When I click at the top to shutdown, the popup window no longer has the shutdown or reboot option but instead only log out or lock. When I click log out nothing happens. I keep having to execute the sudo poweroff command.
I'm an Ubuntu NOOB so please be gentle.
That seems to be a known problem. The solution varies depending on if you use Gnome or Unity. If you use the search engine on this site you'll get pointers. Different possible solutions are mentioned but the following two are mentioned often.
In Unity it seems to work if you type in the terminal:
unity --reset
In Gnome it seems to work if you type in the terminal the following commands:
gconftool-2 --shutdown
rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel
pkill gnome-panel
Some users however report that neither works.
I have had the same problem and this hint did not work for me.
In my case, some setting in unity-tweak-tool must have messed around here. I did not find the specific option but when I click reset to default on every single page of unity-tweak-tool, Shutdown option was back.
