Restart

I’ve got a Raspberry Pi running headless in an inaccessible place. Even to power cycle it is a walk downstairs to the garage and back. It is of course controlled by VNC – which does not permit me to click the Restart button after everything has shut down, because “everything” includes the VNC server.

I’d like to see a Restart option from the switcher, either in addition to the Shutdown or as an option from Shutdown, that will give a clean restart without requiring further intervention – other than any messages that ordinarily come up when shutting down, e.g. warnings about RAMFS contents being lost, of course.

It is of course controlled by VNC – which does not permit me to click the Restart button after everything has shut down, because “everything” includes the VNC server.

Actually, I suspect the culprit is *Shut closing the DeviceFS streams for the NIC. Non-USB networking continues to work fine when sat on the shutdown screen, and apart from copy & paste (which is handled via a Wimp task), the VNC server should continue to work fine.

There’s some obvious nonsense here: Keyboards and mice are USB devices, but are completely unaffected by *Shut because they’re handled directly inside USBDriver and don’t use DeviceFS at all. But all other devices are forced through DeviceFS, so will have their active streams forcibly closed, whether they like it or not.

I’d like to see a Restart option from the switcher […] that will give a clean restart without requiring further intervention

Does TaskManager_Shutdown bit 5 not do what you want? It ought to be possible to add a button to whatever app you’re remotely using to issue that SWI instead of pressing Ctrl-Sh-F12.

Actually, I suspect the culprit is *Shut closing the DeviceFS streams for the NIC.

Most likely this old chestnut originating from this thread.

I’ve got a Raspberry Pi running headless in an inaccessible place. Even to power cycle it is a walk downstairs to the garage and back. It is of course controlled by VNC – which does not permit me to click the Restart button after everything has shut down, because “everything” includes the VNC server.

I have noticed this inconvenience! On the VNC client the Pi appears to freeze immediately the shutdown is commanded.

The bit I have so far failed to understand is that the Restart button does appear on the Titanium! What is the difference between the two machines. Jeffrey may be pointing to a clue.

Actually, I suspect the culprit is *Shut closing the DeviceFS streams for the NIC. Non-USB networking continues to work fine when sat on the shutdown screen, and apart from copy & paste (which is handled via a Wimp task), the VNC server should continue to work fine.

The Titanium does not Network via USB?

When clicking on shutdown I think there should be some options

Cancel (if pressed by mistake)
Restart
Shutdown
Turn Off

The Titanium does not Network via USB?

No.

Cancel (if pressed by mistake)
Restart
Shutdown
Turn Off

The way I’ve read it, it’ll add complexity to the process for little gain. Improvements are always welcome, but for me the expectation is that once I’ve hit Shutdown the next thing I do is a power-off or do a Restart. If I have a document open then I know there’ll be a dialogue to prevent me losing my work. If I’ve made a mistake then I hit restart and I know I’ll be back at the desktop in a few seconds. Simplicity like this keeps me coming back to RISC OS.

;) I suppose a counter (timer) or button to actually do a power off might be a useful addition to the shutdown screen for those that don’t like pressing buttons or removing the power cable.

Power-off has been discussed here: https://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/11/topics/9416
Shutdown here: https://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/2/topics/6729

Does TaskManager_Shutdown bit 5 not do what you want?

Thank you, Sprow, that does indeed seem to do what I want (I’ve set bit 3 too, because my understanding from the docs suggests it’s needed).

It hadn’t occurred to me that the facility already exists. I had thought about the possibility of an app to do it, but quickly rejected the idea because surely the app would get shut down before it had finished…

Explaining here what “TaskManager_Shutdown bit 5” does would I think be useful!

https://www.riscosopen.org/wiki/documentation/show/TaskManager_Shutdown

Support for bit 5 is described as:

TaskManager 1.10 (RISC OS 4.01) or TaskManager 1.36 (RISC OS 5.19) onwards

There is so much wrong with that sentence… :-/

Explaining here what “TaskManager_Shutdown bit 5” does would I think be useful!

https://www.riscosopen.org/wiki/documentation/show/TaskManager_Shutdown

I think Rick expanding the link that Sprow gave should suffice.

Basically there’s bit 5 and bit 6 that relate to the situations posed respectively by Dave H. (orginal) and the shutdown/powerdown that Andrew McCarthy was talking about.
Perhaps a little “ShutdownManager” that gives a timed pop-up response box would please people?