programs poweroff, halt and reboot send signal to upstart init daemon to reboot/poweroff system. If that fails programs fallback to use script /etc/init.d/minireboot. But upstart is not running (it is started after bootmenu start booting...) so program reboot try to connect (more times) to upstart, it spends time and then it switch to fallback.

I do not know what is good way to reboot/poweroff device when upstart is not running.

PS: upstart is not possible to start - when it is started, it start booting device!