Wake On Lan (WOL) -- Help! [Solved]

[operadude]

I know this is off-topic, and maybe not even for this Forum (more of an electrical engineering question), but...

What information is getting lost with the un-plugging?

Is there some sort of signal to the LAN (chip?) that is lost, and has to be re-established at reboot?

I have an inquisitive mind, and am curious about all things (a blessing and a curse).

When the motherboard manual states:

Power On By PCIE Devices [Enabled] or Power On By PCI Devices [Enabled] requires an ATX power supply that provides at least 1A on the +5VSB lead

it seems to me that when I am plugging the machine back in, there is definitely current (don't know how much) that is being sent to the +5VSB, since I see the LED for that lit-up! So, when I plug the machine back in, isn't there 1A supplied to the +5VSB, which should allow for WOL?

Again, I'm not sure if on Stand By (SB), that initially there's 1A, or that 1A doesn't "arrive" until reboot.

So, it seems that some information was lost after the unplugging.

Just curious what that is, exactly!

[mowest]

I use WOL for three different machines, and it appears as if the network cards (at least the ones I have in the consumer grade hardware that I'm using) are configured by default with "Wake-on: d" or WOL is configured to to be off, but they supposedly can be configured with "pumbg" settings. If the PCI bus looses power wherever the network card holds that flipped bit of information that you set with "sudo ethtool -s eth0 wol g" must be like the RAM on your main system board and all information kept in that network card "ram" is lost when it ceases to have power running to it, and everything just goes back to default. I'm don't have an electronics or computer hardware degree, but I'm guessing that is how the network interfaces hold setting changes and why pulling the plug from the wall socket eliminates the setting.

I appreciated reading all of your posts and your adventures to use WOL. I have used the wakeonlan program to wake all of my computers without issue. I keep an old 1st Generation Raspberry Pi running at my office, and I can remote into that system through a VPN tunnel, and then I have ssh access to the rpi which I use to wake up a server at work or now just recently my MX Linux box too. At home I have my home lab server that runs Syncthing, it using a cronjob wakes up another server that is just for storing backups of the files managed by Syncthing, and after it runs a rsync script, it shuts the backup server down again. So that computer thanks to WOL is only on for less than 15 minutes per day.

[operadude]

@mowest : SE-WEET!!!


Also, thanks @towwire for the reference to the thread. He really saved me.


What you say makes a lot of sense!

Yes, it seems that network info is getting lost, or better, not being remembered (a la RAM on NIC)!

You have given me new hope and inspiration for upping my WOL game!

Sounds like a great idea to use the WOL-SSH combo to wake up servers to do fun stuff.

I have 40-50 old PCs that I love to revive/resurrect with MX-Linux, and I am always backing-up.

Like you, I think WOL is just awesome, and when I wake my other computers and SSH into them, I kinda feel like Dr. Frankenstein resurrecting his monster.

I'm also reading your other post(s). Thanks again for the great ideas! (Servers & Cron job next!)

[towwire]

@operadude : You are welcome but like you or anyone here there have been times that I have need help too.

You can buy a clock that has a battery so that when you lose power the battery keeps the time even though the clock does not show the time. When the power comes back on the clock shows the correct time without you having to reset the clock time.

When you remove the power cord to the computer it is like removing the battery from the clock as there is no power going to the network card. When you boot the computer the operating system looks for all the hardware and sets it up. The crontab resets "Wake-on: d" to "wol g" on boot or reboot.

You can do this like I do with my wife's computer. It always has power connected to it and is just shutdown. If she tells me to start her computer I just use 'sudo etherwake <mac address here>' from my computer and her computer boots and is ready for her to enter her login password when she gets there. I could use 'MX User Manaager' and change it to 'Log in automatically' so it would be booted all the way, I just don't like that. But you could do yours that way and then ssh to do what you wanted with it.

[operadude]

@towwire : Good idea!

Thanks again for all of your feedback, especially with the "etherwake" command, as the "wakeonlan" command did not work for me.

[finn000]

Hello, I added a line to cron

Code: Select all

@reboot /usr/bin/ethtool -s eth0 wol g

But after reboot, the Wake-on parameter: d

[mowest]

Hello, I added a line to cron

Code: Select all

@reboot /usr/bin/ethtool -s eth0 wol g

But after reboot, the Wake-on parameter: d

Did you use the command...

Code: Select all

sudo crontab -e

to create the entry?

I believe that ethtool needs to be run with "sudo" privileges, so your crontab needs to be the root crontab in order to run the command successfully. I will be honest though, I run systemd on MX so I use a systemd service to run ethtool on boot.

[towwire]

Let's see if you did create a cronjob.
1. From the menu open Job Scheduler.
2. We want to open it as root so on your keyboard Ctrl+R
3. enter your password.
4. does it look like this.

Screenshot_2022-10-15_17-24-20.png

[Senpai]

Let's see if you did create a cronjob.
1. From the menu open Job Scheduler.
2. We want to open it as root so on your keyboard Ctrl+R
3. enter your password.
4. does it look like this.
Screenshot_2022-10-15_17-24-20.png

Hi:
I had the same problem for the wave-on-lan with MX in SysVinit, creating the cronjob with the path that you show in the image, it did not work, but changing the path to “/sbin/”, it works without problems, the command would look like this

Code: Select all

@reboot /sbin/ethtool -s eth0 wol g

, I attach image.


Best regards

[operadude]

Let's see if you did create a cronjob.
1. From the menu open Job Scheduler.
2. We want to open it as root so on your keyboard Ctrl+R
3. enter your password.
4. does it look like this.
Screenshot_2022-10-15_17-24-20.png

Hi:
I had the same problem for the wave-on-lan with MX in SysVinit, creating the cronjob with the path that you show in the image, it did not work, but changing the path to “/sbin/”, it works without problems, the command would look like this

Code: Select all

@reboot /sbin/ethtool -s eth0 wol g

, I attach image.


Best regards

WOW: A BLAST FROM THE PAST

Thanks for the Update

I will try your recommendation this week, and let you know how it goes