How to make Raspberry shutdown when I unplug the ethernet cable

Question

I use my Raspberry Pi Model B with Raspbian as a server and I want to know (if it is possible) how to make that the Raspberry pi send itself a halt command when I unplug the Ethernet cable (eth0)

Any help will be very appreciated.

Why? If you unplug it won't work! Why halt - to save 5w? The solutions below would work, but would also halt on router glitches. — Milliways, Aug 18 '14 at 12:41
True, so is there any way to detect if it's "physically" unplugged from eth0? — Flipacholas, Aug 18 '14 at 19:51

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 18 '14 at 14:02

6

post-down script;

Write a script to call 'reboot' as /path/to/script.sh

Edit your /etc/network/interfaces file and add a line just below your eth0 config.

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
name "Ethernet0"
address 192.168.1.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255
network 192.168.1.0
gateway 192.168.1.254
post-down /path/to/script.sh

Your /path/to/script.sh script will run when your eth0 down.

edited Aug 18 '14 at 14:02

Bex

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answered Aug 18 '14 at 12:33

gurcanozturk

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Don't encourage people to periodically poll for events! Your second option is a lot better, you say for yourself - so why don't remove your first option? – Bex Aug 18 '14 at 12:52
@Bex you're right. – gurcanozturk Aug 18 '14 at 14:02
This is valid for older Raspbian versions, like wheezy. For buster, there's a directory of scripts that you can just drop your shutdown script into. I edited this answer to add this, but someone rejected the edit (!?). See my answer if you're on buster. – mrm Jun 29 '19 at 00:45

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 29 '19 at 00:47

0

For recent Raspbian builds (like Buster)

Just drop your shutdown script into the /etc/network/if-post-down.d directory. Remember to make the script executable, as well.

#!/bin/sh

/sbin/shutdown -h now

answered Jun 29 '19 at 00:47

mrm

103
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Just on recent versions of Raspbian/Debian you should avoid using deprecated ifupdown networking. Instead systemd unit files should be used. – Ingo Jun 29 '19 at 13:11
Thanks for the hint, @ingo. Do you have a pointer to a working examples? The first couple pages of search results were people asking for systemd help and failing. – mrm Jun 30 '19 at 01:12
Make ifplugd available again since Raspbian Stretch. – Ingo Jun 30 '19 at 02:16

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 18 '14 at 10:25

-1

Create a cron job every minute to ping your gateway, the moment the ping is lost- issue halt command. You can check for example for 2 consecutive pings to be sure is not a glitch.

answered Aug 18 '14 at 10:25

jet

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when your router reboot or down also your RPi will reboot? – gurcanozturk Aug 18 '14 at 12:34
2

You should never periodically poll for an event! – Bex Aug 18 '14 at 12:51
can you explain why not polling – jet Aug 18 '14 at 15:20
@jet Because 1) it consumes resources unnecessarily, and 2) it is inherently slow. – Bex Aug 18 '14 at 19:26
if you don't poll - the kernel's scheduler is doing it for you (every 100mS, I am doing it once per minute). The only nonpolling events are interruptions, everything else is polling somewhere. – jet Aug 18 '14 at 20:55

How to make Raspberry shutdown when I unplug the ethernet cable

3 Answers3

For recent Raspbian builds (like Buster)

Linked