Shutdown safely???

[patrickquek]

Hi,

I'm a little confused over this topic for the 700gE and would appreciate some clarifications.

When I wish to shut down/power down, can i just shutoff the power? Or must I unmount/flush the harddisk by pressing the power button on the casing?

If i accidentally cut the power to the router, without unmounting the harddisk via the button, what happens? Would i risk a major file system integrity issue?

Trying to evaluate the 500gP and 700gE. The presence of the hardware button to unmount may swing the decision for me. I can't imagine having to go to the web console to 'Eject' each time before removing the external USB drive on the 500gP.

Any clarifications would be most appreciated!

cheers!
Patrick

[patrickquek]

Hi all,

Lemme try to answer my own question :-)

From what I gather, if i wish to unmount the internal HD, I can press and hold the PWR button for 10 secs and the HD will be unmounted. I believe the power to the unit can then be switched off safely.

Another question:

Does flashing kfurge's firmware disable this "PWR button -> unmount HDD" functionality or it is still there?

Thanks!
Patrick

[i.car]

little question:

you wrote:

I can press and hold the PWR button for 10 secs and the HD will be unmounted.

What does it mean, what is mounted and unmounted ... and what happen if I simply cut the power cord without pressing the button before ? ... and what happens if I push > 10 seconds ?


Thanks

[patrickquek]

little question:

you wrote:

I can press and hold the PWR button for 10 secs and the HD will be unmounted.

What does it mean, what is mounted and unmounted ... and what happen if I simply cut the power cord without pressing the button before ? ... and what happens if I push > 10 seconds ?


Thanks

Hi, this is what i understand:

When the unit is powered on ("Ready" LED is on), and you wish to shutdown the device, you need to do a proper shutdown by pressing the "Power button" for about 5s. Once you hold down the button for 5s, you'll see the "Ready" LED go off, and the rest of the lights will blink for a while as the harddisk is being unmounted (which means that the harddisk is properly shutdown). After that all the lights go off and the unit is now safely powered down.

If u press more than 5s, it doesn't make any diff.

If you yank the power cord out or cut the power without a proper shutdown as described above, there is a risk that data may be lost and file system integrity could be compromised. Unix is not like Windows OS where you can cut power without a proper shutdown.

Hope this helps!

cheers,
Patrick

[kfurge]

For sure you need to shutdown the router via the front power button before yanking power. Because the internal filesystem is journaled, you probably won't corrupt the filesystem by yanking power. However, corruption of recently written files is highly likely.

Additionally, it's not necessary to hold the power button for 5 seconds. Just a simple press will do. In a nutshell, here's the normal shutdown sequence:

1. Power button registered by kernel and debounced for 10mS
2. Userland utility /sbin/miscio_input_change is called to handle the event
3. Miscio_input_change kills all (actually most) processes
4. Miscio_input_change unmounts active filesystems
5. Miscio_input_change cuts power to the HDD and front LEDs
6. Miscio_input_change launches /usr/sbin/soft_power_waiter and waits for power button to be pressed again
7. When the power button is pressed again, the system goes through a soft reset.

Attached below is what's shown on the serial console during a shutdown.

- K.C.

#
# GPIO input handling: /sbin/miscio_input_change
GPIO input handling: 0 /sbin/miscio_input_change
killall: ntp: no process killed
killall: rcamd: no process killed
killall: sendmail: no process killed
rmmod: pwc: No such file or directory
rmmod: ov511_decomp: No such file or directory
rmmod: ov518_decomp: No such file or directory
rmmod: ov51x: No such file or directory
rmmod: i2c-core: No such file or directory
rmmod: audio: No such file or directory
killall: waveserver: no process killed
rmmod: usb-ehci: No such file or directory
rmmod: usb-ohci: No such file or directory
rmmod: usbcore: No such file or directory
killall: snarf: no process killed
killall: snarf: no process killed
killall: ctorrent: no process killed
killall: ctorrent: no process killed
killall: gdc: no process killed
dm.safeexit
killall: asus_gift: no process killed
stop rcex
killall: brcm-av: no process killed
killall: smbd: no process killed
killall: nmbd: no process killed
killall: printd: no process killed
killall: smbd: no process killed
killall: nmbd: no process killed
killall: rpc.rquotad: no process killed
killall: [rpciod]: no process killed
killall: lockd: no process killed
killall: [lockd]: no process killed
killall: rpc.statd: no process killed
killall: nfsd: no process killed
killall: [nfsd]: no process killed
killall: rpc.mountd: no process killed
killall: portmap: no process killed
killall: ses: no process killed
killall: sensord: no process killed
killall: nas: no process killed
killall: udhcpd: no process killed
killall: udhcpd: no process killed
killall: mDNSResponderPosix: no process killed
killall: mDNSResponderPosix: no process killed
killall: dnsmasq: no process killed
killall: stats: no process killed
killall: ntpclient: no process killed
killall: ip-up: no process killed
killall: ip-down: no process killed
killall: pppd: no process killed
killall: pppd: no process killed
killall: udhcpc: no process killed
killall: udhcpc: no process killed
stop firewallkillall: udhcpc: no process killed
killall: stats: no process killed
killall: ntpclient: no process killed
br0: port 1(eth0) entering disabled state
Exiting Syslogd!
br0: port 2(eth1) entering disabled state
br0: port 1(eth0) entering disabled state
device eth0 left promiscuous mode
br0: port 2(eth1) entering disabled state
device eth1 left promiscuous mode
etcphydisable: No such device
Unmounting all pools.
md: marking sb clean...
md: updating md2 RAID superblock on device
md: md/1 [events: 00000058]<6>(write) md/1's sb offset: 311940032
md: md2 stopped.
md: unbind<md/1,0>
md: export_rdev(md/1)
md: marking sb clean...
md: md1 stopped.
md: unbind<ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part3,0>
md: export_rdev(ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part3)
md: marking sb clean...
md: md0 stopped.
md: unbind<ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part63,0>
md: export_rdev(ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part63)

Transferring control to soft_power_waiter...
soft_power_waiter has assumed control.
Remaining mounts:
rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0
/dev/ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part2 /old_root cramfs rw 0 0
/dev /old_root/dev devfs rw 0 0
proc /old_root/proc proc rw 0 0
ramfs / ramfs rw 0 0
/dev /dev devfs rw 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0


/dev/ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/disc:
issuing sleep command
Waiting for the soft power button to be pressed...
127.0.0.1: Connection refused
127.0.0.1: Connection refused
127.0.0.1: Connection refused

[patrickquek]

Hi KC,

Thanks for the detailed reply.

Just wondering if its possible to add/remove steps from this script for our own customized 'cleanup'?

Along the same vein, is it possible to map the "Copy" button to trigger a customized script? I vaguely remember reading about it somewhere.

cheers,
Patrick

[kfurge]

Just wondering if its possible to add/remove steps from this script for our own customized 'cleanup'?

Along the same vein, is it possible to map the "Copy" button to trigger a customized script?

That's exactly what I'm working on right now which is why I'm so familiar with the shutdown procedure. I've remapped both the power button and copy buttons to perform my own functions. I can post some more info if you're interested.

FWIW, I've found hooking into the shutdown process a little dangerous. You might want to install a console to insure the health of your filesystems.

- K.C.

[patrickquek]

That's exactly what I'm working on right now which is why I'm so familiar with the shutdown procedure. I've remapped both the power button and copy buttons to perform my own functions. I can post some more info if you're interested.

FWIW, I've found hooking into the shutdown process a little dangerous. You might want to install a console to insure the health of your filesystems.

- K.C.

Hi KC,

That'll would certainly be useful info. Would appreciate if you could share more info esp on mapping the "Copy" button.

Just a random thought: it'll be nice if I could plug in a USB sound card, and map the "Copy" button to play/stop my MP3s/WMAs when the button is pressed.

:-)

cheers!
Parick

[kfurge]

Just a random thought: it'll be nice if I could plug in a USB sound card, and map the "Copy" button to play/stop my MP3s/WMAs when the button is pressed.

That should be no problem at all. I'll post what I know under its own thread in a day or two.

- K.C.