Small fix, big impact 🔧

Initial situation: The network card in my parents’ mini server (NUC5PHY, RealTek 8168/8111) wasn’t properly entering Wake-on-LAN mode during shutdown. The server powers down automatically after inactivity and is woken up on demand via cron (every 1 min) from their laptops. Without WoL, it just stays off → manual power-on required.

Solution: A patch for the NetBSD PCI network driver to hook it into the power management framework. On shutdown, the NIC is now correctly configured for WoL.

First tests: works as expected ✅

#NetBSD #WoL #homelab #lowtech #pragmatic

Commit: https://github.com/MatthiasPetermann/netbsd-src/commit/4e3ee0370c3a9811f841e826ebf332639404209e

Add patch to enable WOL for if_re_pci · MatthiasPetermann/netbsd-src@4e3ee03

Experimental fork of the NetBSD src tree, used to explore and prototype new concepts - particularly around NetBSD Cells. This repository is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NetBSD Project. Upstream bugs should be reported via https://gnats.netbsd.org. - Add patch to enable WOL for if_re_pci · MatthiasPetermann/netbsd-src@4e3ee03

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@mpeterma If I remember correctly, that chipset had the same problem on Windows (at least back in the Win7 era) unless you altered a power management setting on the Advanced interface settings. So you could say NetBSD is bug-compatible 🤓