BIOS power-on reliability on t730 Thin Client

dgrabo

I'm running pfSense CE 2.7.2 on an HP t730 Thin Client (4GB RAM, 16GB MSATA SSD, Broadcom 5719 or 5720 multi-port NIC in the PCIe slot). I've got a total of four identical systems.

In addition to having the BIOS setting to power-on automatically after power outage (this seems to work reliably), I want the BIOS to also power-on the system every day at a scheduled time (this is a BIOS feature) and I want the system to react to Wake-on-LAN packets directed to the embedded NIC (yes, I know, don't use the Realtek NIC for pfSense; I'm not doing that). This is for the off chance that the system accidentally shuts down due to failure or accident (which may have happened once, hence why I want to do this).

Power-up (BIOS schedule or WOL) WILL work consistently after shutting down the system with the power button on the front panel.

Power-up (BIOS schedule or WOL) will NOT work at all after shutting down the system via the operating system (i.e., "shutdown" command at the pfSense CLI).

I'm guessing that the power button puts the system into a different state than the 'shutdown' command from the OS. The OS shutdown appears to put the system into a state where both the NIC WOL detection and the BIOS wake function are both blocked so they can't work.

What's going on here, and is there anything I can do to modify the 'shutdown' characteristics so that these 'wake' features are not disabled? Aside from the HP and Netgate forums - anyone have any suggestions for where else there might be folks who have some helpful ideas?

stephenw10

What command are you actually running at the CLI?

I agree it sounds like it's setting it to a different power mode. Is the NIC still linked after shutdown?

dgrabo

@stephenw10 Thanks for your reply.

I've tried both the "halt" option on the CLI menu, as well as 'shutdown' and 'poweroff' at the CLI (those are actually the same binary).

Yes, NIC still has blinky lights, which presumably means that the NIC still has power. Won't pay attention to a WOL packet though.

stephenw10

Hmm, I've had issues with WoL in the past and it seems to require numerous pieces to work correctly. I have devices here that do work reliably with WoL and Ive done nothing special to make it work.

I would check for any available BIOS settings that might be available.

dgrabo

There's not a lot of BIOS options on the t730 when it comes to power. Only relevant ones are

"Hardware Power Management" - which, if enabled, causes pretty much everything to turn off when in S5. A popup message warns that enabling this feature will save power when the system is off, but will also prevent the system from waking. So, this is disabled.

"BIOS Power-On" - lets you set a time (common to all selected days) and then selected days where the system should power on automatically. This is the setting I'm referring to.

"S5 Wake on LAN" - this is enabled.

As I wrote, it works sometimes, when certain criteria are met.

stephenw10

Only when shutdown using the power button?

dgrabo

@stephenw10 Well, yes and no. Let me clarify.

If pfSense is running and I press the power button once, it goes through a standard and orderly shutdown - a bunch of shutdown messages appear on the screen, services stop, etc. Same as when I type 'shutdown' at the CLI, or use the 'halt' option from the console menu. When this is done, the system won't power-on through schedule or WOL.

If pfSense is running, and I HOLD DOWN the power button to shut the system down immediately, or if I press the power button quickly before pfSense has started (i.e., at the BIOS startup screen), scheduled and WOL power-on work as expected.

IOW, it appears that when a 'graceful' shutdown occurs, the system is put into a different power state - one that can't be 'awakened'.

stephenw10

Mmm, OK. But the NIC is linked still in both those states?

I'm not sure if there's anything we can do here to be honest.

dgrabo

@stephenw10 said in BIOS power-on reliability on t730 Thin Client:

Mmm, OK. But the NIC is linked still in both those states?

I'm not sure if there's anything we can do here to be honest.

Blinky lights, yup.

Agree that there's proly not a lot that can be done. If there's any way to get some deeper-ish understanding of how the BSD 'shutdown' command sets the power state (and perhaps more specifically, how to alter that), that might prove helpful. But ultimately this could just be a hardware thing and I just gotta live with it.

Going back to my original post - I accidentally did a "shutdown" at the CLI on a remote system. The whole reason I'm hoping "BIOS Power-On" actually works is that on the off chance I do that again, the system will restart on its own, in case I do that again. Which I hope I don't ever do.

stephenw10

Ok try running: ifconfig -vvvma and check NIC in question. Does it list WoL capabilities? If so try setting them enabled before shutting down.

For example:

[2.7.2-RELEASE][admin@t70.stevew.lan]/root: ifconfig igb0 wol_magic
[2.7.2-RELEASE][admin@t70.stevew.lan]/root: ifconfig -m igb0
igb0: flags=1008843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST,LOWER_UP> metric 0 mtu 1500
	description: WAN
	options=4e120bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6,HWSTATS,MEXTPG>
	capabilities=4f53fbb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,TSO4,TSO6,LRO,WOL_UCAST,WOL_MCAST,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,VLAN_HWTSO,NETMAP,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6,HWSTATS,MEXTPG>
	ether 00:90:7f:b6:30:01
	inet 172.21.16.239 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 172.21.16.255
	inet6 fe80::290:7fff:feb6:3001%igb0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
	media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>)
	status: active
	supported media:
		media autoselect
		media 1000baseT
		media 1000baseT mediaopt full-duplex
		media 100baseTX mediaopt full-duplex
		media 100baseTX
		media 10baseT/UTP mediaopt full-duplex
		media 10baseT/UTP
	nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>

dgrabo

@stephenw10 Yes, the RE0 NIC (yes, I know, realtek, yuck) is set for WOL. And WOL does work, as long as the system isn't shutdown from the OS. (Just like the BIOS power-on works as long as the system isn't shut down from the OS)

stephenw10

You have enabled all three WoL options? They likely need to be enabled at every boot.

Though the one device I have that always works with WoL uses an re NIC and doesn't require anything special in pfSense.