Subject: Re: Wake On Lan device semantics

From: Jeff Garzik <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Nov 2006 19:42:49 -0500

David Miller wrote:
> From: Jeff Garzik <[email-masked]>
> Date: Fri, 03 Nov 2006 18:51:25 -0500
> 
>> The purpose of WOL is being able to turn on a system remotely, if it is 
>> in a power-off or sleep state.
>>
>> So, if the system is -on- and the interface is down and/or driver is 
>> unloaded, are you saying WOL is a problem somehow?
> 
> Stephen is saying that if you down an interface, it should disable
> that WoL functionality.

Many distros down the interface on poweroff, a state from which WOL is 
often used, so we don't want this.

> I guess you can argue that, like IP addresses, this WoL thing is an
> attribute of the "system".

Yeah, it's definitely a system state.  When the magic packet arrives, 
the WOL wire on the motherboard is tickled, turning the machine on.

	Jeff