Does enabling wakeonlan automatically work for you reliably? I tried enabling with cron, but that only works at @reboot . I tried with systemd and other tools as described in https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Wake-on-LAN and other pages, yet I have to turn it on manually always. The target system runs ubuntu.
WOL being unreliable is usually a question of hardware. If it works sometimes, then your configuration is probably correct and the issue les6s in your switching network, your NIC, or your motherboard.
A lot of switches suck. Start by validating that every single wakeup packet is getting from wakeup server to client while it’s awake, and make sure the payload is intact.
If you’re seeing occasional packet loss, modify your WOL script to spam several magic packets over a couple minutes. Won’t hurt devices that are already awake.
If you’re not getting packets lost, put another WOL device on the same port and see if it wakes up more reliably.