Unable to switch on system after normal shutdown -> SOLVED

Mocho · Last edited by Mocho on Sat Sep 23, 2006 8:50 am; edited 3 times in total

Hi folks,

when I shutdown my amd64 gentoo system (see below for details) my PC halts normally. But right after shutdown I can't switch my computer on again by pressing the power button on the front side. Instead I do have to switch off the "master power I/O switch" on the back, wait about 10 seconds, switch it on again and my system boots up without any trouble (and without touching the front button). This happens both when using gentoo-sources or vanilla-sources (any version i tried).

However, after halting the system from WinXP or from Knoppix 3.6 (using kernel 2.6) my PC starts up normally when I press the front button which let me suspect that this has nothing to do with my BIOS.

I'd very much appreciate your help.

----------------------------------------
system details:

Fujitsu-Sienems Scaleo 600 A64:

Fujitsu-Siemens D1607 Mainboard (Via K8T800 (VT8237) chipset) with ADMtec AN983 10/100MBit Onboard LAN chip
Athlon 64 3200+ (1MB L2 cache)
1GB PC2700 DDR RAM from Infinion (2x512MB)
ATi Radeon 9600XT-4
300W Powersupply from Delta (200W combined power)
250GB harddrive from Maxtor 7200U/min 8MB Cache

running 2.6.17-r8 (gentoo-sources)

nanoczar · Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 9:33 pm Post subject:

I seem to remember having this problem when I first started with linux...back in the day. I think I solved it by making modifications to my kernel in the "Power management options" section. I believe I 'built-in' the following things to fix it...

---Power Management support
[*] Legacy Power Management API
ACPI Support ---->
[*] ACPI Support
APM BIOS Support ---->
[*] APM BIOS Support
[*] Make CPU Idle calls when idle

I have used the same kernel configuration for so long I can't remember...

Hope this helps.
-nanoczar
_________________
Don't fight the LaTeX. WORK with the LaTeX!! Become one with the LaTeX!!! - JIC

Mocho · Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:04 pm Post subject:

Thank you for this hint. Unfortunately I can't activate any of your kernel options mentioned (besides Legacy Power Management API) because those other options are not available in my menuconfig.

That's how my Power Management Support kernel section already looks like:

--- Power Management support
[*] Legacy Power Management API
[ ] Power Management Debug Support
ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Support --->
CPU Frequency scaling --->

Inside the ACPI subsection most options are set to module, but Fan, Processor, Thermal Zone and Debug Statements are enabled.

What else can I do?

nanoczar · Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:15 pm Post subject:

What kernel are you using? So there is no APM at all?
-nanoczar
_________________
Don't fight the LaTeX. WORK with the LaTeX!! Become one with the LaTeX!!! - JIC

Mocho · Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:48 pm Post subject:

I'm currently running kernel 2.6.17-r8 (gentoo-sources). And you're right -- there seems to be no APM at all -- at least not for me :roll:

nanoczar · Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 6:47 pm Post subject:

What commands do you use to shutdown your system? Do you execute, as root...

Mocho · Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 8:49 am Post subject:

Yes, I use "shutdown -h now" but tried various other commands without success, too.

As I booted Knoppix to check out its kernel config I saw the names of a few kernel modules which got loaded: ac, button, fan etc. When I read "button" I immediately booted gentoo and found out that I had compiled this feature as a module for years without even thinking of using it because in the kernel help it states that it was necessary for shutting down one's computer on pressing the power button only and nothing about the fact that the power button would be disabled even after shutdown if that kernel feature was disabled. I modprobed this module and voilá: after shutdown it booted nicely on pressing the power button on front of my machine.

So I really can't quite believe it until now that I didn't recognize this option for almost two years.

Thank you very much for pointing me at the solution. Not to say I will curse you when I'll get fat because I don't have to crawl under my desktop every time I want to switch on my box any longer. :wink:

nanoczar · Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 7:23 pm Post subject:

Ahhhhh. The hidden kernel option!

-nanoczar
_________________
Don't fight the LaTeX. WORK with the LaTeX!! Become one with the LaTeX!!! - JIC