I'm running KDE Neon User Edition 5.10 (Plasma 5.10.5) on two different laptops. On just one of the laptops, the computer freezes during reboot or shut down. In either case, KDE seems to shut down properly, and it goes to the typical black screen with the KDE Neon logo and the spinning circle beneath. Suddenly I hear the hard drive stop spinning, as it would do when shutting down, but the screen freezes on that black screen with the KDE Neon logo, and the spinning circle stops spinning, and the computer never powers off to completely shut down or cycles if it is a reboot. At this point I have to hold the power button down to fully shut down. It is an old Toshiba Satellite A215 with an AMD Turion 64 x2 Mobile CPU and 2 gigs of RAM.

1. Are there log files that I could look at to tell why it doesn't finish shutting down?
2. Any other ideas of what I could do to fix this issue?

Check if You are doing a 'halt' instead of 'reboot' or 'poweroff'.

Check 'journalctl -b …'

NoNameNoBlame wrote:Check if You are doing a 'halt' instead of 'reboot' or 'poweroff'.
Check 'journalctl -b …'

This command only seems to include the information from the last boot up until the point in which you send the command, so it doesn't seem to capture the shut down or reboot process. I just did a shut down and reboot, but the log file that it showed started from the moment of the reboot until the moment when I ran the command.

Is there a different flag that I should be using instead? I did output the info to a txt file so I could search it easily in Kate, but I didn't find an reference to "halt" "reboot" or "poweroff".

Example:

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# journalctl --list-boots

-1 88959e1cd9954720a0e55aa41947fb39 Sat 2017-08-26 08:52:56 CEST—Sat 2017-08-26 09:18:

 0 5a58fba146b54bbdbbd155358798e3f4 Sat 2017-08-26 09:19:04 CEST—Sat 2017-08-26 09:20:


# journalctl -b -1 | tail -n 7

Aug 26 09:18:08 debian systemd[1]: Starting Reboot...

Aug 26 09:18:08 debian systemd[1]: Shutting down.

Aug 26 09:18:08 debian systemd[1]: Hardware watchdog 'NV_TCO', version 0

Aug 26 09:18:08 debian systemd[1]: Failed to set timeout to 600s: Invalid argument

Aug 26 09:18:08 debian kernel: systemd-shutdow: 23 output lines suppressed due to ratelimiting

Aug 26 09:18:09 debian systemd-shutdown[1]: Sending SIGTERM to remaining processes...

Aug 26 09:18:09 debian systemd-journald[251]: Journal stopped


Wow, NoNameNoBlame,
When I ran the command,

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# journalctl --list-boots

it was only listing one boot log, the current boot that I was working under. Apparently, the journal was being erased with each reboot. But I found some documentation and finally got the following from the last time I attempted to reboot this machine:

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$ journalctl -b -1 | tail -n 8
Aug 29 17:16:11 stpaul-A215 systemd[1]: Stopped Remount Root and Kernel File Systems.
Aug 29 17:16:11 stpaul-A215 systemd[1]: Reached target Shutdown.
Aug 29 17:16:11 stpaul-A215 systemd[1]: Reached target Final Step.
Aug 29 17:16:11 stpaul-A215 systemd[1]: Starting Reboot...
Aug 29 17:16:11 stpaul-A215 systemd[1]: Shutting down.
Aug 29 17:16:12 stpaul-A215 kernel: systemd-shutdow: 38 output lines suppressed due to ratelimiting
Aug 29 17:16:12 stpaul-A215 systemd-shutdown[1]: Sending SIGTERM to remaining processes...
Aug 29 17:16:12 stpaul-A215 systemd-journald[307]: Journal stopped


Originally, you asked if it was "halting" or "rebooting" or "shutting down." To "reboot" this last time I used the KDE menu to select "reboot", and if I'm reading this log file correctly, it did attempt to "Reboot". However, as happens every time I attempt to reboot or shutdown using KDE menu or even the shutdown command from a terminal KDE closes, I get the black screen with the KDE Neon logo and the circular spinning animation below it, I hear the hard drive stop spinning, and I see the hard drive indicator light stop blinking, and then that black screen freezes and the laptop never finishes its shutdown or never reboots either. I have to physically press the power button and hold it for about 5 seconds to turn off all the power. Does this log file tell you anything that might indicate why it never finishes with the shutdown?

First, I'd suggest something else:

Logout from KDE Plasma back to Login-Screen.
Then, Press Control-Alternate-Function3.
Then, login into text terminal.
Then, do:
sudo systemctl poweroff

This should definitely power off Your computer.
Does it? Or doesn't it?

NoNameNoBlame wrote:First, I'd suggest something else:

Logout from KDE Plasma back to Login-Screen.
Then, Press Control-Alternate-Function3.
Then, login into text terminal.
Then, do:
sudo systemctl poweroff

This should definitely power off Your computer.
Does it? Or doesn't it?

I followed these steps, but it was the same result. The system froze on the same screen as before. So, no, it did not power off the computer. Any other ideas?

1/2) Did You install this?

toshset/xenial,now 1.76-4 amd64 [installed]
Access much of the Toshiba laptop hardware interface

2/2) Did You do this?

$ ubuntu-drivers --help
usage: ubuntu-drivers [-h] [--package-list PATH] <command>

List/install driver packages for Ubuntu.

positional arguments:
<command> See below

optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--package-list PATH Create file with list of installed packages (in
autoinstall mode)

Available commands:
debug: Print all available information and debug data about drivers.
devices: Show all devices which need drivers, and which packages apply to them.
list: Show all driver packages which apply to the current system.
autoinstall: Install drivers that are appropriate for automatic installation.

Also, this exists:

amd64-microcode/xenial 2.20160316.1 amd64
Processor microcode firmware for AMD CPUs

# Last Hint:
Look at manufacturer's site for
last update of laptop's firmware.

Do you get the same result of you type "sudopower off" in a terminal?
Also you may want to install and try an older previous Kernel, or even install the LTS version, and see it that works any better.
What graphic card you're using?

1/3) "power off" doesn't exist. It's "poweroff".

2/3) "poweroff" is the same as "systemctl poweroff".
This was tried, already. We could have also tried "shutdown -h now".
It's all the same.

3/3) The original poster seems to have a driver/acpi/firmware problem.

Maybe, it would be a good idea to deinstall plymouth.
Then, the original poster could see the last kernel messages
immediately on his screen. Even if they don't appear in the
journal's log because it's closed before, already.

I believe I am having the same problem as you, although I run Xubuntu 18.04 and Xubuntu 18.10 on a Toshiba Satellite A215-S4697. It is an old computer. I don't have the problem on my newer Acer computer. Here are some of the Ubuntu forum posts I have done, and some references:
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2403109
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2403058
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php ... 40&page=22
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... mments=all (post 3)
https://www.queryxchange.com/q/3_108052 ... r-restart/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums ... eak-my-pc/
As is noted in my posts I think the problem is due to fixes for the Meltdown and Spectre viruses. When I boot my Toshiba with an up to date kernel, I see "Machine Check" messages flash by. This tells me that the code being loaded into the Toshiba at boot time is completely incompatible with it. I haven't submitted a bug report (because I don't know how), but I probably should learn how. Anyway, I am interested in your problem and any ideas you have about solving it. I don't like running on an old kernel, and I don't like not having protection from Meltdown and Spectre now that everybody in the world knows about it, and could corrupt my system. Maybe you could add a comment to the bug report (above) in which I made a post.

Thank you