shutdown -p now

[Robert Storey]

Dear All,

I'm trying to get my computer to shut down and turn the power off. I'm
aware of the command "shutdown -p now". It doesn't work for me, and after
reading the handbook, I conclude that I must not have ACPI supported
hardware. However, with Linux (and Windows) on this same computer, I can
tell the machine to shut down and turn off the power. In Linux, this
requires that the apm module be loaded - enabling apm in FBSD doesn't seem
to do the trick for me (or do I need to recompile the kernel for this to
work?).

A bigger problem is that FBSD seems to have disabled the power button on
the
front of the computer. In order for me to turn off the machine, I have to
reach behind the computer and turn off the master switch on the power
supply (or else, pull the power cord out of the wall). I assume that this
is done as a security measure - to prevent evil-minded individuals from
shutting down the server when the system administrator is on his lunch
break. That probably makes sense in a corporate network setting, but I
don't need that level of security at home. More importantly, when I
install FBSD on my laptop (I have not yet done so), I'm concerned that I
won't be able to shut down the machine at all unless I remove the battery.

I'd be grateful for any suggestions on solving this problem.

TIA,
Robert

P.S. - I'm a FBSD newbie, and I just want to say that the help I've
received from individuals on this list in the past week has been
invaluable. A thousand thanks - this is really the most helpful and
technically astute mailing list I've been on.