Z600 workstation won't auto boot after power loss

[c-cubed]

I am running an HP Z600 workstation.

Bios version

786G4 V0.3.54

OS is duel boot Windows 7 Professional 64-bit & Ubuntu 14.04LTS

Using F10 set-up I have:

1. Enabled Advanced->Bios Power On for all days of the week and have set a time for power on

2. Under Advanced->Device Options I have enabled wake on lan

3. Under Advanced->Power on->Options After Power Loss i have set the option to "always on"

If push power on button on front of machine, it auto boots to Linux.

If I then pull the plug, the machine immediately goes off.

If I plug the machine back in, NOTHING HAPPENS!

It doesn't power up. I have to push the button.

If I unplug the machine and then plug it in and wait until the BIOS Pwoer On time, then machine does NOT boot or power up at the selected time. Again I have to push the button to get it to power on.

What am I missing or doing wrong. The machine is being used as a remote server. It has to automatically reboot after power loss.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[c-cubed]

Is it possible this is a result of some interaction between Ubuntu and BIOS? The BIOS versions listed on HP web site are OS specific.  Although machine boots in Windows 7 Professional and Ubunty 14.04 LTS without any issues. Maybe Ubuntu is not initializine some hardware or memory location to a state that is monitored by BIOS to allow BIOS to know the run state of the machine.

[c-cubed]

Getting closer. I found some information in Wikipedia regarding ACPI interface. Its says "Once an OSPM-compatible operating system activates ACPI, it takes exclusive control of all aspects of power management and device configuration. The OSPM implementation must expose an ACPI-compatible environment to device drivers, which exposes certain system, device and processor states." Is it possible that the OS versions I'm running or the BIOS version are some how incompatible and not properly interacting through ACPI?

Come on guys. Surely one of you Guru's has some experience with ACPI and can tell me:

1. If its possible this is where the issue is

2. How I might fix it.

3. Or if Ubuntu 14.04 LTS is just not compatible.

[c-cubed]

Yet more research and testing but still no resolution.

I tried booting to Windows 7 Professional 64 bit to see if it would automatically boot after power loss. It did not. Same behavior as Ubuntu 14.04LTS. No reboot, I had to push the power button on the front.

I found documentation on ACPI under Ubuntu which says unless over ridden by command line parameter the Ubuntu kernel masquerades as Windows for ACPI interface. This seems consistent with the behavior I'm seeing.

Is there a better place to post this? Is there a forum focused on BIOS and/or ACPI?

Really disappointed no one is even commenting on this. Where are the experts, the guru's?

[c-cubed]

Additional information

The operating sysems I am running Windows 7 Professional 64 bit and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS were originally installed on an HP Pavilion DV7 laptop. The laptop failed and couldn't be repaired.

I bought a used Z600 workstation with no OS. I moved the two drives from the failed laptop to the Z600.

The first time I powered up the Z600, Ubuntu booted successfully and appeared to run fine. I used the update manager and selected upgrade. A number of modules were installed. Ubuntu boots fine. It runs fine. The only issue is it doesn't auto start?

[c-cubed · Accepted solution]

Changed nothing and the issue went away.

Had a 4 hour power failure in the building.

When power was restored machine automatically rebooted.

So pulling plug on Z600, machine doesn't auto-boot.

Power fail entire building: router, monitor, Z600 and machines boots.

[c-cubed]

Solved!

After endless days and hours of trying different things, I finally solved the issue.

1. I Booted Windows and went to the control panel and downloaded all Windows updates.

2. The process took over an hour on my relatively slow internet connection and as usual with Windows took

      several reboots.

3. After successfully updating, I booted Windows 7 and pulled the plug.

4. Waited 2 minutes and then plugged it back in.

Great news. The machine rebooted to Windows successfully.

I then shut down and botted to Linux.

1. Pulled the plug.

2. Waited 2 minutes.

3. Plugged it back in and it successfully booted to Windows.

I'm assuming the reason it didn't work before was a Windows driver/ACPI issue. My original machine, an HP Pavilion laptop, had failed. I had removed the hard drives and installed them in this HP Z600 workstation. The Z600 booted and ran perfectly well in both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 14.04LTS. This led me to believe everthing was fine. However the machine would not boot via bios power-on nor would it auto boot after a power failure. Updating Windows, which updated many drivers fixed it.

In my research of the problem I found documentation that says Ubuntu sets a boot parameter that says its "Windows". It does this because many older versions of BIOS won't enable ACPI functionality of the OS other than Windows. Basically Linux masquerades as Windows for ACPI and some boot operations.

Problem solved.