Desktop: Shutting Down

 Lesson 9/ Quiz

Shutting down your system on Fedora actually brings up several options. To shut your system down click on System --- Shutdown from the main menu. Notice right above this option is the option to Logout of the currennt user. After selecting Shut Down a 60 second timer starts. If you haven't selected an option on this window in 60 seconds the system will be restarted. The options on this window are Suspend, Hibernate, Restart, Cancel and Shutdown.

Suspend puts the computer into sleep mode which is known as Standy on Windows and Sleep on Mac OS X. During Suspend mode the computer attempts to cut all unneeded parts of the machine expect the RAM as it is needed to restore the computer back to normal.

Hibernate is a feature that allows RAM to be written to non-volatile storage, such as the hard disk before powering off the system. Then when the system is powered on it can be restored to the state it was in when Hibernation was enabled. On Linux Hibernate is implemeted into the Linux Kernel by swsusp which is built into the 2.6 series.

Restarts allow the clearing any pending errors or events and bring a system to normal condition or initial state. Cancel closes the window and cancels the request. Shutdown powers off the machine compeltely and safely.

Users can Logout by clicking System -- Logout(username). Now choose if you want to Switch Users, Cancel your request, or Logout. If you choose Switch Users, you may login with another username and password. If you select cancel the window will be closed. Selecting Logout will close the window bring the user to the login window.

Locking your screen works well if you want to leave the room for awhile and keep your personal info private. Click on System --- Lock Screen. This brings up a black screen and window that allows passers by to leave the logged in user a message, switch suers, or unlock by typing in the users password. If you choose to leave a message the user will not see if until he/she enters the password keeping your message private from other passers by.