This is definitely confirmed that the rc0 handling never looks at /etc/default/halt, so halt always halts the system because it doesn't know better
** Changed in: upstart (Ubuntu) Importance: Untriaged => Medium -- upstart fails to power off my system https://launchpad.net/bugs/59134 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
