Ubuntu’s Shutdown and Restart options
You can shut down or reboot your PC by selecting the System ➤ Quit menu option. Alternatively,
you can click the icon at the top-right corner of the screen. Either method will open a dialog box showing icons for various options, as follows and as shown in the next image.
During shutdown or logout operations, Ubuntu sometimes automatically shuts down applications
that contain unsaved data without prompting you, so you should always save files prior to selecting any of the options here.
Log Out
This option will log you out of the current user account and return you to the Ubuntu login screen. Any open programs will be shut down automatically.
Lock Screen:
This will enable the screensaver and password-protect the system. The only way to leave Lock Screen mode is to enter the user's password into the dialog box that will appear whenever you move the mouse or press a key.
Switch User
This will let you switch between two or more user accounts, if they're set up on the system. Therefore, you'll be returned to the Ubuntu login screen. Unlike the Log Out option, the user's session will continue running in the background while the computer is used to log in to a different user account. To switch back to the original user, select Switch User again, and type the original username and password. You'll be asked if you want to return to the previous session or create another session for the user. Be careful, however, because any new session will terminate the old session automatically.
Suspend
This uses your computer's suspend mode, in which most of the PC's systems are powered down except for the computer's memory. Suspend mode is designed to save power and allow a quick reactivation of the PC. Not all computers support suspend mode, however, so you should experiment to see if your computer works correctly. Ensure you save any open files before doing so.
Hibernate
This saves the contents of the computer's memory to the hard disk and then completely powers down the computer. When the computer is reactivated, the user chooses to start Ubuntu as normal, and the memory contents are read in from disk. This allows a faster startup and allows users to resume from where they were last working. For the hibernate feature to work, the swap file needs to be as large as or larger than the main memory. Ubuntu’s installation program should have automatically done this, but if you didn't dedicate enough disk space to Ubuntu when repartitioning, it might not have been able to do so. The only way to find out is to attempt to hibernate your system and see if it works.
Caution
Some users have reported that their computer is sometimes unable to "wake" from hibernation, so you should save any open files before hibernating as insurance against the unlikely prospect that this happens. We've seen this happen a few times, although hundreds of other times it's worked fine.
Restart
This option will shut down Ubuntu and then restart the computer. Shut Down: This will shut down Ubuntu and then power off your computer, provided its BIOS is compatible with the standard shutdown commands (all computers bought within the past five years or so are; if you find that the computer hangs at the end of the Ubuntu shutdown procedure, simply turn it off manually via the power switch).
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