Use power button to shut down?

[gazzer82]

Does anyone know of a way to set the power button on the front of the Mac Pro to force the computer to shut down. I am setting up a headless video server and i need to give the operator the option to shut down with the power button only.

Anyone?

Cheers

Gareth

[iRye]

Hey, Gareth.

Once he is done with it, he can force shut down the computer by pressing and holding the Power Button. However, how often will this be done? if it's really often, i'd advise against that and just put it to sleep.

Cheers,
Tom

[gazzer82]

Cheers Irye

I think i may have been a little misleading. What i mean by a forced shutdown is the same type as you get in Remote Desktop, where programs are forced to quit, but the system is shut down properly.

If this isn't possible, is there a way to assign the power button to execute applescript, and use the applescript to shutdown?

Cheers

Gareth

[puaerotch]

Can't you hit the power button twice and have it shut down? The first time will bring up the option to shut down, restart, sleep or cancel. I think if you hit it once more it will properly shut down. I would try it but I'm not at a point where I can shut down at the moment.

[gazzer82]

Hmm, just tried this but it doesn't seem to work, do i need to enable the power button in some way, at the moment it doesn't seem to do anything at all?

Cheers

Gareth

[Alexis]

What i mean by a forced shutdown is the same type as you get in Remote Desktop, where programs are forced to quit, but the system is shut down properly

There's no real difference between forcing applications to quit and waiting for shutdown than just turning off the power. I've always just held down the power button and powered down, and I still do it with my iMac.

The only thing is to let all activity cease first. You don't want to cut the power when the hard drive is still writing.