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Sandu Ursu
Asked: 2020-08-15 02:22:54 +0800 CST

Wake On LAN issues

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I have an old Toshiba laptop connected to the router via an Ethernet cable. I have installed Ubuntu 18.04 in dual-boot with Windows 10 on it and I am trying to set up Wake On Lan (WOL).

My steps:

  1. Enable WOL in BIOS
  2. Run sudo ethtool -s enp1s0 wol g. Check that the letter has changed from d to g with sudo ethtool -s enp1s0
  3. Put the laptop in sleep mode: sudo systemctl suspend
  4. Install wakeonlan. Run wakeonlan <MAC Address> from another laptop on the same network.

My other laptop sends the magic packet, but does not wake up the Toshiba laptop. I have also tried 2 Android apps: Wake On Lan and WolOn - Wake on LAN. Still, the laptop does not wake up. What could be the reason?

If I manually wake up the Toshiba by opening the lid and check:

sudo ethtool -s enp1s0

the letter is back to d:

...
    Supports Wake-on: pumbg
    Wake-on: d
...

What does pumbg mean?

Edit: pumbg seems to indicate the supported WOL modes. They can be seen with man ethtool:

wol p|u|m|b|a|g|s|d...
                  Sets Wake-on-LAN options.  Not  all  devices  support  this.
                  The argument to this option is a string of characters speci‐
                  fying which options to enable.

                  p   Wake on PHY activity
                  u   Wake on unicast messages
                  m   Wake on multicast messages
                  b   Wake on broadcast messages
                  a   Wake on ARP
                  g   Wake on MagicPacket™
                  s   Enable SecureOn™ password for MagicPacket™
                  d   Disable (wake on  nothing).   This  option
                      clears all previous options.

I am able to WOL the laptop in Windows.

Regarding Wake On Wireless LAN, when I run:

sudo ethtool wlp2s0

I get:

Settings for wlp2s0:
    Link detected: yes

Do I understand it right from this output that my WiFi card does not support WOL?

power-management networking wakeup 18.04

1 Answers

  1. Your output of sudo ethtool wlp2s0 does not say if WOL is supported on not, if you want to check that your WNIC(Wireless Network Interface Card) is supported follow the steps from here

    If you get something like command failed: Operation not supported (-95) after you run iw phy0 wowlan show your WNIC is not suported.

    If your WNIC comes with a pre built PC (f.e. a laptop) most certainly it does not support this future.

    Advice: Try use WOL with the Ethernet adapter(usually those support WOL better than WNICs, even builtin ones) or buy a new WNIC that support this feature.

    Also related https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=215563

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