At halt/killpower time, /usr may already be umounted, and wall lives in /usr. Avoid failing by using cat if needed. Index: apcupsd/platforms/apccontrol.in =================================================================== --- apcupsd.orig/platforms/apccontrol.in +++ apcupsd/platforms/apccontrol.in @@ -62,10 +62,10 @@ fi case "$1" in killpower) - echo "Apccontrol doing: ${APCUPSD} --killpower on UPS ${2}" | ${WALL} + echo "Apccontrol doing: ${APCUPSD} --killpower on UPS ${2}" | (${WALL} 2>/dev/null || cat) sleep 10 ${APCUPSD} --killpower - echo "Apccontrol has done: ${APCUPSD} --killpower on UPS ${2}" | ${WALL} + echo "Apccontrol has done: ${APCUPSD} --killpower on UPS ${2}" | (${WALL} 2>/dev/null || cat) ;; commfailure) echo "Warning communications lost with UPS ${2}" | ${WALL}