In addition to those already mentioned, one way is to enable it in systemd: # /etc/systemd/system.conf.d/foobar.conf [Manager] RuntimeWatchdogSec=60 Whe

In addition to those already mentioned, one way is to enable it in systemd: # /etc/systemd/system.conf.d/foobar.conf [Manager] RuntimeWatchdogSec=60 When used in this manner, if systemd fails to ping the watchdog for 60 seconds, the system resets. https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-system.conf.html https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-sys... Somewhat related, nowadays by default systemd enables a 10-minute watchdog just before a regular reboot (i.e. after everything has been shut down) to ensure the reboot happens even if there is a hang for some kernel/HW reason.