Host power
Sleep, restart or shut down the host from the web console or a paired client — who may do it, what happens to running streams, and why an action can be refused.
Wake-on-LAN lets every client wake a sleeping host. Host power closes that loop: Sleep host, Restart host and Shut down host, from the web console's Host page (password-confirmed) or — with the right access — from a paired client. Finish playing on the TV, sleep the host from the couch, wake it again tomorrow.
On a client the rows sit in the host's own menu, right where Wake host appears when it is asleep: the gamepad console's host options, the Linux and Windows host card menus, and the Apple and Android host cards. They appear only when the host offered them, so a device without the grant simply has no power rows. Restart and shut down confirm before they run.
Who may do it
- The web console always can — it is the operator's own surface, behind the console login plus a per-action password confirmation.
- A paired device needs the Host power grant (access levels). Full-control devices have it — a device with keyboard access could already reach the desktop's power menu, so Full control saying otherwise would be a fake distinction. Controller-only and view-only devices do not, and cannot get it without the operator editing their access.
What happens
On accept the host first ends every streaming session cleanly — clients show "the host is going to sleep or shutting down" rather than a connection error — waits a moment so the reply reaches the invoker, then asks the operating system to act. The host tile flips to asleep/offline, and for sleep the Wake host action brings it back.
It also tears the virtual displays down before it goes, so a wake starts clean instead of resuming onto a display built for whoever put the machine to sleep. A display on keep-alive Forever is deliberately kept — that pin is what keeps a gamescope game running across disconnects — so if you use one and a wake lands on a black screen, release it from the console (Virtual displays → Release).
Why an action can be refused
The host says no, with the reason, instead of pretending:
- Another device is streaming — a granted guest cannot pull the host out from under someone else's live session. Your own session never blocks you. The console is never blocked; it warns instead.
- The platform said no — a Linux host honors other programs' suspend inhibitors and refuses while a second local user is logged in; a machine that cannot suspend lists Sleep as unavailable with the reason. Punktfunk deliberately does not force past these.
- On Linux the host user must be in group
punktfunk— the same polkit rule the packages install for unattended power operations. The console lists the action as unavailable with a hint when the group is missing.
Moonlight/GameStream clients have no vocabulary for this — host power is a native-protocol (and console) feature.
Wake-on-LAN
How Punktfunk clients wake a sleeping host — what has to have happened first, what a click does, the punktfunk wake command, and how to arm the machine so the packet actually lands.
Access levels
What each paired device may do, and for how long — the three presets, the advanced toggles, temporary access that expires on its own, and what access control honestly does not cover.