Ubuntu – Wake On Lan not working

networkingwakeonlan

I have been trying to get Wake On Lan to work on my Ubuntu server (14.04.1 LTS), which I have configured as a home NAS box. I have followed several tutorials to try to get this working, but for some reason, which I can't trace, it is not working.

The system is an old (4-5 year old) shuttle pc system (Shuttle SN78SH7), amd64 cpu (AMD Athlon 64 X2 7550).

Steps taken so far

  1. I have set WoL on my BIOS
  2. I have enabled WoL (method g) on eth0
  3. I have added a script so that eth0 stays as g on startup
  4. I can confirm that the green and orange lights on the network card are on

If I use ethtool, I can see the following, which I believe means it is configured as expected.

Supports Wake-on: g
Wake-on: g

I am using wolcmd (from a mac), to send the magic packet, to the MAC address, IP address, and subnet specified in ifconfig eth0 (to port 9).

I am not sure what the next steps should be to try to resolve the problem.

UPDATE

I can confirm that WoL does indeed work sometimes if I suspend (pm-suspend), but does not if I use (halt -p or shutdown -h now). Suspend seems to be really unstable, so using that is not likely to be a good answer for me.

Best Answer

This is not a Linux-specific issue. Wake-on-lan is implemented by the motherboard and network card, not the operating system. Try upgrading your motherboard BIOS if you can, and also note from the SN78SH7 manual:

WOL(PME#) From Soft-Off If this item sets to Enable, the system power will be turned on when the LAN port receives an incoming signal. You have to connect the fax/modem to the mainboard Wake On LAN connector for this feature to work. The choice: Enabled or Disabled.

MAC Resume from S4/S5 This item allows you to enable/disable the MAC Resume from S4/S5. The choice: Disabled or Enabled.

You need to enable both of these options. In particular, MAC Resume from S4/S5 is needed to power up a shut down PC.

Related Question