Make power button shut Power Mac off?

[ITASOR]

Hey everyone,

I'm using a B&W Power Mac G3 with 512MB RAM and OS X Tiger for a SMB file server (with 5 users) and a USB printer server. Everything is working good, but I have a problem.

It doesn't have a monitor or keyboard/mouse attached normally (I can configure it via VNC). The problem is that I would like to be able to turn the machine off when it's not needed (like at night sometimes, days when I won't be home, etc.). I would like to just hit the power button and have it turn off, however it puts it to sleep instead.

Normally, sleep would be fine, except on the B&W, the fans still run, just the HDs shut off, so it's still noisy as heck.

Is there a way to make the power button shut it off? If not, any other easy methods of shutting it off you can think of? Via VNC won't cut it, as my dad needs to be able to turn it on (not a problem) or off as well.

Thanks!

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

Try going to system preferences, then energy saver, then click options and uncheck the box that says "Allow power button to sleep the computer". I haven't tried it before but that might work??

 

[Saturnine]

Can't you just hold the power button in for 5 seconds?

 

[ITASOR]

Thanks guys! I tried the allow power button to sleep Mac (unchecked it), but it still made the Power Mac go to sleep when I pressed it...

Holding it for 5 seconds is like forcing it to shut off (in other words, just like pulling the plug...), which I would assume isn't too great to do all the time.

 

[Nermal]

You can do it through the terminal via ssh (sudo shutdown now), maybe it's possible to script this and put an icon on your dad's computer.

 

[ITASOR]

Hmm, I think it's gotta be non-computer based, because sometimes he might not have his laptop, or my sister might not have hers, but want to shut it down. In other words if he's working from his PC laptop and then shuts it down or something and wants to turn the server off later, it would be a pain to have to boot his computer back off just to click the icon.

it's not possible to change a file somewhere in Tiger to tell it to shutdown instead of sleep is it? Like a system file or something? Anything is worth a try I guess, I don't want this little problem to make my server project a failure, it's working so good now.

 

[ITASOR]

Ok, so I don't believe it's possible to do what I want. How bad would it be to turn the B&W off every night by forcing it (holding power for 5 seconds)?

 

[Willis]

forcing the computer to turn off can be bad if done excessively. In my opinion, id say put it somewhere where a KVM switch can be used, or learn to deal with the sound. Sorry.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

How hot does it actually get? You could attatche pontentiometers to the fans and run them slower. Or simply disconnect them. If it doesn't get hot anyway then it won't really matter.
As far as simply forcing it off goes, as long as its not accessing data at the time then you should be fine. I.e. make sure nobody is copying data across the network when you kill it.

 

[ITASOR]

forcing the computer to turn off can be bad if done excessively. In my opinion, id say put it somewhere where a KVM switch can be used, or learn to deal with the sound. Sorry.

Yeah, I might just get a KVM and use that.

Spanky Deluxe: it doesn't get hot at all...I just don't like it being on all night when I know it won't be needed. This isn't a business server...it's a small file server for family, it doesn't need the wear and tear of being on all night. The HD already sounds like it's going to die.