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Making a Linux home server sleep on idle and wake on demand – the simple way

dgross.ca

31–40 of 244 posts

Re: Making a Linux home server sleep on idle and wake on demand – the simple way

#31

> Disable IPv6: this approach relies on ARP, which IPv6 doesn't use I wish more people would care about IPv6.

Who cares about IPv6 on a home server that you might not even want to expose to the public internet anyway?

Re: Making a Linux home server sleep on idle and wake on demand – the simple way

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another option is to use a smartphone with damaged screen, USB Ethernet card and an external USB drive.

I think you'll be disappointed by the kernel support, especially if you want to run docker containers or anything like that.

Indeed, running docker on android requires a custom kernel: https://gist.github.com/FreddieOliveira/efe850df7ff3951cb62d...

The pixel 6 and 7 have full KVM capabilities tho: https://www.patreon.com/posts/74333551

Re: Making a Linux home server sleep on idle and wake on demand – the simple way

#33
This looks like one of those home server infrastructure setup rabbit holes I would've bailed out of within the first 10 minutes of Googling to research the problem.

I commend the author for their perseverance and the writeup - rabbit hole writeups are their own form of entertainment. That alone was worth it. I could never run anything that looks like such a conceptual pain the butt. A pain to maintain and troubleshoot to boot.

Especially since the setup requires a Raspberry Pi to run permanently. A Raspberry Pi that itself would work just as fine as the Time Machine server the author seems to need on demand?

Re: Making a Linux home server sleep on idle and wake on demand – the simple way

#35
post #22

> Disable IPv6: this approach relies on ARP, which IPv6 doesn't use I wish more people would care about IPv6.

Seems unlikely. The world has made its peace with NAT, and IPv4 is simpler and therefore easier to understand. IPv6 isn't happening.

Roughly 40% (and rising) of Google users use IPv6.

https://www.google.com/intl/en/ipv6/statistics.html

Re: Making a Linux home server sleep on idle and wake on demand – the simple way

#36
post #20
post #3

Another option, if your needs are relatively modest, is to choose a low power mini PC. The one I chose idles at around 5W under Linux before any tweaking. It is based on the Intel N5105. I have a few 2.5” external HDDs attached for backup which are configured to sleep after a short time.

I'm curious if you have measured power at the well (e.g. smart plug with energy metering or Kill-a-watt.) I just set up a test server with a J1900 (10W TDP.) With 8GB RAM and running from an SSD it uses 25W. Add 4 7200RPM HDDs and it's up to 65W idling. I have another test server based on a Raspberry Pi 4B. The Pi boots from SD card and uses about 5W. Add 2 drives in a USB drive bay and power for the setup is now up…

This was measured with an old school Kill-a-Watt. When idle, the HDDs spin down. Keep in mind these are 2.5” likely 5400rpm or less (WD Passport 2TB).

Re: Making a Linux home server sleep on idle and wake on demand – the simple way

#37

> Disable IPv6: this approach relies on ARP, which IPv6 doesn't use I wish more people would care about IPv6.

Who cares about IPv6 on a home server that you might not even want to expose to the public internet anyway?

I do (and I guess I'm not alone...) -- have IPv6 exposed machines over a HE.net tunnel. Some of the things are ONLY accessible over IPv6 (because nobody needs them over IPv4, so that's enough).

Re: Making a Linux home server sleep on idle and wake on demand – the simple way

#40
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Obviously Linux can sleep easily since decades ago. Yeah right. Suspend and resume is still buggy as hell. Power management in general in Linux is still awful after all these years.

I have no idea how it looks on the dev/setup side, but suspend and resume is definitely a solved problem, seeing that I've never had any problems with it on my Steam Deck

It's very likely designed for that use case so not very relevant.

Most PC are delivered with Windows, and even though Linux works on them, it's unlikely the PC were designed with suspend stability as criteria.

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