Unable to shutdown / reboot my Debian 10 server

Question

I'm trying to reboot my Debian 10 server but all I get is command not found.

I've tried:

shutdown
reboot
restart
poweroff

but nothing works. I found this thread but when I try to run any of this with sudo I get bash: sudo: command not found. At the moment I'm logged in as root so I should have the privileges to restart the machine.

Any ideas?

Maybe your `PATH` is empty or messed up. `/sbin/reboot` should work. If it works, do you still get `command not found` for many commands after the reboot? — Kamil Maciorowski, Jul 22 '19 at 08:30
Its a VM where I want to try my new coded C# apps with Mono so I don't use many commands there. I can say that apt, apt-get, su and wget works. So I tried it with your version and it works fine on the machine itself. After the reboot it works with putty too. It was the first start after the installation. Coud whis cause the problem? — BDevGW, Jul 22 '19 at 08:39

GammaGames · Answer 1 · 2020-06-26T15:37:55.957

55

Debian 10 has now fully switched to Systemd which means that the traditional commands to halt or reboot a system like 'shutdown -h now' or 'reboot' will not work anymore

source

Starting with Debian 10, you should use the commands systemctl poweroff or systemctl reboot.

Edit: It appears the above source was partially incorrect, you can still log in as root (see answer by Eugene) to run the old commands. If you don't want to log in as root, use systemctl.

source

edited Jun 26 '20 at 15:37

answered Nov 14 '19 at 18:52

GammaGames

657
5
7

2

I wasn't able to get CRON to reboot my system - indeed using `systemctl reboot` in the cronjob worked. – Koen Nov 21 '20 at 15:21
1

or just `sudo apt install systemd-sysv` to get the symlinks back – reukiodo Oct 24 '21 at 03:27

score 40 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 01 '23 at 06:50

40

The trick on how to fix this inconvenience is to explicitly tell the su to set environment variable as if the user logs in directly. This is can be done by the use of - switch.

$ su -

edited Jun 01 '23 at 06:50

Benjamin Loison

180
5

answered Jul 28 '19 at 12:15

Eugene Roslyakov

432
5
2

score 10 · Answer 3 · edited May 31 '23 at 21:20

10

As root -> systemctl poweroff or systemctl reboot.

edited May 31 '23 at 21:20

Benjamin Loison

180
5

answered Aug 29 '19 at 13:57

MartinsBee

101
2

2

Why, what does this do, explain with more detail. – Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style Aug 29 '19 at 15:01
@GammaGames your edit was rejected because it substantially changed the post. Your info is good and so should be its own answer. Please post your own answer. – music2myear Nov 14 '19 at 18:47
@music2myear thank you, the reject reasons were generic and did not seem to match your explanation. I have submitted an answer. – GammaGames Nov 14 '19 at 18:54

score 5 · Answer 4 · edited May 31 '23 at 21:20

5

As root -> Edit /root/.bashrc

Add to the end of the file:

alias reboot='systemctl reboot'
alias poweroff='systemctl poweroff'

Save the file and start session as root again.

edited May 31 '23 at 21:20

Benjamin Loison

180
5

answered Apr 07 '20 at 21:46

user1160337

51
1
1

or just `sudo apt install systemd-sysv` to get the symlinks back as a properly managed package – reukiodo Oct 24 '21 at 03:29

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 01 '23 at 00:22

0

Try:

nano /bin/reboot

add line: systemctl reboot

exit and save

chmod to your preffered execution level.

I'm sure there is a more elegant way to fix this but I am going to have a hard time remembering that only debian 10 requires a special reboot command. This works for me as long as I'm in su first.

edited Jun 01 '23 at 00:22

Benjamin Loison

180
5

answered Mar 13 '20 at 12:25

Dan Landrum

1

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 06 '21 at 06:54

0

Use /sbin/shutdown [OPTIONS...] [TIME] [WALLMSG] :)

answered Jan 06 '21 at 06:54

Alireza Sadeghian

101

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 25 '22 at 16:53

0

Use command to reboot immediately.

reboot -f

if above command doesn't work due to some kernel issue then you below command.

systemctl reboot to reboot or systemctl poweroff to shutdown the system.

answered Jul 25 '22 at 16:53

shashank arora

101
2

Unable to shutdown / reboot my Debian 10 server

7 Answers7