Shutdown and Restart aren't working correctly

[borg101]

I'm currently using 18.2 with Cinnamon DE. For some reason when I press shutdown and/or restart, it functions intermittently. For instance, last night I clicked shutdown and nothing happened. I waited 30 seconds to a minute. Still nothing. So I pressed it again. Same thing. I tried restart, that didn't work either. The weird thing is, sometimes it functions as normal. I'm new to the troubleshooting side of Linux, so I'd appreciate any suggestions on where to start looking to fix the problem. Thanks

[JoeFootball]

When this behavior occurs, can it be shutdown via the command prompt?

Code: Select all

sudo shutdown -P now

Joe

[borg101]

When this behavior occurs, can it be shutdown via the command prompt?

Code: Select all

sudo shutdown -P now

Joe

Joe, that worked. Buttons still don't work though. Any thoughts as to why? They don't seem to work at all now. I haven't changed my setup or done any updates.

[JoeFootball]

Joe, that worked. Buttons still don't work though.

Good, that narrows things down at least. To me, it sounds like Cinnamon is the culprit, and not shutdown itself or a hardware issue.

A quick search shows that you may not be the first to encounter this. See here and here for some examples to investigate.

Joe

[borg101]

Joe, that worked. Buttons still don't work though.

Good, that narrows things down at least. To me, it sounds like Cinnamon is the culprit, and not shutdown itself or a hardware issue.

A quick search shows that you may not be the first to encounter this. See here and here for some examples to investigate.

Joe

Thanks for the links. I tried some of these already. I combed through the list pretty good yesterday. Still no resolution. Thank you for all the help though. I appreciate it.

[borg101]

Joe, that worked. Buttons still don't work though.

Good, that narrows things down at least. To me, it sounds like Cinnamon is the culprit, and not shutdown itself or a hardware issue.

A quick search shows that you may not be the first to encounter this. See here and here for some examples to investigate.

Joe

Thanks for the links. I tried some of these already. I combed through the list pretty good yesterday. Still no resolution. Thank you for all the help though. I appreciate it.

[borg101]

I still haven't found a resolution to this after days of searching. Does anyone else have any tips?

[JoeFootball]

Does anyone else have any tips?

Given that you can shutdown via the command line, I think this is a Cinnamon issue. With that, you can try posting in the Cinnamon forum, where you may be able to find some lurkers who are more Cinnamon savvy. Make clear that you can shutdown in a terminal window, but not via the Cinnamon desktop, hence why you're posting there.

Otherwise, doing a fresh install is always an option to try, though certainly not always feasible for every situation. Speaking of which, is this currently a fresh install, or an upgrade to 18.2 from a previous version? (note that in your Cinnamon forum posting too).

Joe

[borg101]

Does anyone else have any tips?

Given that you can shutdown via the command line, I think this is a Cinnamon issue. With that, you can try posting in the Cinnamon forum, where you may be able to find some lurkers who are more Cinnamon savvy. Make clear that you can shutdown in a terminal window, but not via the Cinnamon desktop, hence why you're posting there.

Otherwise, doing a fresh install is always an option to try, though certainly not always feasible for every situation. Speaking of which, is this currently a fresh install, or an upgrade to 18.2 from a previous version? (note that in your Cinnamon forum posting too).

Joe

Thanks for all your help so far Joe. And yes, its a fresh install. All I have installed is steam, plex, openpht, and a handful of other applications that were installed from the software center. This problem didn't occur after any installation unfortunately.

[borg101]

Does anyone else have any tips?

Given that you can shutdown via the command line, I think this is a Cinnamon issue. With that, you can try posting in the Cinnamon forum, where you may be able to find some lurkers who are more Cinnamon savvy. Make clear that you can shutdown in a terminal window, but not via the Cinnamon desktop, hence why you're posting there.

Otherwise, doing a fresh install is always an option to try, though certainly not always feasible for every situation. Speaking of which, is this currently a fresh install, or an upgrade to 18.2 from a previous version? (note that in your Cinnamon forum posting too).

Joe

I posted in the Cinnamon forum per your recommendation and the post was removed.

[JoeFootball]

I posted in the Cinnamon forum per your recommendation and the post was removed.

That's disappointing. Perhaps one of the kind Moderators can move this thread to the Cinnamon topic, given that the behavior suggests that it's not an issue with shutdown itself, but with the Cinnamon interface for that functionality. Or perhaps someone else can demonstrate otherwise.

Joe

[borg101]

I posted in the Cinnamon forum per your recommendation and the post was removed.

That's disappointing. Perhaps one of the kind Moderators can move this thread to the Cinnamon topic, given that the behavior suggests that it's not an issue with shutdown itself, but with the Cinnamon interface for that functionality. Or perhaps someone else can demonstrate otherwise.

Joe

I already requested it be moved. It was my own fault as I know double posting is usually against most forums rules, but I didn't know I could request it be moved.

[jasdmando]

From my tests so far, Steam is the culprit. I'm running Sonya, also a fresh install, and noticed the same issue as borg101. When I try to shutdown or restart and Steam is still running in the background, nothing happens. If I exit Steam first, shutdown and restart work as expected. In the sessions that I don't happen to run Steam, shutdown and restart work as expected. Does that reflect your experience, borg101?

[borg101]

From my tests so far, Steam is the culprit. I'm running Sonya, also a fresh install, and noticed the same issue as borg101. When I try to shutdown or restart and Steam is still running in the background, nothing happens. If I exit Steam first, shutdown and restart work as expected. In the sessions that I don't happen to run Steam, shutdown and restart work as expected. Does that reflect your experience, borg101?

Now that you mention it, it does. I feel like a moron for not putting two and two together.

[VtvBreech]

Hello borg101, I believe what you are experiencing here is probably not an issue with either Cinnamon or Mint specifically. I've seen this behavior across many different distros and it usually relates back to systemd causing a delay if there are open applications running in the background. Sometimes it will shut the programs down normally and you won't experience the "hang" but other times systemd will actually start a timer (90 seconds by default IIRC) before it will force quit the program and proceed with the shutdown/reboot sequence. There have been bug reports filed for this but there seems to be some disagreement whether the problem is with systemd itself or the offending applications. Either way, you can exit out all your running applications before shutdown/restart or logout of your current session first and the problem should disappear.

[borg101]

Hello borg101, I believe what you are experiencing here is probably not an issue with either Cinnamon or Mint specifically. I've seen this behavior across many different distros and it usually relates back to systemd causing a delay if there are open applications running in the background. Sometimes it will shut the programs down normally and you won't experience the "hang" but other times systemd will actually start a timer (90 seconds by default IIRC) before it will force quit the program and proceed with the shutdown/reboot sequence. There have been bug reports filed for this but there seems to be some disagreement whether the problem is with systemd itself or the offending applications. Either way, you can exit out all your running applications before shutdown/restart or logout of your current session first and the problem should disappear.

Thanks for the response. It did appear that steam was indeed the culprit. After shutting it down, it works as normal. I would argue that the responsibility lies with Cinnamon and/or the OS as a force quit dialogue/option should be appearing, but that's just my two cents.

[Darktrax]

Most posts on this topic relate to Cinnamon.
I get the hang during shutdown from a Mint 18 Sarah install using Mate.

Steam? what is that? I don't think I have it.

Systemd? I am sure that is something we cannot live without, and given the description of it's function, is a very likely candidate for being responsible for all these stumbles in achieving boot-up and shutdown.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemd
It is also extremely complicated, and a user like me has zero chance of doing anything at all with it..

I expected that clicking on a "shutdown" button should be able to issue a terminal command, to force an unconditional shutdown, closing open files, and terminating processes. An interminable wait while looking at an unresponsive log-in screen in red on black is not good!
Given that I don't know what else to do - I just have to hold down the start button on the PC until it dies!

Did anyone get close to a "solved" situation with this?