>For a newbie: What is the most correct way to shutdown and restart
linux?
The easiest way is to login, or become, root and issue the shutdown
command. The su command will give you root access.
$ shutdown -h now
will bring the system down.
$ shutdown -r now
will reboot the system.
Some systems, depending on configuration, will reboot with ctrl-alt-del
key combination.
If the shutdown command doesn't work for some reason you can manually
sync the disks and halt the system, but that's not a good place to start
the learning curve. There are also a lots of ways to configure control
operators, but that's overkill for the average home user.
MB
(Give him a break, guys. He asked nice.)
