In article <1992Aug25.161632.8144@julian.uwo.ca> klode@syslab.csd.uwo.ca (Claude Morin) writes:
quoted text
>
>    The problem occurs when /etc/utmp has a record for someone who is no longer
>logged in.  When that happens, shutdown will attempt to send a message, will
>block, and your system will 'hang'.  Note that /etc/utmp corruption is quite
>common, and can be caused (as in your case), by rebooting while in X11.  Your
>/etc/utmp file probably has an entry for user 'smith' on 'ttyp6' or something
>like that.  You can check with 'who' or 'w'.
>

I have in my rc file the lines:

/bin/rm -f /etc/utmp
/usr/bin/touch /etc/utmp

which, on bootup, automatically initializes utmp to have no logged in users.
I did this back when I was rebooting from X alot, before I got my video 
timings figured out.  It seems like a reasonable precaution anyway, since
at bootup there cannot be anyone logged in :).

Jean.
-- 
Jean Liddle                                 | == Bill Clinton for President ==
Computer Science, Illinois State University | 
e-mail:  jliddle@ilstu.edu                  | - Carol Mosley Braun for Senat -