Nvram wakeup

From VDR Wiki

1 Introduction
2 List of compatible mainboards
3 Installation
4 Installation with set_timer for problematic motherboards
5 Links

[edit] Introduction

NVRAM WakeUp is a program that can read and write the wakeup time in the BIOS (via /dev/nvram on kernels >= 2.4.6 or via direct I/O). On this wakeup time the computer will be powered on automatically from the soft-off state.

Automatic power on is an ability of modern mainboards with ATX form factor and some older mainboard with AT/BAT form factor but ATX connector.

NVRAM WakeUp is not dependent on VDR, but was designed with VDR in mind. It is used to start the VDR right in time when a timer is pending. And after the recording and when there are no other user activities VDR shuts down the computer. In the shutdown script of VDR, NWRAM Wakeup is called to save the next wakeup time in the BIOS.

[edit] List of compatible mainboards

One can distinguish between two sorts of mainboards. Some need a reboot after saving the time in BIOS and some do not (which is preferable).

A list of all explicitly supported mainboards can be found on the project page

[edit] Installation

downloading
unpacking
README
carry out the following instructions

make devices
make
make install
man nvram-wakeup

if you are lucky, that's it.
if your board is unsupported, try

guess-helper

and follow the instructions

if the generated nvram-wakeup.conf is not functioning, on vdr-portal.de (german) or the NVRAM-Forum you can get help

[edit] Installation with set_timer for problematic motherboards

If everything fails and NVRAM WakeUp didn't recognised your board and guess_helper is of no use, there is another script included with NVRAM WakeUp that should always do it's job. This script is named set_timer.