How to check if my device supports Wake on WLAN?

Question

There seems to be very little documentation about this. I didn't find much more than this page from Canonical documentation for Ubuntu Core: Wake on WLAN

How can I check if my Wi-Fi device supports such a feature? And does also the motherboard need to support it?

I don't have any Ubuntu setups here that have WiFi in them, but I guess you could look at the setup for Ubuntu Core which may work for you: https://ubuntu.com/core/docs/networkmanager/snap-configuration/wake-on-wlan — Terrance, Apr 21 '21 at 15:52
@Terrance thanks, but you are sending me the exact link I posted in my question. And there is a misunderstanding apparently. The machine to wake up in my case is not connected by cable, it is on Wi-Fi only. — Mehdi, Apr 21 '21 at 16:35
@Terrance as I stated above that link does not answer my question. — Mehdi, Apr 21 '21 at 16:45
I can't write you an answer because I don't have anyway to verify this, but looking around the internet there are pages that say how you can do this. https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/configure-wireless-wake-on-lan-for-linux-wifi-wowlan-card/ — Terrance, Apr 21 '21 at 17:03
https://askubuntu.com/questions/168982/how-do-i-get-wireless-wake-on-lan-work-with-an-intel-5100-agn — Terrance, Apr 21 '21 at 17:06
Thanks those are already helpful! I couldn't find them because everybody calls this feature something else, wireless wake-on-lan, wake-on-wlan, wake-on-wireless-lan... This page claims that only intel chipsets are compatible https://revolutionwifi.blogspot.com/2010/11/wake-on-wireless-lan.html — Mehdi, Apr 21 '21 at 17:12

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 23 '21 at 23:21

Please run the terminal command:

iw list | grep WoW -A10

On my machine, using coincidentally, an Intel wireless device, it says:

WoWLAN support:
         * wake up on disconnect
         * wake up on magic packet
         * wake up on pattern match, up to 20 patterns of 16-128 bytes,
           maximum packet offset 0 bytes
         * can do GTK rekeying
         * wake up on GTK rekey failure
         * wake up on EAP identity request
         * wake up on 4-way handshake
         * wake up on rfkill release
         * wake up on network detection, up to 11 match sets

Although it reports that my device may be awakened with a magic packet, I am unable to locate any support documentation. This, however, may be helpful: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43421478/magic-packet-for-wake-on-wireless-lan

The simple fact is that there is not enough industry support for WoWLAN to make it feasible for most organizations.

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 14 '22 at 09:01

The following article mentioned in the comments of the original question did the work for me: How to configure wireless wake-on-lan for Linux WiFi card

The only difference from wake on LAN is that the computer cannot be completely switched off. It can only be woken up from ACPI S3 level, which is fine for my use case.

The process can be summarized as follows:

Install iw, a tool for configuring Linux wireless devices:
```
sudo apt install iw
```
List the available wireless devices:
```
iw list
```
Display the wake on wireless status of the phy0 device (adjust the device according to the output you get from the previous command):
```
iw phy0 wowlan show
```
The WoWLAN support section of the output displays the supported WoWLAN modes.
Enable WoWLAN for the phy0 device with magic packet:
```
sudo iw phy0 wowlan enable magic-packet
```

Note: For the WoWLAN to work, the wake on LAN option in the BIOS should be enabled.

How to check if my device supports Wake on WLAN?

2 Answers2