I wanted a way to make the power button on my ATX machine start a structured shutdown. I found a few patches for linux 2.4 but not for 2.2. After a few tests I found that there was not much work to do so here is the patch. Apply with # cd /usr/src/linux # patch -p1 < poweroff.diff This will reject the suspend request and send a signal to init the same as if you pressed . To make the machine power off, change init so that starts shutdown -h not shutdown -r. This still requires your BIOS to be set so that the power switch suspends the machine and not immediate power off. In my BIOS this is called "after 3 seconds"