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wayezkhan

Member

Registered: 2026-07-20

Posts: 2

Scheduled shutdown (sudo shutdown +10) hangs on black screen with syst

Hello everyone,

I would like to report an issue I am experiencing with scheduled shutdowns on MX Linux and find out whether this is a known problem or if there is a solution.

When I run the following command:

sudo shutdown +10

the command executes successfully without any errors.

However, when the scheduled shutdown time is reached, the system does not power off properly. Instead, it stops on a black screen displaying multiple system messages, and the computer never completes the shutdown. At that point, the only way to turn it off is to hold the power button.

I have tested this multiple times, and the behavior is consistent.

**Expected behavior:**

* The system should perform a normal shutdown and power off automatically after the scheduled time.

**Actual behavior:**

* The shutdown process starts, but the system hangs on a black screen with several system messages and never powers off.

Could anyone let me know:

1. Is this a known issue with MX Linux?
2. Has anyone experienced similar behavior with scheduled shutdowns?
3. Which logs should I collect to help identify what is preventing the system from shutting down completely?
4. Are there any debugging steps or additional information that would help diagnose this issue?

If needed, I can provide my MX Linux version, kernel version, desktop environment, hardware details, and any relevant log files.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

eriefisher

Wanderer

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 988

Re: Scheduled shutdown (sudo shutdown +10) hangs on black screen with syst

Hello everyone,

I would like to report an issue I am experiencing with scheduled shutdowns on MX Linux and find out whether this is a known problem or if there is a solution.

When I run the following command:

sudo shutdown +10

the command executes successfully without any errors.

However, when the scheduled shutdown time is reached, the system does not power off properly. Instead, it stops on a black screen displaying multiple system messages, and the computer never completes the shutdown. At that point, the only way to turn it off is to hold the power button.

I have tested this multiple times, and the behavior is consistent.

**Expected behavior:**

* The system should perform a normal shutdown and power off automatically after the scheduled time.

**Actual behavior:**

* The shutdown process starts, but the system hangs on a black screen with several system messages and never powers off.

Does it work without the +10?
Does

poweroff

work?
I suspect an acpi issue have you booted with "noacpi" option to test?

Could anyone let me know:

1. Is this a known issue with MX Linux?
2. Has anyone experienced similar behavior with scheduled shutdowns?
3. Which logs should I collect to help identify what is preventing the system from shutting down completely?
4. Are there any debugging steps or additional information that would help diagnose this issue?

If needed, I can provide my MX Linux version, kernel version, desktop environment, hardware details, and any relevant log files.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

You would have to ask over at the MX forums for specific questions.

---

But it's all right, when you're all in pain and you feel the rain come down
It's alright, when you find your way, then you see it disappear
It's alright....
Chris Cornell

wayezkhan

Member

Registered: 2026-07-20

Posts: 2

Re: Scheduled shutdown (sudo shutdown +10) hangs on black screen with syst

Thank you for your suggestions.

I performed some additional testing based on your recommendations.

Here are my observations:

- `sudo shutdown now` performs a normal shutdown and powers the system off successfully.
- `poweroff` also works correctly.
- The issue occurs only when I schedule a shutdown using a delay, for example:

    sudo shutdown +1

When the scheduled time expires, the system does not power off. Instead, it switches to maintenance (single-user) mode and displays messages similar to:

    The system is going DOWN to maintenance mode NOW!
    INIT: Switching to runlevel: 1
    ...
    Enter root password for system maintenance
    (or press Control-D to continue):

So, rather than performing a normal shutdown, it appears to be entering runlevel 1 (maintenance mode) instead of runlevel 0 (power off).

This doesn't seem to be the expected behavior for `shutdown +1`, as I would expect it to perform a normal shutdown after the specified delay.

I was initially under the impression that the system was hanging during shutdown, but after observing the console output more carefully, it appears to be entering maintenance mode and waiting for input.

Does this indicate that the `shutdown` command is somehow being interpreted incorrectly, or could there be an issue with my SysVinit/MX Linux configuration?

If it would help with troubleshooting, I'm happy to provide the output of commands such as:

- type shutdown
- which shutdown
- readlink -f $(which shutdown)
- shutdown --help

or any other logs or configuration files that would be useful.

Thank you again for your time and assistance.

gogogadget

Member

From: EU

Registered: 2023-03-19

Posts: 60

Re: Scheduled shutdown (sudo shutdown +10) hangs on black screen with syst

Hello,

I was initially under the impression that the system was hanging during shutdown, but after observing the console output more carefully, it appears to be entering maintenance mode and waiting for input.

According to the shutdown man page, switching to single-user mode is normal for SysVinit :

COMPATIBILITY
     The shutdown command in previous init systems (including sysvinit) defaulted to single-user mode  instead
     of powering off the machine. To change into single-user mode, use systemctl rescue instead.

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EndeavourOS
Xfce+gtk3-classic (no CSD)+Picom