Shutting down a computer remotely

Question

What ways are there to shut down a computer remotely? My desktop is running Ubuntu 11.04 desktop edition and when I try to shut it down remotely using ssh, it doesn't actually work. I used the command sudo shutdown now. Afterwards, it said that the system is going down for maintenance NOW or whatever. However, when I got home, I came to discover that the computer was still on stuck on the Plymouth shut-down screen.

I would like to know some other ways to shut down remotely and it would also be nice to know why sudo shutdown now doesn't actually work.

Solution

Shutdown doesn't turn off the computer unless you use the -P option:

sudo shutdown -P now

Alternatively you can use sudo poweroff which does the same thing.

Comments

[Nathan Osman]

...or use sudo halt.