su was keeping a session opened, blocking the shutdown. I believe this was fixed in bug bug 966269 .. which is now included in Debian aswell.
I think this was finally fixed with: rabbitmq-server (2.7.1-0ubuntu4) precise; urgency=low [ Dave Walker ] * debian/rabbitmq-script-wrapper: Use start-stop-daemon instead of su to run the commands. This also allows rabbitmq to start on the installer if invoke-rc.d is used with --force. (LP: #966269) [ Andres Rodriguez ] * debian/rabbitmq-server.init: Use --no-wait in initctl emit command to not stall apt-get installations. (LP: #968124) -- Andres Rodriguez <andres...@ubuntu.com> Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:46:26 -0400 ** Changed in: rabbitmq-server (Ubuntu) Status: Confirmed => Fix Released -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/670289 Title: Laptop won't shut down with rabbitmq running To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/rabbitmq-server/+bug/670289/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs