsoft's interpretation(which may be closed and guarded as secret). Linux being a late comer has to painfully reverse engineer a propriotory interpretation by Microsoft on an open standard :-(

[Stephen]

Check in your /etc/modutils/apm and see if it looks similar to this.



>$ cat /etc/modutils/apm
alias char-major-10-134 apm
alias /dev/apm_bios /dev/misc/apm_bios
alias /dev/misc/apm_bios apm
# Added by me from knoppix

options apm power_off=1


Then make sure that the /dev/misc/apm_bios actually exists if not the you have to change to the /dev/misc directory and MAKEDEV -n apm as root to simulate the making of the device remove the -n to actually create it. Then you would have to run update-modules to have the new information entered into the /etc/modules.conf for use on the next boot. Now check in the /etc/lilo.conf and see if the append= line contains this option.


append="hdc=ide-scsi apm=on"


If not add it and then /sbin/lilo -v to write the changes to the disk now reboot and shutdown and see if it works. If it does not then you may have to add acpi=off in the append= line and run lilo again and try it once more. If none of this works then you will have to compile a new kernel and entirely leave out the acpi support and have just the apm as a module.