On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 03:36:45PM -0700, Gordon Messmer wrote: > On 03/19/2013 07:55 AM, Fred Smith wrote: > > All this without installing ANYTHING extra. > > GNOME features power management software that handles common battery > support. The same software manages laptops that operate on battery and > desktop PCs with a UPS. > > > When I run this script from the commandline it works just fine. but when > > I turn off input power to the UPS it starts the XP shutdown then within > > without waiting the specified length of time, initiates the shutdown > > of Linux. Once the shutdown is done, the UPS powers off, thereby killing > > the not-yet-shutdown windoze box. > > If you run the script manually, you should expect to see the Windows PC > shut down, then the Linux machine after 5 minutes, and the UPS should > shut down with the Linux host. Is that what happens? Yes. exactly that. And, if I use the original inittab entry (which is just the shutdown command for linux, with a "+3" in it) it waits 3 minutes then shuts down. > It sounds like you have the Linux host on the UPS "master" port, which > typically has to be configured specifically to behave the way that you > describe. One option that you might have is to configure the UPS not to > turn off along with the master port, particularly if you have more than > one PC on it. Master ports should only be used if the UPS is powering a > single PC and its peripherals (external disks, etc). I dunno what a "master port" is,... there's only one place to connect the USB cable to the UPS. > > If you're not using a master port, then it sounds like the UPS is simply > draining too quickly. If you have a 500Va UPS, it's probably not going > to support two PCs for five minutes. Without knowing more about the UPS > capacity and its load, we can only speculate, but it may be that GNOME > is firing off the system shutdown script on power loss, then firing > another shutdown when the available power reaches a critically low > threshold, and then everything shutting off when there's no longer juice > to support it (especially if you're testing this without giving the UPS > 24 hours to fully charge up). No, it's a 1500VA (900 W) ups. it powers two PCs, one monitor and one teeny little network switch. normal load is between 190-200 watts. It's got plenty of oomph to power both systems for at least 15 minutes. > Try turning off the Windows host and then pulling the UPS off of line > power. See how everything behaves when only the Linux host is running > on the UPS. > > > The shellscript does contain "#!/bin/sh" as its first line, but it is > > currently being invoked simply by the path to the script. when I get > > back to the office I'll try changing it to "/bin/bash /etc/powerfail" > > to see if that makes a difference, but I kinda don't expect it to. > > It won't. > > > So, I'm wondering how the underlying mechanism works, AND if anyone knows > > how (or even IF) it's possible to hand inittab a script to run instead of > > burying the necessary commands directly into the inittab entry. > > Yes, I believe you're doing it correctly. so my puzzle remains: why does shutdown not honor the "+5" when it's part of a separate script, but does when it's not? > > If you want the systems to shut down whether or not you're logged in, > you'd need to install NUT and configure it to manage the UPS, and > configure GNOME to not do so. You think this mechanism only works when logged in? (I have no idea, I'm not doubting you, it's simply a thought I hadn't had--yet). but that's probably not a problem, I'm logged in there pretty much 24 hours a day. > > Question #2: > > On the Centos 6.4 box at home, I haven't yet tried turning off power to > > the UPS to see if it actually shuts doown, but given that a UPS icon > > appears in the panel, and there are settings for what should happen > > when power fails, I expect it will. > > If you're logged in, yes. If you're not logged in, nothing is > monitoring the UPS. > > > The question here is: how does this magic all work? > > GNOME! It "just works"! > > > We no longer have > > any entries in inittab to manage this, apparently we now use upstart > > to manage the same things, and I've spent some time digging for man > > pages and looking around for upstart file(s) to find out how such > > events are handled, and so far I've not found anything specifically > > for a "powerfail" event. > > Yeah, if you want a system that you have more control over, use NUT > rather than GNOME. You'll gain the added benefit of UPS support when no > user is logged in at the console. the C6 system is a personal desktop, at home, and it too is logged in most of the time. Last time I looked at nut, I found too many things I had to know in order to configure it that I didn't know, like it wasn't clear which nut device driver was correct for the tripplite UPS I had at the time, and some of the configurations (as far as I recall,... it's been several years) depended on which device it was. So after messing with it a while, and it not working, I just gave it up. Thanks for the info, though. Fred -- ---- Fred Smith -- fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us ----------------------------- The Lord detests the way of the wicked but he loves those who pursue righteousness. ----------------------------- Proverbs 15:9 (niv) -----------------------------