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Forum Discussion
Wake-On-LAN: Anybody Got It Working?
Seems like WOL is the only game in town for remote recovery from a power failure ==> graceful shutdown in response to UPS. I'm doing something wrong, but don't know what. Using Fusion's "FUSION ...
The short version: all my Wake-on-LAN (and other) problems appear to have been cured by doing a USB Boot Recovery followed by a boot menu "Reinstall OS".
The longer version:
After two months backing-and-forthing on a trouble ticket, I seem to have inadvertently found the solution to the Wake-on-LAN problem--and several other problems--with both my Ultra 6s.
After having my backup system, NAS2, stripped of content and available to tech support via SSH, I took it "private" again and reloaded my config to restore shares and backup jobs. The backup jobs didn't work, so I deleted 'em and tried to recreate 'em, but when I hit "apply" the job was forgotten (see multiple threads: FrontView changes not "sticking"). I decided to do a Factory Reset.
I found I couldn't do a Factory Reset through FrontView, and I wasn't able to bring up the Boot Menu at all (see multiple threads: Boot Menu not working). Oh, dear... Then I found mdgm's suggestion of doing a USB Boot Recovery here:
viewtopic.php?f=64&t=49874&start=2
I followed the instructions to reflash 4.2.15 on my Ultra 6, and immediately had the Boot Menu back! I proceeded with a Factory Reset, after which the NAS started to behave just the way it was supposed to: no sleep problems, Wake-on-LAN no matter how it was shut down; no FrontView-changes-don't-stick; etc.
After fully backing up NAS1 to NAS2, I tried a similar procedure on NAS1: USB Boot Recovery to reflash the firmware, then from the Boot Menu (which now showed for the first time ever), I tried "Reinstall OS", which reinstalled the OS on disk from the (just-reflashed) flash memory, but leaves user data intact (except for security certificate, password, and IP address setup). Hey presto: suddenly NAS1, like NAS2, worked perfectly and consistently, for the first time since I unboxed it.
I surmise that some unknown but nontrivial number of Ultras was improperly flashed at the factory, leading to a number of odd, sometimes intermittent, and puzzling problems, including some or all of the following:
- Wake-on-LAN not working after front-panel power-off.
- Wake-on-LAN not working after scheduled power-off.
- Boot Menu not accessible.
- Scheduled sleep not working if schedule calls for sleep within next ten minutes or so.
- Some or all changes made in FrontView don't "apply" properly, or at all.
- Backup jobs failing after configuration restoration.
Performing a USB Boot Recovery reflashes the memory with the proper code; Reinstalling OS rewrites the on-disk OS from the reflashed memory (a Factory Reset also reinstalls the OS, of course, but it also erases your data).
If you want to try this yourself:
- You do this at your own risk, of course; I am not saying this will fix YOUR problem(s), only that it fixed mine. I offer no guarantee of suitability or fitness of purpose of this fix for any problems whatsoever. NETGEAR support was pleased to hear that this fixed my problems but did not indicate whether it was a wise thing for me to have attempted in the first place.
- Back up your data before you try this. You run the risk of wiping your data and/or rendering your NAS unbootable.
- Have a selection of USB flash drives handy to try. When you have one that works, you'll see its access light flash briefly during the boot process, then off and on for a while as the NAS reads code and data from it; then the NAS will shut off, typically within a minute or 90 seconds of power-on. With a USB drive that the NAS dislikes, you'll see the access light flash briefly, once, then never again, and the NAS will neither finish booting nor will it shut down. I tried two newish USB flash drives with excellent read/write performance, and had no luck at all. I wound up using a giveaway flash drive from a conference two years ago that may well be the SLOWEST flash drive ever made, and the NAS happily recognized it. (A note I ran across says that the ReadyNASes don't want to boot from flash drives with built-in hubs. FWIW, the flash drive that worked for me appears in OS X's System Profiler as a "flash disk", while the ones that don't appear in the list as "USB 2.0".)
- Both my NASes were updated to the latest BIOS, which I was able to obtain from support after opening a support ticket and explaining that chirpa suggested a BIOS update but then did not respond to requests for that BIOS (see: viewtopic.php?f=51&t=45584&start=14). I do not know if the BIOS update, which fixed some scheduled power-on issues, is a necessary component of this fix.
The longer version:
After two months backing-and-forthing on a trouble ticket, I seem to have inadvertently found the solution to the Wake-on-LAN problem--and several other problems--with both my Ultra 6s.
After having my backup system, NAS2, stripped of content and available to tech support via SSH, I took it "private" again and reloaded my config to restore shares and backup jobs. The backup jobs didn't work, so I deleted 'em and tried to recreate 'em, but when I hit "apply" the job was forgotten (see multiple threads: FrontView changes not "sticking"). I decided to do a Factory Reset.
I found I couldn't do a Factory Reset through FrontView, and I wasn't able to bring up the Boot Menu at all (see multiple threads: Boot Menu not working). Oh, dear... Then I found mdgm's suggestion of doing a USB Boot Recovery here:
viewtopic.php?f=64&t=49874&start=2
I followed the instructions to reflash 4.2.15 on my Ultra 6, and immediately had the Boot Menu back! I proceeded with a Factory Reset, after which the NAS started to behave just the way it was supposed to: no sleep problems, Wake-on-LAN no matter how it was shut down; no FrontView-changes-don't-stick; etc.
After fully backing up NAS1 to NAS2, I tried a similar procedure on NAS1: USB Boot Recovery to reflash the firmware, then from the Boot Menu (which now showed for the first time ever), I tried "Reinstall OS", which reinstalled the OS on disk from the (just-reflashed) flash memory, but leaves user data intact (except for security certificate, password, and IP address setup). Hey presto: suddenly NAS1, like NAS2, worked perfectly and consistently, for the first time since I unboxed it.
I surmise that some unknown but nontrivial number of Ultras was improperly flashed at the factory, leading to a number of odd, sometimes intermittent, and puzzling problems, including some or all of the following:
- Wake-on-LAN not working after front-panel power-off.
- Wake-on-LAN not working after scheduled power-off.
- Boot Menu not accessible.
- Scheduled sleep not working if schedule calls for sleep within next ten minutes or so.
- Some or all changes made in FrontView don't "apply" properly, or at all.
- Backup jobs failing after configuration restoration.
Performing a USB Boot Recovery reflashes the memory with the proper code; Reinstalling OS rewrites the on-disk OS from the reflashed memory (a Factory Reset also reinstalls the OS, of course, but it also erases your data).
If you want to try this yourself:
- You do this at your own risk, of course; I am not saying this will fix YOUR problem(s), only that it fixed mine. I offer no guarantee of suitability or fitness of purpose of this fix for any problems whatsoever. NETGEAR support was pleased to hear that this fixed my problems but did not indicate whether it was a wise thing for me to have attempted in the first place.
- Back up your data before you try this. You run the risk of wiping your data and/or rendering your NAS unbootable.
- Have a selection of USB flash drives handy to try. When you have one that works, you'll see its access light flash briefly during the boot process, then off and on for a while as the NAS reads code and data from it; then the NAS will shut off, typically within a minute or 90 seconds of power-on. With a USB drive that the NAS dislikes, you'll see the access light flash briefly, once, then never again, and the NAS will neither finish booting nor will it shut down. I tried two newish USB flash drives with excellent read/write performance, and had no luck at all. I wound up using a giveaway flash drive from a conference two years ago that may well be the SLOWEST flash drive ever made, and the NAS happily recognized it. (A note I ran across says that the ReadyNASes don't want to boot from flash drives with built-in hubs. FWIW, the flash drive that worked for me appears in OS X's System Profiler as a "flash disk", while the ones that don't appear in the list as "USB 2.0".)
- Both my NASes were updated to the latest BIOS, which I was able to obtain from support after opening a support ticket and explaining that chirpa suggested a BIOS update but then did not respond to requests for that BIOS (see: viewtopic.php?f=51&t=45584&start=14). I do not know if the BIOS update, which fixed some scheduled power-on issues, is a necessary component of this fix.
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