reboot in jaunty doesn't restart from bios

[smurf]

since a couple of days when I restart my pc, the computer does not shutdown and restart from bios, it just restart the kernel.
I've tried with gnome dialog, I've tried from bash "sudo reboot", "sudo shutdown -r 0","sudo init 6". No way the system only restart only the kernel.
This happens in jaunty.

On another partition I have Intrepid and there I have no problem, the reboot works properly shutting down and restarting the machine from bios.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Thanks, but that's not a bug. If you want to restore the previous behaviour, please uninstall kexec-tools.

[smurf (luca-dgh)]

well, in this case I think that the bug should come-on because kexec-tools should ask if you want to restart from bios or from the same kernel.
It is not good that suddenly your computer change his behaviour without any advise.

... or you prefer that I open a new bug?

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

That's still not a bug. If you don't want the behaviour, uninstall kexec-tools or disable it in /etc/default/kexec.

[smurf (luca-dgh)]

well may be this is not bug, but I can assure to you that it costs to me about 3 days looking for a solution all over internet, asking in differents forums and reading pages and pages. My target was exactly don' t bother Ubuntu Team with some stupid and boring question about reboot. Finally I rested and wrote the bug and I got totally frustrated reading that there was a new tool responsible for this: "just uninstall it".
Definitely I'm not happy for this, yes I know that 80 % of users will never have more than one kernel on its computer so they will never see the problem, but I' m part of the remaining 20 % and seen that nobody could answer me in different forums I can think that there will be a lot of people disappointed for this.
But anyway I don't mind about all the rest of the world, I just mind for myself and after 5 years of Ubuntu this is the first time I'm definitely disappointed, just for the 3 days wasted.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

I don't understand what the problem is. kexec-tools is not installed by default, so if it is installed, then you installed it yourself or via a dependency of one of these packages:

linux-crashdump, makedumpfile

The package description for kexec-tools says: "This tool is used to load a kernel in memory and reboot into the kernel
loaded in memory using the kexec system call". So, the package that you have installed is performing it's primary function correctly, but you have a problem with that?

[smurf (luca-dgh)]

Yes I have a problem with that.
Probably you don't understand that I'm not complaining if kexec-tools works or not, I' m complaining about how kexec-tools does his job.
My problem is that if I install a package like makedumpfile, I don' t know that I' m installing as well a package that radically change the behaviour of my computer. Nowhere I can know this.
Furthermore if I install makedumpfile is because I' m compiling a custom kernel so a change like that, silently made, make me think that I' ve done something wrong in the kernel configuration and I get crazy looking for this in kernel conf.
What I mean is that kexec-tools works fine, it does is job, but once more I say that the user should be informed about the install of that package, or the same package should ask wich kind of reboot the user wants.

[timotheus (devel-tstotts)]

Why not just change /etc/default/kexec to have LOAD_KEXEC=false ?

I had this same problem upon upgrading to 9.04 from 8.10. I do not know if kexec-tools was originally installed; but I do know that the behavior happened immediately after the upgrade. I dual-boot Linux with another OS via GRUB; and this default behavior of kexec-tools made it impossible to reboot to GRUB except by shutdown and re power-on.

[naphelge (naphelge)]

I always install kexec as part of a new install b/c I appreciate the fast reboot when things hang (usually with playing mp3's continuously).

I do dual boot the current ubuntu release with the previous ubuntu release, as well as a winbloze partition for those moments I just have to... so I do shutdown and power-up again to get to another partition.

I do agree with smurf that there should be an option, if kexec package is installed, to be able to reboot to the BIOS/GRUB instead of just no option but to reboot the kernel. Even a 'restart -bios now' type option would be great.

ard could it be?

[Clark Dunson (cdunson)]

So glad to find this!!! We have been struggling too.
To be clear: Our 8.10-based Xubuntu machines do
not do this. They also had 'kexec-tools" installed
on them, and their /etc/default/kexec files have:

LOAD_KEXEC=0 # Now we know!! Thank you, thank you

All makes sense now. But finding it on the web was
not straightforward. And because we did not at first realize
that our little embedded systems were not truly re-booting,
we had some real fun! Thanks again for the help. CD

[Miguel Branco (mpbbranco)]

Well, I think it´s a bug also.

I´m pretty much sure i didn´t choose to have kexec-tools installed (don´t remember about any chrashdump choice either), except that for the first time I tried the beta/rc jaunty release and maybe it was installed by default or almost (i mean, suggested in the upgrade and then i just clicked yes but can´t recall).

It´s a major change of behaviour that is not explained somewhere in the process.

[Andy Whitcroft (apw)]

@Miguel -- the default being on has been deemed poor behaviour, and there are fixes in the pipeline for this under the bug this is now duplicate of.

[takeda64 (takeda64)]

This is one reason why Ubuntu is so frustrating.

A mere installation of a package shouldn't change the system behavior. This behavior either should be disabled by default or it should ask. I would never know how to fix this problem if I wouldn't find this bug report while searching on google. And believe me, it is hard to come up with a proper query to find it if you don't know what the hell is going on.

Seriously, this is a bug, maybe it's not a bug in the sense the software is broken, but it is poorly designed.
Take look how FreeBSD is handling things like that. All ports installed by default are off and you have to explicitly enable them to use. It reduces the bloat and preserves sanity.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 10:19:43PM -0000, takeda64 wrote:
> Seriously, this is a bug, maybe it's not a bug in the sense the software
> is broken, but it is poorly designed.

Yes, it is a bug. It's filed in our bug tracker, and what's more, it's
fixed (see bug 251242, of which this is a duplicate)!

You're welcome. :-)

--
 - mdz

[takeda64 (takeda64)]

Thanks, I was just criticizing two attempts made by Chris Coulson trying to mark the bug as invalid despite everyone els claiming the behavior should be changed.

[grash (grash54)]

I have to agree smurf. I too have been searching on and off for about four days trying to find a fix for this. I think the issue is that kexec-tools should default to OFF and if one needs it they can turn it ON...Just my two cents.