Bugzilla – Bug 9487
Connecting Squeeze Center PC in Standby fails
Last modified: 2010-03-08 11:21:12 UTC
Squeezebox setup works very well on the few occasions I have used it, displaying a countdown timer when waiting for a time consuming activity e.g. getting an IP address. Since one of my recent Squeeze Center/FW updates though, starting my Squeezebox from the remote while my PC is in Standby fails and the display is blank, no feedback. It looks like the Squeezebox times out before the PC has finished booting up. One of the Squeezebox selling points was that I could start my stereo without going upstairs to my PC. If I try 2-3 times it seems to work and if the computer is already booted everything works fine. I would like to see a longer timeout for establishing the Squeeze Center connection (PC boot time) and the same countdown timer for establishing a connection to Squeeze Center to provide user feedback. I am running Squeeze Center 7.2 as a service. If you need any further info feel free to contact me. Thanks, Beau
Felix: your thoughts on this one? Has the WOL timer been changed recently?
Well, I guess you are asking the wrong question as there is no such thing as a timeout. Here is how it works: Assuming your PC (with SC) is running and your SB is connected happily and now the PC goes to sleep. SB will show the (re-)connect message for about 10 seconds then the display goes dark. In the background SB still tries to reconnect about every 10 seconds. If at that point you wake up your PC again, let say on the PC itself, SBs display would stay dark until the PC and SC is ready and then upon reconnection the display would show the content from SC again. WOL is just another way to wake up your PC, but there is no WOL or connect timeout. If you choose to press power on SBs remote, the display temporarily turns on to inform you that a WOL packet has been sent and that SB attempts to wake up your PC. After about 10 seconds the display goes dark again, but in the background SB still tries to reconnect (as it already did before). As soon as the PC and SC are ready SB reconnects. The fact that the display is going dark again (after about 10 seconds) after the message about waking the PC via WOL was displayed probably leads people to think there is a timeout, but that's not the case. I guess if you are patient enough and just wait until the woken PC and SC are ready again SB will reconnect just fine. I know that some PCs can take a fair amount of time to completely wake up again, sometimes almost longer than an ordinary reboot.
Based on your comments from reviewing the code I did some further testing. With the PC in standby turning SB on (via red button on controller) does seem to wake up the PC ~30 seconds. The two issues are first, the SB does not connect, I have to press power button a second time. Secondly, in ~30 seconds the SB goes back to displaying a news feed giving the impression that it is not in the process of trying to connect. Hope this helps.
Could you try the following without using WOL? From a running system, PC on, SC running and SB connected put your PC into standby. The SB display should go dark after about 10 seconds. Now wake up your PC manually from the PC itself (i.e. do not press any buttons on SBs remote). Wait until the PC and SC are running again. To test that SC is up and running again you could check if you can access the web interface of SC. When you can access the web interface that means SC is running and SB should also have reconnected and be working fine. Does that work? Thanks Felix
Felix: using SC 7.2.1 the test you outlined works just fine. However, with an SB3 and MacBook (both wired) I am unable to get the SB3 to wake up the Mac reliably.
James: Can you give some more details, please. When you say 'not reliably' do you mean it never works or it only works sometimes. SB3 or any player needs to be in the state where it tries to reconnect to SC. When you press power you should see 'Waking up SqueezeCenter'. One thing you need to know is that a MacBook needs to be powered with the power adapter for WOL to work. If it runs from battery, it does not wake by a WOL packet. Also if the player was connected to SN it would not send WOL packets when you press power.
Ping James
Macbook with AC adapter, wired Ethernet to Squeezetest SB3 wired Ethernet to Squeezetest SC7.2.1-23353 SB2/3 r113 Start SC - Connect SB3 - Verify it works Verify SB3 is able to reconnect: put MB to sleep verify SB3 goes dark wake MB with keyboard/mouse verify SB3 wakes up and can play Verify SB3 is able to wake MB: Put MB to sleep verify SB3 goes dark attempt to wake MB with SB3 remote - press play SB3 displays message 'connecting to SqueezeCenter... MB never wakes up Repeat several times SB3 displays message 'Can't connect to SC, left to go back, right to try again' press right to try again MB never wakes up
Only pressing _power_ sends WOL packets, 'play' won't work. Also make sure on your Mac in System Preferences - Energiy Saver - Settings for Power Adapter - Options - Wake Options - 'Wake for Ethernet network administrator access' is checked.
NOTE: the SB3 I used was an wired only model, MAC 00:04:20:06... Verified power settings are as you describe. I then tried with a wireless SB2, SB3, Transporter, Boom and Duet SB2 = Pass SB3 = Pass TP = Pass Boom = Pass Receiver = Pass The same devices wired Ethernet SB2 = Pass SB3 = Pass TP = Pass Boom = Pass Receiver = Pass SO, it looks like the problem I am having is limited to the 1 SB3 Wired ONLY device. MAC 00:04:20:06 I'm going to re-test everything on a known working PC next.
Tried 3 different Windows based PC's. All 3 failed WOL tests with all devices. None of my devices, wired or wireless were able to wake the PC All of my devices, wired or wireless were able to reconnect when the PC recovered from Sleep via the keyboard or mouse For this test I used the following hardware: 1) Nimble V5 Micro PC - Via based system board : Integrated NIC 2) Dell Optiplex GX620 - Nvidia / Intel chipset : Integrated & PCI NIC 3) Clone AMD chipset : Integrated NIC
Beau: what PC system are you using? Make / Model. Is the NIC an add-in PCI card, or integrated to the Motherboard?
James: Two things, did you try to wake those PCs with another WOL tool? Most PCs need specific settings in BIOS and specific NIC etc so WOL would work. Some also only wake when in specific sleep modes / powered down completely. The other thing I wanted to ask, when you pressed power on did you see the "Waking up SqueezeCenter"?
Felix: you are correct...I was unable to wake any of my 3 PC's using a WOL Packet (http://www.matcode.com/wol.htm) I looked in the BIOS for all 3 system, and thought I had set everything properly. They must not support WOL in BIOS then.
I've also seen PC where a small cable needs to be installed from the NIC PCI card to the motherboard or even a jumper that needs to be set.
I have properly setup one of my PC's so the Magic Packet wakes up the system. I'll test this one now and post my results.
I've just tested with a _wired_ only SB2 and my Mac woke up just fine.
I will also update the WIKI page with new information http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/Wake_on_LAN
After fixing my Windows PC WOL issues, I am now able to get all my devices to wake up SC when the system in in sleep/standby mode. Beau: Please read the WIKI article above, to verify that your PC is setup properly. If you still have issues, please contact our support team and they can assist you further.