Re: Power off Button

[Shawn Yarbrough <shawn@nailstorm.com>]

With an ATX computer (almost all new computers are ATX and have ATX
power supplies, ATX cases, and ATX mainboards) the power button is
connected to the mainboard instead of the power supply.  This gives the
operating system the ability to do things like sync the disks before the
power actually cuts off.

However, if the operating system is locked up, or misconfigured, or does
not support power management, then pressing the power button will have
no effect.  You will have to hold down the power button for 5 seconds to
instruct the mainboard to force power off without the approval of the
operating system.  The ATX standard defines this behavior and I believe
all ATX mainboards are supposed to support it.

But you don't want to have to hold down the power switch for five
seconds.  Try adding "apm=on" to your LILO config as somebody else
suggested.  If that doesn't work you may need to recompile your kernel
with APM support enabled.  Also look for power management options inside
the BIOS.



Shawn Yarbrough
shawn@nailstorm.com