[Nottingham] Restarting my server

[Graeme Fowler]

On Sat, 25 Sep 2004, chris wrote:
> This might be a problem with ACPI or APM...
> what does "dmesg | grep ACPI" and "dmesg | grep APM" output ?
> also, what does "lsmod" say ?
> the computer WILL fail to power-down unless a power management kernel 
> module is loaded..

I might be opening myself up to a beating here (having consumed the best part 
of a decent Cabernet!) however...

My first experiences of a Linux installation were of the old MKLinux on a
PowerMac 6100. I can assure you that APM or ACPI weren't involved there, due
to the lack of a BIOS (as you might know it). Yet the machines involved
rebooted from the command line first time, every time. APM and ACPI not
involved at all - which could prove to be telling...

Subsequently, having been found out too many times by shonky motherboards
which aren't quite APM or ACPI compliant I have a tendency to set LILO or Grub
to boot with kernel options "noprobe" or "noacpi" where problems are
manifesting themselves. I also turn off APM - always - as I rarely install a
Linux machine which is intended to be turned off.

My long-running (and long-suffering!) server at home contains the following 
telltale in /var/log/dmesg:

[graeme at server graeme]$ egrep -i 'a(cpi|pm)' /var/log/dmesg
apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16)
apm: disabled - APM is not SMP safe.

...and apmd isn't running.

If I were you, I'd do one of the following:

1. make sure you have no power management daemons running or set to start 
after boot, and do a clean reboot (shutdown and power cycle)

2. set your bootloader kernel line to have the option "no acpi". And possibly 
"noapic noprobe", just to be double sure - it's always good to have a 
fallback, basic, emergency kernel (especially if you're in the habit of 
experimenting with hardware or CPU tweaks).

And then see what happens. It feels to me like this is a compatibility problem 
rather than anything else.

Graeme

PS. Before anyone comments on the "beating" line above... I have just
completed the installation of a new clustered/load balanced system for my
employer.  Whilst a minority of the system is running W2K3, at least 30 of the
installed systems are running FC2. Not a single one runs a power management
daemon - they all auto-load an acpi module (unless I set noprobe or noacpi),
but if I manually remove it (or reboot with it explicitly disabled via
bootloader or BIOS) they reboot fine. They have to - all the machines are in 
Docklands, and bugger the thought of a cold restart every time one of them 
needs a reboot :)