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How can I automatically shutdown the system after a certain customizable time?

Lucio
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NES
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7 Answers7

69

Open a terminal window and type in:

sudo shutdown -h +60

and just replace 60 with whatever number of minutes you want to take.

More info here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-473173.html http://www.linux.org/lessons/beginner/l5/lesson5a.html

Tim
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Daniel
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10
  • You can use gshutdown Install gshutdown
  • After installation it can be found under Applications → Accessories → GShutdown alt text
  • Also have a look at this method.
Community
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karthick87
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4

Because the topic abt shutting down PC after certain period of inactivity is redirected to this topic, I will explain this issue here.

I spent lots of time to solve this problem, so I find it useful to share it, to make the same issue simple for others. I hv tried different programmes but they haven't work for me so I found using short script with cronjob the best solution.

Firstly I refered to post Timed Shutdown - shutdown after 30 minutes

I will copy it below and then explain improvements to make it work:

Install xprintidle. This tool gives the idle time of a user.

sudo apt-get install xprintidle

Make a script autoshutdown.sh which checks for the idle time and instructs the computer to shutdown if idle for 30 minutes.

idle=$(xprintidle)

if [ $idle -gt 1800000 ]; then
    shutdown -h now
fi

Make a cronjob for this that checks from time to time if the system has been idle for too long and if it has been idle for a longer than 30 minutes it will shutdown. Note that the cronjob has to be made for the root user.

This script needs some improvements to work, like:

idle=`env DISPLAY=:0 su OUR_USER -c xprintidle 2>&1`

OUR_USER is the user we refer to for checking idle time (not root user)

DISPLAY=:0 is correct for one desktop display (run env command to read DISPLAY in your situation)

if script is run by OUR_USER, line above can be reduced:

idle=`env DISPLAY=:0 xprintidle 2>&1`

This topic is described http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1069602

if script is run by OUR_USER, shutdown command should be preceded by sudo

sudo shutdown -h now

My script was run from cron by line in cron file:

*/5 * * * * /home/OUR_USER/autoshutdown.sh
  • every 5 minutes
  • OUR_USER should be replaced as earlier to the user we refer to.

If script is not run by root we should remember to add the line:

ALL ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /sbin/shutdown

in sudoers file, so shutdown command won't need a password to be executed.

I tried such cronjobs on 2 similar distro Lubuntu 12.04.4 RC LXLE 32-bit ( http://www.lxle.net/ )

In one system it works only using root cronjob set in file:

/var/spool/cron/crontabs/root

CAVEAT

Another problem is that xprintidle in my system has given sometimes random for me values and sometimes logically incremental. The final result - my system has been usually shutdown after 20 mins maybe, if I set the max idle value to 30 mins. I think the culprit is xscreensaver which doesn't work as is set by entered parameters.

Community
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Michał
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1

You can use sleep for that. They're used to delay/ pause an operation. Combine that with shutdown you get a power off timer. Example to sleep after 1 hour:

sleep 3600 && sudo shutdown now

You can use math as well, here's to power off after 3 hour:

sleep $((3600*3)) && sudo shutdown now
user14429451
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1

You can use

ComplexShutdown https://launchpad.net/complexshutdown

or EasyShutdown https://launchpad.net/easyshutdown

Emad Habib
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0

Crontab seemed like the perfect and most convenient solution for a scheduled shutdown.

But I could not get it running for quite a while using (as supplied by Chat):

crontab -e
30 22 * * * /sbin/shutdown -h now

My solution was to create a crontab, but as superuser. Makes sense, dont want any old bod shutting down the server.

sudo crontab -e -u root

Then add PW,select text editor

Then:

30 22 * * * /sbin/shutdown -h now

Works for me.

UllerUller
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0

Another option is Shutdown Timer, a GNOME Shell extension.
An old version for older GNOME version is still available.

To be able to use GNOME Extension, type into a terminal:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell gnome-shell-extension-prefs
Filbuntu
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