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My first thought was to simply start broadcasting WOL magic packets over the network, but my Raspberry Pi is not waking up. So I'm assuming it either doesn't support WOL, or I haven't properly configured it.

What do I have to do to enable Wake-on-LAN?

Oliver Salzburg
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    I wonder though, how on Earth did you manage to have power attached and not having your Pi turned on? –  Jun 14 '12 at 16:23
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    @Tibor: I only have an imaginary one, that's how. – Oliver Salzburg Jun 14 '12 at 18:10
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    @OliverSalzburg: Then imagine it's waking up. – David Schwartz Jul 20 '12 at 23:00
  • a better way for the pi would be to wake up a pc then the pc does its thing after which the pi then turns of the pc thats magic –  Aug 02 '12 at 23:24
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    While I wouldn't be suprised if the pi's operating consumption is comparable to many desktop's waiting-for-wake-on-lan consumption, it would be an interesting question if there is enough public information available about the SOC to do clock throttling and achieve a lower power idle state. – Chris Stratton Aug 03 '12 at 00:01
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    I am using RampBMC on my Pi and I can tell you this. Using the xbmc remote app on the iPhone has a shut down feature. When I tell it to shut down it does. IT DOESN'T REBOOT. The screen goes blank and the only thing lit up on the Pi is the red power lite. Thats it. It may have power to it but it is not running XBMC. I am also interested in a WOL option. I want to be able to put a piece of double sided tape on my Pi and stick on the back of my TV and never have to touch it. The XBMC iPhone app also has WOL option by the way. –  Mar 22 '14 at 14:53

7 Answers7

47

It doesn't support WoL.

Considering the device draws so little power, the benefits of shutting it of and waking it with WoL are few and far between. Just leave it on!

berry120
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  • Rumour has it that the LAN chip does support WoL... – Alex Chamberlain Aug 03 '12 at 08:27
  • @AlexChamberlain How? You can't turn the thing off. – Jivings Aug 03 '12 at 09:33
  • @Jivings You can shut the OS down though... – Alex Chamberlain Aug 03 '12 at 09:35
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    @AlexChamberlain Yes, but once the OS is halted you can't get it back without rebooting. – Jivings Aug 03 '12 at 09:37
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    @Jivings Can you reboot using the WoL support in the LAN chip? – Alex Chamberlain Aug 03 '12 at 09:38
  • @AlexChamberlain No idea, this is the first time I'm hearing about WoL support. – Jivings Aug 03 '12 at 10:09
  • If it is shut down..(like in powered down with power plugged in)(WoL cannot reboot the system). WoL packet simply turns it on. (like plugging in power) It will boot up and do what it it normally does on boot up. WoL needs a router that supports this or **ANOTHER** computer on the network that can send magic packets to the Raspberry Pi. But it seems the OS or Raspberry does not shut down like a PC? I never tried this. – Piotr Kula Aug 03 '12 at 10:42
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    Its not just the Pi, going to sleep also puts external HDDs to sleep which can mean significant power savings or simply prolong the life of HDD. – Mrchief Dec 29 '12 at 04:10
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    Ok, so the new RaspBmc spins down external HDD after 20 minutes of inactivity - sweet! You can also configure the time period to anything like. So I guess WOL takes a back seat for now! :) – Mrchief Jan 01 '13 at 04:16
  • @ppumkin When you turn off the Pi, it just kills **absolutely** **everything**, then drops to a Root shell (this state is sometimes referred to as "maintenance mode.) At this point, you can safely unplug the Pi - all filesystems except the SD card have been dismounted, all background tasks have been killed, etc. But the Pi never really "shuts down" in the conventional sense. However, with an overall power cost of under $5 per *year*, there's really no need to shut it down except for transport and hardware maintenance. – JamesTheAwesomeDude May 29 '13 at 00:48
  • I suppose that is why WoL was never implemented because the Pi does not really shut down and go into standby mode. It would be nice to shut it down and then Wake it with WoL. @Mrchief if you are using powerd USB ports then the hard drive WONT spin down when the Pi goes down becasue they are still power by the USB port. You need to set the sleep timer per hard drive using some tool either in Linux or Windows (it writes the spin down timer to the hard drive) Some programs send ATA command to spin down. I don't think the Pi does this on shut down, especially not to USB – Piotr Kula May 29 '13 at 09:54
  • @ppumkin: This externally powered [dock](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003UI62AG/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1) does spin down after 20 minutes of inactivity. Either that or the LEDs are deceptive! – Mrchief May 29 '13 at 14:01
  • @Mrchief it spins down when you shutdown the Raspberry, instantly? I think the dock has a built in function to send `ATA SPINDOWN` command on its own to the hard drive. It is not the hard drive power saving mode (You can set this separate to 10,5 or 1 minute if you like) and it will spin down in 10 minutes in the dock regardless what the dock tells it to do. – Piotr Kula May 29 '13 at 14:23
  • @ppumkin: Who cares? It spins down after whatever the idle limit on RaspBMC (default 20 mins). The end goal is to save the hard drive from spinning endlessly - does it matter who sends the command? – Mrchief May 29 '13 at 14:39
  • LOL - Apparently you care. And it makes a big difference. – Piotr Kula May 29 '13 at 14:53
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    I think what people fail to realize is that the Raspi does not have an 'ON' button, so this would come in handy to turn on a Raspi has been turned 'off' – puk Oct 10 '13 at 01:14
42

I beg to differ. If you dig a bit deeper you find out the LAN micro chip, which incidentally is also the 2 port USB hub.

The manufacturer of the LAN microchip clearly says in their specifications the there is WoL on the LAN module.

Ethernet features: 10/100 Ethernet controller supports numerous power management wakeup features, including Magic Packet™, Wake-on LAN (WOL) and Link Status Change.

Now how you use it is another question. End of the day as long as there is power connected to Raspberry Pi (even if it off state or sleeping), you can use the WoL with out problem.

I know the other answers say you cannot shut down or sleep the Raspberry Pi (maybe with existing OS's), but the answer is still there is WoL in the LAN Module and that is a fact.

One thing to cry about if the fact that PoE has been omitted, but luckily Raspberrians questioned this fact and it turns out.. they just forgot about it.. oops.

Is power over Ethernet (PoE) possible?

Not in the base device, but it’s been a very commonly requested feature, so we’re examining options for later releases.

Somewhere on their blog they admitted to forgetting about it.. cannot find it now.

Stéphane B.
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Piotr Kula
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17

The RPi doesn't need Wake On Lan.

If it's connected to the power supply then it's on. There is no suspend or hibernation.

If it's not connected to the power supply, then it's definitely not going to turn on.

Jivings
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8

I'm facing the same issue for a long time. But I use a trick to WOL my Raspberry Pi's (I use several RPi's in the museum where I work). I tackled the issue using an inexpensive ethernet power relay.

Here is my trick: I connect an ETH002 board (from Devantech) to the network. Power of the RPi is connected through the output NC (Normally Closed) of a relay. As the relay is normally closed, when main power is switched ON, both systems start up.

When I send a "sudo halt" command to the RPi, this goes off. To wake it again, I send the following command to the relays board (assuming the Relay 1 is in use):

//deactivate relay 1

PacketSender\PacketSender.exe -txw 500 IPaddress 17494 "21 01 00"

// wait some seconds...

//reactivate relay 1

PacketSender\PacketSender.exe -txw 500 IPaddress 17494 "20 01 00"

where IPaddress is the IP address of the relays board and port 17494 by default.

-- PacketSender is a very good freeware, Thanks to the developer --

Doing so, I completely switch off the RPi and power it on again. e.g when there is an evening event in the museum. Looks like WOL.

That 's it! Et voila!

Regards to all,

Yvan.

Yvan
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You can use PoE with the pi, use a PoE switch and a PoE splitter at the pi end. Works well and with a smarter, yet more expensive switch, you can reset the port to power cycle the pi.

It would be nice to use WOL on the pi, but not seeing any input on anyone getting that to work, even though the nic chip will "support" it.

Michael
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RPi gets power from a normal phone charger like a old PC AT power supply where you need to manually power on and off. For this reason pi cannot power cycle itself and functions like WoL cannot work.

alexis
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I'm no expert, but if the ethernet chip is also the controller for the USB ports, the answer may be to get power via the main USB ports for the PI via a USB hub that support power back-feed.

Jaco
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