Forcing reboot Linux is not Windows XP and if reboot fail you usually still connect by SSH and do something. This commands will show you how to remotely hard reboot machine. Hard reboot mean that shutdown scripts will not run and machine reboot immediately without syncing hard disk drives, shutdown applications etc, it’s more like hitting the reset button. echo 1 > /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq echo b > /proc/sysrq-trigger This commands enable sysrq and after this calls fast reboot. If you want to force shutdown machine try this. Force shutdown echo 1 > /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq echo o > /proc/sysrq-trigger