Score:0

My ubuntu 20.04 server can shutdown but not reboot, remotely

de flag

When I issue shutdown -h now it works as expected. The machine stops.

When I issue shutdown -r now or reboot the machine hangs in a pseudo-off state with the power light on but no network activity.

I have looked in /var/log/syslog and the shutdown appears to proceed identically. There are no vestiges of activity here for the accompanying boot up when reboot is commanded, only when I power up manually.

The machine is thin client with DVI only so I will need to find a monitor as I feel I have exhausted my log analysis skills.

I use last and can see my session ends when I issue the reboot command but nothing happens after that until I manually restart it. Similarly there is nothing in /var/log/kern.log between the reboot performing its power off and me coming along 10 minutes later to hold the power button and then reboot.

I tried a DVI to HDMI adapter but these repurposed thin clients can be very picky about what hardware they support. I'll have an answer today or tomorrow, if no one can powerup my log analysis.

waltinator avatar
it flag
Look at the shutdown logs. `sudo journalctl -b -1 -ex`. Read `man journalctl`.
de flag
`journalctl -b` lists boot logs. `last` shows that no activity occurred in the limbo in which I was stuck. Sounds like you've given me a recipe for more of the just the sort of horrible logs I was asking for? Dunno, `-ex` wasn't in the manual.
Score:0
sj flag

I believe I had the same problem. Updating the kernel to liquorix fixed the issue for me. https://liquorix.net/

After changing the kernel, you'll need to disable Secure Boot in the BIOS

de flag
It was a firmware issue. Re-saving the CMOS/UEFI settings created the boot entry in UEFI.
Score:0
de flag

Bit of a niche one but I fixed it.

Poked around in the BIOS with the HDMI adapter going, by extension, to my main monitor. The reduced RPi display wasn't having it.

I disabled audio, and num lock on boot, is all. I tried reverting boot options from legacy to UEFI but after I did it dumped me into some shell that wasn't linux so I reverted to legacy.

And that fixed it! I can now reboot both locally and remotely.

A bit of background

I set it up in a hurry last week and didn't bother replacing the partition table already on the cannibalised disk.

The Ubuntu installer alerted me to this and said I must* create an initial 512MB, W95 FAT32, boot partition. I was surprised that worked so stuck with it. Just one more nuance on already nuanced thin client hardware leveraging RPi efficiency in an x86 eco-system.


*must, because the apparently the partition table wouldn't work with a system with a UEFI system. This appears strange now because I just found the boot type had been set to legacy. I think the installer must have been guessing. I wasn't about to abort the installation to sniff around the BIOS/UEFI settings.

de flag
**Tl;dr** It was a firmware issue. Re-saving the CMOS/UEFI settings created the boot entry in UEFI.
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