HOW-TO spare energy as much as possible

[monnier]

So WLAN alone takes less than 1 Watt. No need to disable it just to save the world. But in my situation, with WLAN on it starts up the HDD now and then, and that reduces the HDD live.

It seems like a better option might be to fix this problem that the wlan uses the drive. You can set /proc/sys/vm/block_dump to 1 which will cause all disk accesss to be logged via klogd/syslogd; then you'll be able to figure out what caused the drive to spin back up (which file was accessed). Most likely it's some silly file that should be moved to tmpfs.

[mumsoft]

It seems like a better option might be to fix this problem that the wlan uses the drive. You can set /proc/sys/vm/block_dump to 1 which will cause all disk accesss to be logged via klogd/syslogd; then you'll be able to figure out what caused the drive to spin back up (which file was accessed). Most likely it's some silly file that should be moved to tmpfs.

Thank you for this info!

I have not been here for a long time, and now I know a bit more about this fact.
- I use WPA with TKIP and a password from GRC. This password is filed on the HD somewhere by the Asus.
- Whenever I make contact wirelessly, th HD wil spin up. Maybe it won't if it still has the password file in cache. Don't know
- Whenever someone else (some other device outside) tries to get a connection, the same happens.

I'm pretty sure it is the password file that is accessed.

But here is the trick to minimize this:
Use a hidden ssid that you did not use before in unhidden state.
The reason: a device that has seen your ssid once, will try to make contact with this name, even if it is hidden.
But if you start with a hidden name that no device in the world has seen before, there will be no intruder-like attempts, and the HD keeps quiet.

Now i can leave the WLAN on all day, go out, and never have the disk spin up by strangers.

Marc