chronic "powerd: shutdown execution failed" problem on U10
Greetings,
My U10 w/333 MHz CPU running Sid and kernel 2.4.18 or 2.4.21 likes to
power itself off. This happens in bursts. Trying to restart right
after it powers off leads to the subject message during boot and usually
an automatic shutdown.
I am able to boot into the system by booting single-user and using
init=/bin/sh . Sometimes by touching /var/run/shutdown.pid I could get
the box to restart and run for a couple of days before the next bout of
shutdown-osis.
The temporary cure is to rename /usr/bin/shutdown to something else so
the kernel cannot actually shut down the system. There does not appear
to be a kernel parameter to disable powerd. With the shutdown binary
hidden, the subject message appears thousands of times per day in the
syslog including when the system is largely idle. Yesterday between
14:33 - 16:27 there were around 4000 attempts to shut down. Nothing
between boot at 07:00 and 14:33, nothing after 16:27. The prior
blizzard of shutdown attempts was Aug 4 12:33 - 13:50 during uptime of
Aug 4 07:31 - to Aug 5 21:40.
There's nothing special about the shutdown periods from a load
standpoint. The box runs nfsd (user space), netatalkd, apache, imapd,
cups, and fetchmail as a home mail/file/printer server for one to three
clients. (One client minimally active partially during the latest
uptime.) It's router/NAT/firewalled off from the real world except for
fetchmail peeking out and an ssh tunnel allowed in.
I put the machine on a UPS (without a signal cable) to see if power
fluctuations could be a problem. The AC power blipped off at least
three times during the day today during storms -- the syslog noted three
reloads of a hotplug peripheral module (peripheral not on the UPS). My
wall clocks flashed me today but the UPS battery did its job for the
U10. There was no reboot and no attempted shutdown since 16:27
yesterday.
The box has one PCI card - a USB 1.1 port card (OHCI type). Sun
keyboard and mouse. Monitor is connected but powered off. USB printer
on the USB card, no printing in the last week.
Diagnosis hints?
-- tia, SP
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