Does anyone how how I can diagnose and fix this problem:
Sometimes, but not always, when shutting down the process does not actually complete and the computer does not turn off.
The screen turns off but the keyboard backlight is still responsive, the fan is still going and the power-on LED is lit. Because the screen is turned off I can’t interact graphically with the computer and have to just hold down the power button and do a hard reboot.
I haven’t tested it properly but I get the feeling it happens more often if I have been doing audio work.
Debian 13 GNOME 48 Intel Core Ultra 7 Laptop
When it happens, try pressing
Alt+SysRq(/PrtSc) +o. If that turns off your computer, then the kernel is still running and something is preventing shutdown; if it doesn’t, either SysRq is disabled, or ACPI is broken.I have had this issue with Hyprland in arch I could not for the life of me get it to shut down I had to just unplug It although It didn’t fix It when I halted (halt is what pressing power button by default does), I get power outages every week in Iran, so the chance of corruption is not astronomically higher
Switch to a TTY and do “sudo poweroff”. See what happens. I feel like this is more likely a systemd issue.
How do I do that? Bearing in mind the display is off when this happens.
I mean, give the shutdown command like this, not after already choosing it via menu. This way you may catch what’s wrong. Also, you can check the logs when you boot next time via
journalctl -b -1but to make it easier maybe this one should be more helpfuljournalctl -b -1 | grep -i shutdownI was also experiencing your same issue, just tried @muhyb@programming.dev’s recommendation, and my computer shut off completely as desired.
Edit: I also opened a terminal and “sudo poweroff” and “sudo shutdown now” both work, so for me, I didn’t need to switch to a TTY console.
I was also experiencing your same issue, just tried @muhyb@programming.dev’s recommendation, and my computer shut off completely as desired.
Which recommendation?
Switching to a TTY screen and doing the sudo poweroff command. In my testing, I also found that opening a terminal in the regular desktop environment also worked.
Pro ably some ACPI issues. Have you changed BIOS settings or anything else recently? Did it previously work fine?
Acpi is my guess too. Unfortunately that is sometimes an issue and difficult to correct
Not recently. When the laptop was new I had Fedora on it which was worse. Then I switched to Debian when Trixie came out and it’s been much better but still happens occasionally. Over time I have tried different settings in Coreboot though - perhaps I should reset everything there to defaults.
What’s the model of the laptop?
Star Labs Starbook mk7, ‘made for linux’, pas moins.
Have you updated the firmware recently? https://us.starlabs.systems/blogs/news/firmware-update-announcement-25-05
They’ve fixed a lot of ACPI and power issues with various models, including the mk7: https://github.com/StarLabsLtd/firmware/issues/139
Yes, I’ve updated to 25.06 which I think is the latest version. I was also having some issues with waking from suspend but they are fixed now I can manage the lid switch in Coreboot.
Try running
sudo shutdown -h nowand see if it still does the same thing.If so, try forcing ACPI actions like so and see what happens: https://askubuntu.com/questions/125844/shutdown-does-not-power-off-computer#127022
I know this an ACPI tables issue, but there’s a wide variety of debug steps to figure out which one.
I also have had this issue recently. The OS will be off, but the hardware itself (fan, lights, etc.) is still running
something with the DE I suspect. KDE will do the same thing. never had the issue with another compositor/WM but with KDE Plasma every now and again the exact same thing you’re experiencing would happen. shut down, something in Plasma is still going and same results as you.
I don’t think so. all user processes should be stopped in one way or another before the screen is turned off
