Why does my computer get stuck on the shut down screen?

Question

When I shut down my computer it always gets stucks on the shut down screen (where it displays the Ubuntu logo and the little dots). I tried to shut it down through shell, I checked the init. process, shell and everything. I can't find out where the problem is! I tried to shut down through terminal session and still the same problem.

I have to shut down with power button every single time. Anyone got a solution?

When the purple screen appears press down arrow key so that purple screen goes and console text appears, it shows the ongoing processes, can you do it and tell at what exact line does the shutdown gets struck? — kernel_panic, Mar 29 '12 at 15:41
Are you using fglrx? This has some incompatibilities with certain window managers that lead to a kernel panic at shutdown. If this is the case, you can try to use the open source drivers instead. — soulsource, Apr 03 '12 at 13:51
This question should instead be filed as a bug report, and as such is off-topic, thanks! Instructions on filing a bug report are here. — coversnail, May 10 '12 at 08:41

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 03 '12 at 13:48

I reliably have this problem with Xubuntu 11.10 on my Mac Pro. (And I have waited 10 minutes by the clock and it's still hung!) I have found that if I wait for about one complete cycle of the dots (sliding bar on Xubuntu), then hit the Escape key, it usually completes the shutdown at that point. If instead I get the console, I wait for it to say it's shutting down all processes and finally posts a message saying it will halt. Hitting Escape again after that message completes the shutdown (otherwise it hangs here "forever"). It's manual, but seems to work.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 03 '12 at 10:31

I had this problem with my Kubuntu 11.10 installation at one point. It turned out that it only occurred when I had my WiFi turned on (it was on a laptop). In the end, a KDE update solved the problem.

If you're using a laptop, you might want to try turning the WiFi off before shutting down, to see if that is the cause. If so, make sure you've installed any available updates, and maybe check your WiFi drivers. I also found that closing the GUI with Ctrl+Alt+Backspace when stuck and using the

sudo shutdown now

command made the computer shut down properly.

Why does my computer get stuck on the shut down screen?

2 Answers2