[mythtv-users] OT. WOL for my myth box.

[f-myth-users at media.mit.edu]

I can't speak to the specifics of your -particular- WOL problem, but
here's what I've observed across a couple of types of MSI motherboards
(neither of them yours) and various releases of Ubuntu:

The nVidia-based MSI mobos I have seem to require that the WOL packet
go to the -broadcast- address, e.g., even though the packet has the
machine's MAC inside it, the network interface probably isn't even
-listening- for that packet unless it's being broadcast.

The VIA-based MSI mobo I have works if the packet is directed either
straight to that machine's MAC or to the broadcast address.

On the other hand, those nVidia-based MSI mobos (I've got 3 of them,
all identical) have some sort of bug under at least Ubuntu Breezy
(haven't tried them under either Hoary or Dapper), in that rebooting
the machine leaves the network interface in some peculiar state such
that sending it a WOL packet won't actually wake up the machine.
(I -believe- that this might have been fixed upstream in some later
kernel [ISTR it was some debugging statement that was inadvertently
left in or something like that], but I haven't tested that yet.)

However, if one of those nVidia-based MSI's is turned off cold, then
booted directly into the BIOS (e.g., hold down DEL) or otherwise
prevented from booting Ubuntu, and then turned off manually again,
the WOL packet -will- wake it up.  (I discovered that by trial and
error while I was getting WOL to work at all.)

So you might have one or both of these sorts of things going on;
I'd recommend trying various combinations.  Note that I've been
using the ether-wake.c program by Donald Becker (v1.09 11/12/2003,
www.scyld.com), which I found via a web search.  You could try that,
or use whatever you're using now if it can also broadcast.