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User

30.04.2008 17:13:46

computer won't fall asleep when RB's kernel extension is installed

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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.

Hi,

And let me first say how much I like your program. After I was first shown Remote Buddy (on a friend's macbook with apple remote), I bought a keyspan IR receiver+remote and installed RB, and I'm still enjoying it.

However, I recently (~3 weeks ago) encountered a problem regarding sleep. My computer (1st gen Powerbook G4 running os x 10.4.11) does not always fall asleep by itself as expected (after the delay specified in system preferences).

After a 45 minutes phone call with apple support, we finally came to suspect RB and/or its kernel extension to prevent the computer from going to sleep. At least it works fine with RB uninstalled. With RB installed, I can not always reproduce the problem, so I cannot be sure, but sometimes the computer does not fully fall asleep when it should. Only the screen is turned off, but the hard drive, CPU, network connectivity still stand up.

Any ideas ?

These entries from the FAQ may be relevant to this topic:

Driver

What is the task of the driver and what do I need it for? (FAQ015E0177)
The Setup Wizard already contains a summary on how the driver does help Remote Buddy to provide additional features and hardware support. If that summary was too short, here's some more info on each of the points:
- fix for Apple® Remote driver problems in OS X
  Since OS X 10.4.9 (that includes 10.4.10/10.4.11/10.5.x/..) many users have been experiencing that one button press on their remote does now trigger two reactions - once from any currently running application that supports the Apple® Remote, once the default system action. So, this problem is not specific to Remote Buddy. The driver provides a clean, system conform fix to this problem using only documented APIs.
- enabling of all features of built-in IR receivers
  Only with the Remote Buddy driver do you gain support for arbitrary length button presses for the Play and Menu buttons as well as minimized reaction times for all buttons. While this may sound like unimportant technical details, they actually do have a strong practical impact. If, for example, you want to map a function to the Play or Menu button, that you want to see executed for as long as you press that button, this was previously simply impossible to achieve. This limitation still applies to all other applications. It does not for Remote Buddy with the driver loaded.
- the emulation of a virtual Apple® Remote
  Control applications that have support for and listen to an Apple® Remote - with any remote control of your choice supported by Remote Buddy. And on any Mac®. This allows you to f.ex. use iAlertU side by side with Remote Buddy or accessing special functions and modes inside applications that would otherwise require these apps to have full control over the built-in IR receiver of your Mac® - and that your Mac® actually came with one.
- support for Bluetooth® remotes and external receivers
  It's not possible to reliably operate many Bluetooth® based remotes, like for example the Wii® Remote with a Mac® purely from userspace due to limitations in the operating system. The situation for many external receivers is similiar: some of their features - or the entire device - can only be supported with the help of a driver.

Hardware - Apple® Remote

After uninstalling/quitting Remote Buddy, my Mac® no longer reacts to the Apple® Remote. (FAQ015E0241)
To enable you to use all capabilities of the IR Receiver of your Mac®, Remote Buddy is using its own driver. In contrast, all other applications with integrated Apple® Remote support usually use the OS X Apple® Remote subsystem.

As long as you're running Remote Buddy, Remote Buddy and its driver are responsible for turning the received button presses into actions. As soon as you quit Remote Buddy, this task is again handled by the OS X Apple® Remote subsystem.

If other applications don't use the interface to the OS X Apple® Remote subsystem correctly, this can lead to the effect that nothing happens when you press a button on your Apple® Remote. For as long as you're running Remote Buddy, issues like this are covered by Remote Buddy and it's driver and are therefore not visible to you. However, as soon as you quit Remote Buddy, the OS X Apple® Remote subsystem is back in control and any issues caused in it by other applications become visible.

Therefore Remote Buddy is neither the cause of the issue nor is it responsible for it. Instead, the cause of the issue exists independently of Remote Buddy. It's located elsewhere and can also only be solved there.

Although our products can't cause any such issues, we're regularly contacted about such issues and asked for help. In order to make locating and fixing the cause of such issues as easy and efficient as possible, we've developed a free diagnostics tool: Remote Control Diagnostics. It can locate issues with a single click and will provide you with information about the issue as well as with instructions on how you can fix it.
After updating to OS X 10.6.2, my Apple® Remote is no longer available for selection in Remote Buddy. (FAQ015E0236)
Please update your copy of Remote Buddy to version 1.15 or later.

User

30.04.2008 17:30:02

Re: computer won't fall asleep when RB's kernel extension is installed

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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.

Thanks for asking.

Remote Buddy doesn't do anything by itself to prevent sleep unless you
press a button on your remote.

What may be a problem specific to the Keyspan IR receivers is that:

1) the Keyspan IR receiver will wake your Mac (and possibly also keep
it awake) in case it receives any kind of IR signal / light for a
short period of time. In some cases, bright, hot light bulbs may
already be sufficient (I could watch that phenomen a few times).

2) OS X needs to be expressly told to pay attention to wakeup events
coming from the receiver. In order to allow you to wake your Mac via
your remote, Remote Buddy's driver tells OS X to pay attention to
that. What it does not have any influence on, though, is when and on
which events the Keyspan IR tells the USB port to wake up. That's a
hardware and OS X USB stack feature.

You may try with the IR receiver unplugged or "covered" with a book in
order to see whether that's the problem.

Other than that general physical / hardware problem, that can't be
resolved in software (other than to completely drop wakeup support for
Keyspan IR receivers - which AFAIK is only supported by the Keyspan
Express IR receiver, btw), Remote Buddy certainly won't keep your Mac
from sleeping.

Best regards,
Felix Schwarz

User

30.04.2008 18:15:51

Re: computer won't fall asleep when RB's kernel extension is installed

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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.

Hi Felix,

and thanks for the fast reply.

What is strange is that these sleep problems occur randomly whether I've got the IR receiver connected or not. I was suspecting RB because the do not occur at all if I uninstall it.

However, it works right now (my PB is asleep while having RB installed and running, kext installed and loaded) so I won't try too hard to fix a non-problem. If I still experience issues I will try to investigate further, and I will let you know.

Thanks,
-G

Last edited: 30.04.2008 18:16:20

User

05.05.2008 17:47:00

Re: computer won't fall asleep when RB's kernel extension is installed

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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.

Hi,

After several days without RB (I'm missing it), I am now able to confirm that my mac still has problems. Its behaviour regarging sleep is still erratic, and really hard to understand. I now suppose this is an hardware issue.

-G

User

06.05.2008 11:48:02

Re: Re: computer won't fall asleep when RB's kernel extension is installed

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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.

Thanks for the info.

One thing you may want to try is to reset the SMC and PMU of your Mac
(=> search Apple's support for instructions on how to do that).

Best regards,
Felix Schwarz

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