Using a FLIRC dongle (2nd gen)
The laptop has wake on USB enabled in the BIOS
Dual booting Win 10 & MX Linux
Remote control will put laptop to sleep and wake successfully in Win 10 mode.
Remote control will put laptop to sleep but won't wake in MX Linux mode.
Is this likely to be distro specific or Linux generally?
Any thoughts on a solution?
(Why not just run Win 10? Well the laptop runs with less fan noise in Linux MX and I want to use it as an HTPC).

Thanks for your time

Welcome to LQ!

Wake on LAN (WOL) needs to be enabled in your BIOS (you already did that) AND enabled in software

ethtool will let you know if it is. As root, run
You will want to see these two lines in the output:
If you don't see those two likes, try, as root, the following
Then shutdown, and see if WOL works.


Debian have quite a good page on WOL here

Thank you for prompt and helpful response. These are the results of running the suggested commands:

$ ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Supported pause frame use: No
Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Link partner advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Link partner advertised pause frame use: No
Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Speed: 100Mb/s
Duplex: Full
Port: MII
PHYAD: 0
Transceiver: internal
Auto-negotiation: on
Cannot get wake-on-lan settings: Operation not permitted
Current message level: 0x00000033 (51)
drv probe ifdown ifup
Link detected: yes



$ ethtool -s eth0 wol g
Cannot get current wake-on-lan settings: Operation not permitted
not setting wol

This is some info which may be helpful:
-PCI Devices-
Host bridge : Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub
VGA compatible controller : Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller
Display controller : Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller
USB controller : Intel Corporation 82801I
USB controller : Intel Corporation 82801I
USB controller : Intel Corporation 82801I
USB controller : Intel Corporation 82801I
Audio device : Intel Corporation 82801I
PCI bridge : Intel Corporation 82801I
PCI bridge : Intel Corporation 82801I
PCI bridge : Intel Corporation 82801I
PCI bridge : Intel Corporation 82801I
PCI bridge : Intel Corporation 82801I
USB controller : Intel Corporation 82801I
USB controller : Intel Corporation 82801I
USB controller : Intel Corporation 82801I
USB controller : Intel Corporation 82801I
PCI bridge : Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge
ISA bridge : Intel Corporation ICH9M LPC Interface Controller
SATA controller : Intel Corporation 82801IBM/IEM
Network controller : Ralink corp. RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe
Ethernet controller : Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller

I checked boot options again. There are two which affect this problem.
System has:
1)Wake on USB (enabled)

2)Wake on LAN with these options
a) Disabled
b) Boot to network
c) Follow boot order (enabled)

I can see that you are running this command as yourself, as the command line prompt ends with $ (any ordinary user) not # which would indicate that you are running as the root user.

With linux, some commands, or subsets of commands may not be executed ("permission refused"), or will not return some results, unless you have the right permissions / privileges. This is for security.

I see that MX Linux is based on Debian, so try:
and give your password.

You might eventually appreciate that linux defaults to not enabling the waking up your computer by WOL when you have physically turned your computer off (or so you thought.)
This is a very sensible default, when you think about it.

If you want WOL enabling, you will have to go through a few hoops, and in doing this, hopefully you will understand the implications of enabling this.

This is not a BIOS problem, this is you telling your linux system that you understand the security implications of enabling WOL, and have gone through the hoops to enable it.

I have WOL enabled on my home network. I have a load of computers here and do not see the need to be running up and down stairs all the time, so WOL suits me on my LAN.

But I have a robust firewall.
So nobody on the big bad internet can wake any of my computers. I hope.
You have been warned.

They shouldn't be able to. Unless you set up forwarding of the required "magic packet" in your router.

O.P. - Also note that WOL only seems to work (in my testing) if the computer you are trying to wake was shutdown cleanly. If you had a power outage, and your computer crashed, WOL does not work (at least not in the testing that I did).

Thank you both for the ongoing support. You've probably deduced that I'm an absolute noob.So, with root privileges I get this output:
root@Compaq620:/home/clive# ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Supported pause frame use: No
Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Link partner advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Link partner advertised pause frame use: No
Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Speed: 100Mb/s
Duplex: Full
Port: MII
PHYAD: 0
Transceiver: internal
Auto-negotiation: on
Supports Wake-on: pumbg
Wake-on: d
Current message level: 0x00000033 (51)
drv probe ifdown ifup
Link detected: yes
root@Compaq620:/home/clive# ethtool -s eth0 wol g
root@Compaq620:/home/clive#

Will restart and see if it's worked

After rebooting nothing changed. Did I do something wrong?

root@Compaq620:/home/clive# ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Supported pause frame use: No
Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Link partner advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Link partner advertised pause frame use: No
Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Speed: 100Mb/s
Duplex: Full
Port: MII
PHYAD: 0
Transceiver: internal
Auto-negotiation: on
Supports Wake-on: pumbg
Wake-on: d
Current message level: 0x00000033 (51)
drv probe ifdown ifup
Link detected: yes

I asked you to give the commandThen shutdown and see if WOL works.
You rebooted, so the interface has gone back to its default Wake-on: d
Which is not what you want.

Try this:
Set the interface to WOL on g (the magic packet) with sudo ethtool -s eth0 wol g
Check that it has "taken" with another sudo ethtool eth0
Shutdown. Do not reboot or restart. Try sending the magic packet.
I have to send the magic packet as root for it to work: sudo wakeonlan b8:ac:cc:12:04:fd

If WOL works now, the Debian page I linked to in post No2 suggests different ways to set the interface always to listen for the magic packet, despite reboots.

Hello,
Thank you for your patience. I followed your instructions again. Your solution is correct. However reading your response I realised that our common language has let us down. Or rather that what I thought was a clear explanation of my problem was not nearly clear enough! Let me attempt to clarify what I originally asked.
I have a laptop which I want to use as an HTPC using software called Kodi. I want to control the HTPC with a remote control i.e. a TV type remote. The laptop doesn't have an IR reciever so I'm using a USB device called Flirc. Flirc is a programable IR USB dongle. The remote control works fine in Windows but wake/resume doesn't work in Linux. Only sleep works.

Ahhh! You want "wake on USB" not WOL. I misread your OP.

I have no experience with this.

You might look here and here for some solutions.

Oh! You're right! He did say "Wake on USB". Oops, I missed that too. I guess I saw "Wake on ..." and assumed the rest. I've never heard of "Wake on USB", so I have no info to offer about that either. Sorry for muddying the waters.

For what it's worth, I have searched high and low for how to enable "Wake on USB", and tried all sorts of things, but not one of them has enabled this feature.
Maybe my laptop doesn't support it?

I cannot test my hardware with windows because I told MS where they could go when they promised me win98 would solve my problems, and it didn't.

It might be worth starting a new thread titled, perhaps, "How to enable wake on USB?"

Thanks everyone. Grateful for your assistance.I did learn this -
$ (any ordinary user) not # which would indicate that you are running as the root user

Which would be the appropriate sub forum to post in for How to Wake on USB

I don't think that matters too much.
Here at LQ, I like to think that we tend to be quite helpful, and not fussy about rules or protocols for postings.

I only picked up your question because it was listed under "Zero replies threads" and a couple of days old.
So, I felt a bit sorry for you and thought we at LQ might be able to help you as a first poster and your first question was possibly ignored.

I did my best and failed.
Such is life.

As you have admitted that you are a 'newbie', maybe that's the forum to post to.
Otherwise this forum, "hardware" is also entirely appropriate in my opinion.
Please don't post your question in more than one forum though. That's frowned upon.

Choose a forum, post, see what happens.

For me, LQ has always been a good place to seek sensible advice, and I have been here for a while.

Good luck, and searching, with solving your problem.

I do ask that if you solve it, that you post the steps you took to make it work for you, here. Or in another thread.
That'll help someone else searching on solving the same problem.

With linux, I have learned that perseverance always wins.

Best wishes.

OK so I persevered and found this
I've tried to follow the instructions, but in places they're a bit scant for a noob such as me. I have managed the first step (but not totally confident with the sudo nano part as there doesn't seem to be a save option) and can suspend and wake with the remote. However after reboot all of the USBs are wake disabled. The poster explains how overcome this. Once again I'm not sure what the poster is attempting to explain. Is it possible with his instructions to permanently wake enable all USB ports? Perhaps I could ask you to flesh out his steps for me?

Thanks