Ubuntu Netbook Restart Problem

GENERAL

Many Linux users that have netbooks have been complaining about restart issue. I didn't pay attention to the complaints until I bought Acer Aspire One D257 netbook

Namely, the netbook running Ubuntu 11.10 and Ubuntu 12.04 failed to reboot, it ended up in a black screen and can only shutdown. What was very strange the issue existed only on regular restart procedure: System button in upper right corner > Shut down... > Restart button. If restart was peformed after system udpate it could reboot properly.

The reason for the problem could be a BIOS issue or the hardware setup of the system. For example some netbooks with Atom processor doesn't come with a keyboard controller in which case Linux kernel can't figure out the way to tackle that situation.

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If you have simillar problem with your netbook failing to reboot, here is the way to solve it:

1) Open terminal

2) Type:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

3) Find GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" and change it to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=”reboot=efi”

4) Save changes and close gedit

5) Update the grub with the following command:

sudo update-grub

6) Power off your machine and then switch it on again. Once it is booted, try to restart it to see whether it is working. If this is not working, try following commands instead of efi (i.e.: reboot=efi).

warm =  Don’t set the cold reboot flag
cold = Set the cold reboot flag
bios = Reboot by jumping through the BIOS (only for X86_32)
smp = Reboot by executing reset on BSP or other CPU (only for X86_32)
triple = Force a triple fault (init)
kbd = Use the keyboard controller. cold reset (default)
acpi = Use the RESET_REG in the FADT
efi = Use efi reset_system runtime service
pci = Use the so-called “PCI reset register”, CF9
force = Avoid anything that could hang.

Depending on netbook's manufacturer and model, bios, acpi, pci, efi seems to be probable solutions.

Here are some solutions for a couple of netbook models:

  • Acer Aspire One D257 netbook - efi will fix the issue
  • Acer Aspire One Happy 2 netbook - acpi will fix the issue
  • Dell latitude E6420 - pci will fix the issue

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