I am not sure about this BeforeWisdom, but I can tell you, I think the Knoppix v3.2 I have has something...

When I select the Logout Knoppix from the K Menu, I get my original boot screen, still intact, with all the shutdown messages, Sending Term Signal and Sending Halt Signal, and when I press [return] after the CD pops out, my Hard Drives all spin down.

I don't know how Knoppix is doing it, because I have APM disabled in my BIOS. Having Win98, I didn't want Windows to play with power management, this included the Video monitor power down and the Hard Drive spin downs. Windows refused to keep from doing this, even when I disabled PM within Win98 settings, so the conclusion was to disable PM before Windows ever got to it. That way Windows doesn't see that it is even an option. I never got around to enabling it for Knoppix.

Does that help? Or am I just spewing out gibberish (as usual?)
Cuddles