Topic: E-smith Shut Down Button - we GOTTA have THIS!!!

[Chuck Waite]

One of the most useful new features for inclusion in the next
version of e-smith (although, I trust you will agree, it would
even pay to have it in a "Service Pack" for the current release,
i.e. before 5.0) is:

  Support for a Switch-Off button for the e-smith server

  E.g. a cable assembly, including a momentary contact switch

  The cable might plug into a spare Serial or Parallel Port
  (on the e-smith box) and - when the switch is pressed -
  the e-smith box simply Shuts Down and maybe makes
  an easily identified sound, e.g. using its PC Speaker.

  The software should be pretty easy:

  Event-driven, based on a de-bounced switch port (e.g.
  monitoring, say, one of the modem functions of the
  Serial Port; Ring Indicator (normally from a modem)
  might be a good choice, since it also req's attention).

The idea is that many customers will want to hide the
e-smith box far from the nearest monitor & keyboard.
if only for convenience (but also for security).

Yes, I know that one can use telnet or the web-based
e-smith-manager to make the thing Shut Down in a
more "politically correct" manner but - being human -
I have (more than once) already forgotten to Shut
Down the e-smith box... i.e. until -after- switching off
my last Win NT client box...  

Not only that... if one assumes that Windows boxes
may crash at any time... one might rather "go home
for the day" - so to speak - after such a BSOD, and
this would today require (assuming one is the last-
user on the LAN & e-smith gets shut down daily):

without the proposed cable assembly software:
- re-booting the Windows NT box, a lengthy process
- starting Telnet (or, if one is patient, a browser)
- logging in
- remotely shutting down the e-smith server
- shutting down Windows NT
- switching both boxes off

with the proposed cable assembly & software:
- switch off the Windows NT box
- press the (new) Shut Down button (near the e-smith box)
- when the e-smith box makes "OK to switch off" tones,
  switch off the e-smith box

Too easy, eh?  

So, who wants to take on the
software development work
for this puppy?  

Regards,

Chuck Waite, M Sc

Waite Research / Systems

GPO Box 222
Adelaide, SA 5001
Australia

Tel: +61-408-804-408

PS Lots of development/debugging systems included
a similar "push-to-debug" button, often inserted on an
ISA card, with the button pluging in at the card's edge.

It's not rocket science, but it would sure help...

[Tim Litwiller]

So, why turn it off?  My UPS will already turn it off if the power is out long enough for it's battery to get low. But that hasn't happened in at least 3 months.

It isn't an NT server that runs better after a daily reboot.

[Chuck Waite]

The idea is that - if it's an appliance - it "ought" to have a single (possibly key-lock) switch to flip to turn if off, for whatever reason.

BTW, there are shops where desktops aren't protected by UPS's; in such cases, when the power goes off suddenly, it would be nice to be able to flip such a switch so as not to have to wait for the UPS batteries to go flat. (SLA batteries don't like going flat).

As e-smith may appeal to lots more people, at least some of them may be expected to live/work where the mains power isn't as reliable as ours.

Even some mainland Australian tourist centres (e.g. Victor Harbor, SA)
experiences power glitches that can wreck havoc with computer systems.

Back on-track (towards a solution to the wished-for item), perhaps the answer lies in a UPS driver...?

So, tell me, who knows how to simulate a UPS "low-battery" condition,
in a simple, inexpensive manner (presumably using a serial port, cable & momentary-contact switch)?

Thanks, at least, for reminding me of this approach...  

[Chuck Waite]

Where physical security is not very great, one can imagine the need to turn off a server/gateway box (i.e. that's not needed 24/7) in order to remove a removable drive (e.g. one in a non-Hot-Swap, removable drawer).

In any case, the wished-for item seems to be rather easy to make out of existing software, time being the only scarce resource, that we may not have to wait for e-smith to build it for us...  

[Tim Litwiller]

Chuck, I think I found what you are looking for.  I posted this at my web site http://linux.made-to-order.net/article.php3&mode=threaded&order=0 I haven't tried it my self but from what it looks like there should be instructions to make the little hardware signaling device and software to make it work. Let us know how it goes.

[Yang Jun]

Chuck is very right.

We had been working on the same kind of project (like e-smith) for about 2 years, in Shanghai China. The most dreadful thing is "Power off":

Our system do not come with video-card, everything is web/ssh to it. It suppose to keep customer away from the linux and enjoy their easy usage. But their are case )so often) that they want to shut it down after the work, where power off all is a standard procedure for office management.

To work around, we had thought about build-in ups as 5'25/cd place but end up with none. It's very exciting to here the "Shu Down Button" idea! Yes, it's cool and it shall work for all linux.

Hope it will be done soon, or we might do it.

Many Thanks

[Chuck Waite]

Thanks, Tim... I appreciate your quick post & reply about it.

The post seemed to refer to a needed library (of a particular
version). Can you supply a URL for [the RH 6.1 version of] it?

TIA

[Sung H. Suh]

Do Cobalt units have this feature in place?  Maybe there is a way to do it using current hardware.  I understand that the ATX on/off switch, if depressed for 3-4 seconds will shutdown the system.  However, if only pressed momentarily, it forces the mainboard into power saving/suspend mode.  Would it be possible to patch up the kernel to recognize this suspend signal from the mainboard, and issue a 'shutdown -h now' command to the OS?  I don't think we need to waste a serial port for something like this...

Tell me what you think.

Sung H. Suh
ssuh@mobility.wox.org

* e-smith and horde/imp is simply awesome!