This is about a fresh Kubuntu 16.04 install on a new laptop (asus x540sa). After pressing the shutdown button in the start menu; the shutdown procedure starts and in the final splash screen the system just hangs. Tried a second time by pressing Esc once the splash screen showed up and I saw that it reaches the line "Reached target shutdown" and just stops there, no matter how long I leave it there the machine won't turn off.

I also tried an Ubuntu 16.04 fresh install on the same machine and it hanged too at the final splash screen where the moving dots stopped. Then I tried with Esc only to see the exact same line in the end.

The issue seems to affect lately quite many users as shown by the google results of the past month / week or so.

I have also tried shutting down from the console with shutdown -and all the parameters after that suggested online- and sudo poweroff but unfortunately they didn't do the trick. The exact same situation occurred.

Unmounting the swap as suggested online doesn't work.

Also rebooting the system is not working either due to the same issue.

So right now the only way for me to poweroff the machine is to press the power button on the keyboard continuously.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Install OS
2.Do something, anything
3.Try to shutdown or reboot

Actual Results:  
The computer is not shutting down: "Reached target shutdown" and hangs there.

Expected Results:  
Powering off the machine.

For what it's worth, losing the lid won't suspend the system, but using the menu button for suspension will do it.