external halt/shutdown button

sharadshankar · 05-16-2006, 09:39 PM

hi, I want to make an external button to tell my computer to shutdown or halt. I want to wire it to the usb or serial port. Is it possible to do this? How can I port this switch in linux so that it runs the desired command?

FLLinux · 05-17-2006, 08:54 AM

My suggestion would be to wire it to the Ring line on the serial port and have a script running in the back ground that watches for that line to go High, and once it does that have the script run whatever you want and shutdown the computer.

geeman2.0 · 05-17-2006, 09:27 AM

They already have this, it's called the power button

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I'm joking, but I do wonder if there's any way to catch the power off event and force a clean shutdown instead of a hard one. I've noticed windows XP can do this sometimes, depending on it's current state.

sharadshankar · 05-17-2006, 11:03 AM

so my friend told me to use a parallel port because its easier. How should I write the script?