Power-Button on PowerBook G4 FW800

1. Florian Zschocke - 9 May 2008

   Hi NG,
   i have wall-mounted a headless powerbook to become my home server. I have added a new power button on the outside.
   Is there a possibility to change the switch-off behavior in osx? I want a direct shutdown (shutdown now -h) instead off the finders shutdown dialog. I run os 10.4.11 on this machine.

   Thank you for your time and help.

   Florian

2. Lewis - 9 May 2008

   First, Bad idea.

   Second, press and hold the power button for 6 seconds.

   Don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. You choices are half chance; so are everybody else's.

3. Jolly Roger - 9 May 2008

   You think doing a graceful shut down without the confirmation dialog is a bad idea?

   Second, press and hold the power button for 6 seconds.

   ...but you think cutting power to the system while it's running is a good idea? Pressing the power button for 6 seconds will effectively cut power to the system while it is running. That's considerably different than shutdown -h now. Cutting power to the system while it is running can cause directory corruption and data loss. Shutting down with the power button does a graceful shutdown.

   If I were you, I'd refrain from giving advice that puts other people's data at risk!

   Please send all responses to the relevant news group. E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM filter. I do not read posts from Google Groups. Use a real news reader if you want me to see your posts.

   JR

4. fudo - 9 May 2008

   Why don't you want to use the Finder shutdown command?

   signone

5. Jolly Roger - 9 May 2008

   I'm not the OP, but I can certainly imagine situations where it is more convenient to press the physical power button than connect to the machine remotely or access the Finder by some other means.

   Please send all responses to the relevant news group. E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM filter. I do not read posts from Google Groups. Use a real news reader if you want me to see your posts.

   JR

6. Florian Zschocke - 9 May 2008

   Why?
   I love it.
   Have a look.
   <http://www.edv-consulting-berlin.de/images/homeServ.jpg> It has a integrated UPS.

   Second, press and hold the power button for 6 seconds.

   Yes sure, jump out of the window.

   Florian

7. Florian Zschocke - 9 May 2008

   Yes.

   <http://www.edv-consulting-berlin.de/images/homeServ.jpg>

   It would be nice to have it going down by pressing the button.

   Thanx Florian

8. Jolly Roger - 9 May 2008

   I'd be a little bit worried about whether it can cool itself sufficiently being closed and mounted on the wall like that, but if cooling turns out to be okay, it seems like a good candidate for a closet server. :)

   Here's my home closet DNS, email, web, file, etc. server, BTW:

   <http://jollyroger.kicks-ass.org/closet-server.jpg>

   Please send all responses to the relevant news group. E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM filter. I do not read posts from Google Groups. Use a real news reader if you want me to see your posts.

   JR

9. Florian Zschocke - 9 May 2008

   It has definitive no cooling problem. The fans are silent most of the time. There is not cpu topcase, keyboard or screen in it.

   Here's my home closet DNS, email, web, file, etc. server, BTW:

   <http://jollyroger.kicks-ass.org/closet-server.jpg>

   Is that a raid? You must be a performance junky.
   I guess you will not hear any farting at all.
   That is a nice side effect.
   Is that a tape-backup? I could not find any good informations about tape-drives and osx. Can you tell me the brand of the tape and the backup software you use.
   Former i used a Linkstation NAS with FreeLink for DNS, etc. Now I have a OSX-Server 10.4.11 with Open Directory and home-folder sync.
   I'm still not able to setup a centralized address-book with the LDAP and I'm asking my self why it is so difficult.
   Leopards Directory.app seems not work with a 10.4-Server.

   Florian

10. Lewis - 9 May 2008

    You think shutdown -h now is graceful?

    No, I said it was a bad idea.

    Not that I condone fascism, or any -ism for that matter. -Ism's in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon, "I don't believe in The Beatles, I just believe in me." Good point there. After all, he was The Walrus. I could be The Walrus and I'd still have to bum rides off of people.

11. Jolly Roger - 9 May 2008

    I have Mac OS X 10.3 Server, but wasn't impressed with the bugginess of Apple's administration tools - especially their Open Directory administration tools. And printer sharing was completely screwed up as well. Hopefully (for your sake) things have improved since 10.3. : )

    I run Mac OS X 10.5 client on my Mac mini. I don't do open directory for shared homes. I use the built-in BIND, Apache 2, etc. services, and some open source software as well. It's rock solid!

    I'm still not able to setup a centralized address-book with the LDAP and I'm asking my self why it is so difficult.
    Leopards Directory.app seems not work with a 10.4-Server.

    Can't help you there, as I haven't bothered with Server since my disappointing experience with 10.3

    Please send all responses to the relevant news group. E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM filter. I do not read posts from Google Groups. Use a real news reader if you want me to see your posts.

    JR

12. Jolly Roger - 9 May 2008

    The OP went through the trouble of installing a power button on the outside of the case. It's obvious he wishes to press the power button to shut down the machine - he simply wants to avoid the Mac OS X shutdown dialog that appears when he presses the power button. Doing this sort of shutdown is *very* graceful when compared to either 'shutdown -h now' or interrupting power by holding the power button in for 6 seconds - especially the latter.

    Since you ask, yes, 'shutdown -h now' in *indeed* a graceful shutdown. The operating system does a normal, if expedient, shut down, flushing disk caches and so on, like normal. The logout operation is forced, and applications running in the user space are force quit, in effect, but the rest of the shutdown operation is quite graceful.

    Cutting power, on the other hand, doesn't even give the operating system a chance to flush the disk cache to disk! This is a bad idea, for obvious reasons.

    Actually, you said shutting down by pressing the power button (not holding it down) and avoiding the shutdown dialog was a bad idea. Then you suggested cutting power as an alternative or solution.

    Please send all responses to the relevant news group. E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM filter. I do not read posts from Google Groups. Use a real news reader if you want me to see your posts.

    JR

13. Florian Zschocke - 9 May 2008

    Sure, the most of the used services you can enable and configure with the client OS too. Since I repair Books, I often change the machine I'm working with. The home-folder-sync or mobile accounts are a nice way to get on the new machine without migration.
    Also it is a home backup for a lost book.

    Can't help you there, as I haven't bothered with Server since my disappointing experience with 10.3

    I haven't seen Leopard Server jet, but perhaps you have to give it a second chance.

    Florian

14. Jolly Roger - 9 May 2008

    I played with shared homes with 10.3 Server. Once I finally got it to work, it was rather nice, I must admit. The ability to log in anywhere and see all of my files was a pleasure.

    Implementing the same thing with client, while certainly possible, would be a *lot* more work than I have time for. So I'm using duplicate local accounts at home instead.

    Yep, perhaps - though the cost is considerable when it's not free! ; )

    Please send all responses to the relevant news group. E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM filter. I do not read posts from Google Groups. Use a real news reader if you want me to see your posts.

    JR

15. fudo - 12 May 2008

    Previously, Florian Zschocke wrote:

    <http://www.edv-consulting-berlin.de/images/homeServ.jpg>

    It would be nice to have it going down by pressing the button.

    I see. I assume you know that you can get a simple two button shutdown, but it requires an attached keyboard, which would be a bit of a kludge in this circumstance. I'm sure there must be a way to trigger shutdown from a power button press, but I imagine it would take more scripting and/or programming ability than I have.

    signone

16. Lewis - 13 May 2008

    No, I said shutdown -h now was a bad idea, and that bypassing the shutdown dialog was a bad idea.

    Then
    you suggested cutting power as an alternative or solution.

    No, I suggested it as a bad idea way to bypass the shutdown dialog.

    Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains.

17. Jolly Roger - 13 May 2008

    I think your statement was unclear then.

    I totally didn't get that from your reply.

    Please send all responses to the relevant news group. E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM filter. I do not read posts from Google Groups. Use a real news reader if you want me to see your posts.

    JR