O.K. still not able to switch off the unit by any means. Holding down the power button or selecting 'switch off' only reboots it. If I command 'shutdown now' via the terminal, will only put the unit in a state where the screen goes black until I slide open the keys where I get a white screen, removing the battery is the only way to reset it.

I have done a fresh install without using my old back-up and only a few (total of sixteen) apps installed. The DT install was done by the book, I even made sure that the sysvinit=2.85-22.osso15 was not replaced by the DT sysvinit. Yes I also fiasco-flasher -f -k the DT kernel with zimage.