"Sending all processes the TERM signal..." forever

From: Kilian A. Foth (foth_at_informatik.uni-hamburg.de)
Date: 07/30/04 

Date: 30 Jul 2004 14:09:03 GMT

For some time now, on my SuSE 9.0 box, when I issue `halt' or the
equivalent, shutdown proceeds only as far as `Sending all processes
the TERM signal' and then hangs indefinitely. Turning on Bash
debugging tells me that the killall5 program used in the rc0 script
does not terminate.

I have seen that the hang happens only when I was running Sampo
Niskanen's ledcontrol daemon during the session before. But the daemon
is killed properly by its rc script long before we get to the
killall5, and pstree proves that it has, indeed, terminated. How can a
terminated process interfere with a program that basically only sends
signals to all processes? And how can I get more info about what
precisely killall5 is choking on? 

-- 
Don't anthropomorphize computers. They hate that.