I followed the project described in *[Raspberry Pi Shutdown Switch – Safely Turning off the Pi][1]*, but set pin 17 to be internally pulled up. Then connect the wires like the above project, but leave out any resistors and add the following Python script in `/etc/rc.local`: `python shutdown_button.py` ### File shutdown_button.py import RPi.GPIO as GPIO import time import os GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM) GPIO.setup(17, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down = GPIO.PUD_UP) while True: print GPIO.input(17) if (GPIO.input(17) == False): os.system("sudo shutdown -h now") break time.sleep(1) [1]: http://www.3cc.org/blog/2013/01/raspberry-pi-shutdown-switch-safely-turning-off-the-pi/