Wake-on-LAN in tonight's nightly build

[oreillymj]

I'm seeing an issue here, I've escalated to MS support.

When my PC resumes from standby using the new WOL functionality, it will only stay on for a minute or 2 unless I touch the KB or mouse. I believe this is XP related, but it would be good to get some feedback from the Linux/Mac users on the list.

This MS KB article describes the behaviour I see - http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;810719

The only work-around I can see is a patch from MS to allow Wake-On-Lan to work the same as any other resume or a change to the NIC driver to fake a keyboard press.

Otherwise Wake On Lan becomes a bit pointless since I have to walk up stairs to press a key.

[dean]

Arg. I'm not sure what we can do about this. Squeezebox2 _could_
send WOL packets every 30 seconds or so, but that would prevent the
machine from going back to sleep.

I wonder if there's a registry setting to adjust that 2-minute
timeout...


On Aug 12, 2005, at 2:41 AM, oreillymj wrote:

>
> I'm seeing an issue here, I've escalated to MS support.
>
> When my PC resumes from standby using the new WOL functionality, it
> will only stay on for a minute or 2 unless I touch the KB or mouse. I
> believe this is XP related, but it would be good to get some feedback
> from the Linux/Mac users on the list.
>
> This MS KB article describes the behaviour I see -
> http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;810719
>
> The only work-around I can see is a patch from MS to allow Wake-On-Lan
> to work the same as any other resume or a change to the NIC driver to
> fake a keyboard press.
>
> Otherwise Wake On Lan becomes a bit pointless since I have to walk up
> stairs to press a key.
>
>
> --
> oreillymj
>

[MrC]

I'm seeing an issue here, I've escalated to MS support.

When my PC resumes from standby using the new WOL functionality, it will only stay on for a minute or 2 unless I touch the KB or mouse. I believe this is XP related, but it would be good to get some feedback from the Linux/Mac users on the list.

This MS KB article describes the behaviour I see - http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;810719

The only work-around I can see is a patch from MS to allow Wake-On-Lan to work the same as any other resume or a change to the NIC driver to fake a keyboard press.

Otherwise Wake On Lan becomes a bit pointless since I have to walk up stairs to press a key.

Yes, you've discovered Window's go back to sleep in 2 minutes behavior. It can be maddening. Are you finding that it goes back to sleep even though there is network or slimserver activity? It should remain away under such circumstances, but it may be that the KB is referring to activity while logged in and performed by the user.

[dean]

Vidur and I discussed this problem last night.

I'm considering sending WOL packets every 30 seconds to the connected
server while playing.

I'm also considering sending WOL packets for every Slim Devices
remote IR signal received when on the "Connecting to server..." screen.

Would this work for folks? Are there pitfalls here?


On Aug 13, 2005, at 10:18 AM, MrC wrote:

>
> oreillymj Wrote:
>
>> I'm seeing an issue here, I've escalated to MS support.
>>
>> When my PC resumes from standby using the new WOL functionality, it
>> will only stay on for a minute or 2 unless I touch the KB or mouse. I
>> believe this is XP related, but it would be good to get some feedback
>> from the Linux/Mac users on the list.
>>
>> This MS KB article describes the behaviour I see -
>> http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;810719
>>
>> The only work-around I can see is a patch from MS to allow Wake-On-
>> Lan
>> to work the same as any other resume or a change to the NIC driver to
>> fake a keyboard press.
>>
>> Otherwise Wake On Lan becomes a bit pointless since I have to walk up
>> stairs to press a key.
>>
>
> Yes, you've discovered Window's go back to sleep in 2 minutes
> behavior.
> It can be maddening. Are you finding that it goes back to sleep even
> though there is network or slimserver activity? It should remain away
> under such circumstances, but it may be that the KB is referring to
> activity while logged in and performed by the user.
>
>
> --
> MrC
>

[MrC]

I'm wondering if Windows actualy pays attention to WoL after its been woken, and during that 2 minute timeout period. Its very possible there's a callback re-sleep timeout waiting for keyboard and mouse activity.

Since Windows is most likely getting lots of network activity, I don't suppose sending more will matter, even WoL (which is received by the NIC anyway).

If you do your test, please post results. I'd be curious to learn how Windows behaves.

[max.spicer]

Sounds horrific to me. Could you not just remove windows as a supported platform and force everyone to run the server on decent operating systems instead? :-)

That said, the original point of WOL was to enable waking up the server to apply patches etc. I don't think it was intended to necessarily stay awake afterwards. Either way, it really should be an option.

Max

Vidur and I discussed this problem last night.

I'm considering sending WOL packets every 30 seconds to the connected
server while playing.

I'm also considering sending WOL packets for every Slim Devices
remote IR signal received when on the "Connecting to server..." screen.

Would this work for folks? Are there pitfalls here?

[oreillymj]

Yep, sending more WOL packets would not do anything once the PC is woken.

When the PC goes back to standby, the next WOL packet would wake it again.
But I don't think I'd fancy having the SB constantly re-awakening the PC. The strain on the HD especially is something I'd like to avoid.

It's also ironic that Microsoft thinks that 2 minutes is sufficient to install any of their patches. SP2 takes about an hour to install.

There should definitely be an option in Windows or the NIC driver to keep the PC awake when it's woken by WOL.

I'm going to get back in contact with Microsoft on Monday to follow up on this issue.

I'm curious to know if Linux or OS-x behave the same.

[max.spicer]

If they did, I can guarantee that you'd be able to change it!

Max

I'm curious to know if Linux or OS-x behave the same.

[oreillymj]

Hi,

I found this http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en...asp?frame=true API function in XP to tell the system to stay awake. I've compiled an exe which makes the API call, and I'm going to test it tonight using the execute plugin.

Could be a work-around for windows users. Since the execute plugin can perform power events, it should be ideal.

[gharris999]

I was working on a similar approach, though not as elegant as O’rillymj's. This is what I’ve come up with so far: (please forgive the overly wordy and didactic post.)

If your system running SlimServer is more or less dedicated to that task (i.e. you don’t use it for “real work”) then try the following:

Essentially, you’ll disable system standby and system hibernation in the windows power options and instead put the slimserver in charge of putting your windows box to sleep.

Start by disabling system standby and system hibernation on the windows machine.

Then, download the free pstools suite from www.sysinternals.com. Copy psshutdown.exe to your C:\Program Files\Slimserver\server\Plugins directory.

Download Jason Holtzapple’s PowerSave.pm plug-in from http://ultratrendy.com:31888/slim/ and copy it into the Plugins directory.

With slimserver not running (kill the service or kill perl.exe,) open PowerSave.pm with Wordpad and look for the line towards the bottom that reads:

Slim::Control::Command::execute ($client, ['power', 0]);

Now, immediately below that line, add the following:

#start to shutdown the slimserver box
system("\"C:\\Program Files\\SlimServer\\server\\Plugins\\psshutdown.exe\" -c -d -m \"Slimserver Suspending this computer!\" -t 120\"");

Now, start up Slimserver and enable the PowerSave plugin.

At the SqueezeBox, using the remote, scroll down to plugins, select the PowerSave plugin, set it to ON, and select the time out value.

Now, 15 minutes, 2 hours, (or whatever you set the plugin timeout to) after the SqueezeBox quits playing, the PowerSave plugin will turn off the SqueezeBox and run psshutdown.exe on the Slimserver box. With the parameters set above, the Slimserver box will go into suspend mode after a two minute warning. You can cancel the suspension by clicking on the psshutdown dialog cancel button.

If you do use your slimserver box for “real work,” then having that dialog box pop up in your face might be kind of annoying. Here’s another, more subtle approach:

Again, edit PowerSave.pm with WordPad, and substitute this line for the line you added before:

system("cmd.exe /c \"C:\\Program Files\\SlimServer\\server\\Plugins\\suspendnow.cmd\"");

Now, create two batch files, again in the Plugins directory:

suspendnow.cmd:

@echo off
schtasks /DELETE /s \\slimserver /u usernamd /p password /TN SlimSleep /F
schtasks /create /s \\slimserver /u username /P password /sc ONIDLE /I 10 /tn SlimSleep /tr "%Comspec% /c \"%~dp0suspend_wake.cmd\""

This 1st batch file uses the schtasks.exe command which is part of Windows XP. You’ll need to substitute the computer network name of your slimserver box for the "\\slimserver" entry, and substitute a valid username and password for a user with administrative privileges on the system.

This batch file simply tries to delete the "SlimSleep" scheduled task, if one exists. It then creates the SlimSleep task and schedules it to fire off after the next 10 minute idle period (no mouse or keyboard activity.) You can increase that idle timeout to whatever you want…just change the "/I 10" entry to "/I 45" or whatever.

Next, create the 2nd batch file:

suspend_wake.cmd:

@echo off
start "Suspending" "%~dp0psshutdown.exe" -c -d -m "Slimserver Suspending this computer!" -t 120
echo Sleeping for 5 seconds..
sleep 5
schtasks /DELETE /s \\slimserver /u username /p password /TN SlimSleep /F

This batch file gets invoked by the scheduled task, fires off psshutdown.exe to start the suspend countdown, and finally deletes the task that invoked it.

There. That’s two ways to put Slimserver and your SqueezeBox in charge of power savings on your computer.