Shutdown fails when hwclock cannot be set

[Peter Lemieux]

Kubuntu 12.04.1

I have an older laptop with, I suspect, a failed or failing battery. When I shutdown or reboot the computer it hangs at the hwclock command in /etc/init/hwclock-save.conf. Apparently there is no timeout applied to this command. The system repeatedly keeps trying and failing to save the system time to the hardware clock so the shutdown process never completes.

I have solved the problem for myself by commenting out the appropriate command in /etc/init/hwclock-save.conf. I diagnosed the problem by switching to another tty and observing the shutdown sequence hang at the hwclock command. However a less experienced user would wonder why the shutdown splash screen continues to be displayed, but the computer never halts.

There should be some method for checking whether the command can be executed, or at least a time out applied so that it doesn't keep checking forever.

[Peter Lemieux (seijisensei)]

Obviously I mean the battery that runs the hardware clock, not the main battery in the laptop.

[Peter Lemieux (seijisensei)]

One more puzzle.... I can set the hardware clock manually from the command line as root with sudo. Nevertheless commenting out the appropriate command in /etc/init/hwclock-save.conf did solve the problem with the machine failing to shut down.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Michael Van Canneyt (7-michael-z)]

Same problem on Kubuntu 14.04, macbook pro hardware.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Ubuntu 15.04 and newer don't try and set the hw clock at shutdown any more.