power-off button and /etc/inittab

[Stuart Biggerstaff]

On ATX and a lot of proprietary architectures, hitting the power button 
sends a software command--but it is sent directly to the BIOS, not the 
OS.  However you might look at the power management options in the BIOS to 
see if any would be of use.  As Dennis said, all too often the 
software-controlled power-off button becomes non-functional if the 
operating system packs it in, so there might be some easy hack to power 
management.

One easy way around this would be to use a UPS and the associated shutdown 
software.  Yank power to the UPS and it tells the computer to do a proper 
shutdown, while providing the power to do so.


At 07:30 AM 10/24/02 -0600, Andrew Mathews wrote:
>m.w.chang wrote:
>>without attaching a keyboard to my server, I could press the power off 
>>button and expect the linux to gracefully run `poweroff -n`, just like
>>the Window$. ctrl-alt-del is just a different way of `shutdown -r now`
>>Just 2 days ago, I needed to shutdown my linux server in a hurry (fire in 
>>my building's ilft control room). well, still no life service until now 
>>for those living on the 20th floor. hoho...
>>
>>>Huh?  The power button isn't part of the keyboard, so no.  I dont' 
>>>understand what you're trying to do anyway.
>>
>
>If you can find a way to integrate the power switch into the operating 
>system it would work, however you're asking it to essentially do a 
>graceful shutdown *after* pulling the power cord from it. Kinda like 
>sending out an email to let everyone know the mail server is down. After 
>the fact is too late.
>
>--
>Andrew Mathews



Stuart Biggerstaff

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