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suspend/waleup

post #1 of 23
5/16/09 at 6:10am
Thread Starter 
Hi folks.

I've got a new install of Kubuntu 9.04 on an ASUS M3N78-VM motherboard, and I can't get the machine to suspend/wake properly.

This is a desktop system - I've installed several power management packages, but none of them work as desired. What I want:

- suspend to RAM (I believe this is state S3), where the fans, CPUs and drives shut down, and the machine wakes up for either a myth recording, or from a key press or mouse event

In other words, not hibernate, but a very low power state where the machine is usable within a few seconds after waking.

Do I need a custom kernel? I'm willing to build one, if that's what it takes. What options would I need to enable?

Thanks!
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post #2 of 23
5/16/09 at 7:36am
What happens currently? Nothing?

Your motherboard and BIOS have to support S3 - make sure they do, and that it's enabled in BIOS.

You should not need a custom kernel, or any additional power management packages - S3 suspend from the desktop has worked for all of my systems since 8.04, when hardware has support for it.
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post #3 of 23
5/16/09 at 7:40am
This is perhaps the weakest part of linux - suspend or hibernate. I've had little to no luck getting suspend to work in linux that I've pretty much given up on the idea. It seemed that the last decent linux version that suspend worked for me was 7.04 ubuntu. Others here may have had different experiences. BTW, one of the big problems is all the various combinations of motherboards and video cards - not to mention the nuances in different motherboard bios.
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post #4 of 23
5/16/09 at 8:08am
Hibernate's always worked fine for me in Debian. You do have to compile the kernel, setting the hibernate part to the correct swap part, and for a laptop in KPowerSave|General set Lid Close to Suspend to Disk.

I haven't tried Suspend to RAM after a set time, but am curious about it for the HTPC. I know that journalling for ext3 hits the disk annoyingly constantly, so I'd be surprised if ppl could actually do S3.
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post #5 of 23
5/16/09 at 8:11pm
What's crazy is that I've had the BEST luck suspending in linux. It's just worked. Where, Windows XP has never worked on any of my hardware, even with the reg tweaks for USB devices...
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post #6 of 23
5/17/09 at 4:38am
I don't know Ubuntu well, but on Mandriva Linux S3 (suspend to ram) works fine with the standard kernel.
On the KDE3.5 desktop that I'm using, all I need to do is open KPowersave and click on 'suspend to RAM'. It works flawlessly.
I didn't have to install anything special for it.
Make sure the acpi daemon is running (acpid), this is the default on Mandriva Linux.
here is anything acpi related that I have running when using KDE3.5 (by default, I didn't have to configure or enable any of it):

Code:
# ps -ef|grep acpi
root        53     2  0 May16 ?        00:00:00 [kacpid]
root        54     2  0 May16 ?        00:00:00 [kacpi_notify]
root      2655     1  0 May16 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/acpid
70        5588  5538  0 May16 ?        00:00:00 hald-addon-acpi: listening on acpid socket /var/run/acpid.socket
As Jay_S suggested, make sure your BIOS power saving option is set to S3 (STR).
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post #7 of 23
5/17/09 at 4:57am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the replies everybody. To answer some questions:

- acpid is running
- S3 is supported in the BIOS
- when I suspend now (either pm_suspend, kpowersave, whatever), the screen goes black, but the fans don't stop, and there's no way to get the machine to respond to any input - at this point I have to reset it

Is a home-built kernel my next step? As this is an htpc, having it run at full power 24/7 is not an option. I'd rather install Windows, which would really bum me out.

By the way - I've got another machine in the house (an old Dell) that's running xubuntu 9.04 which behaves the exact same way when it tries to suspend.
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post #8 of 23
5/17/09 at 5:11am
Post the output of the last bunch of lines from /var/log/messages from when you attempt a suspend, maybe there are any useful error messages in there.
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post #9 of 23
5/17/09 at 5:53am
I just tried Suspect to RAM from kpowersave in Debian Testing, and it worked flawlessly. Fan off and power button flashing, then on wake it asked for unlock password, and brought up my 5GHz wifi connexion with no router beacon (cloaked) right away, and reestablished my NX session with the remote machine.
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post #10 of 23
5/17/09 at 7:50am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tux99 View Post

Post the output of the last bunch of lines from /var/log/messages from when you attempt a suspend, maybe there are any useful error messages in there.

There isn't anything in /var/log/messages at all related to the attempted suspend. The last entry is from the previous boot.
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post #11 of 23
5/17/09 at 8:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by feh View Post

Thanks for the replies everybody. To answer some questions:

- acpid is running
- S3 is supported in the BIOS
- when I suspend now (either pm_suspend, kpowersave, whatever), the screen goes black, but the fans don't stop, and there's no way to get the machine to respond to any input - at this point I have to reset it

Is a home-built kernel my next step? As this is an htpc, having it run at full power 24/7 is not an option. I'd rather install Windows, which would really bum me out.

By the way - I've got another machine in the house (an old Dell) that's running xubuntu 9.04 which behaves the exact same way when it tries to suspend.

That's what most of my machines do as well. On my current work machine suspend works perfectly with OSX86 and Windows XP but in linux it kind of works. It suspends but on wake it increments the ethernet from eth0, to eth1, ... until it runs out of ethX in my interfaces file then the networking is dead. My other machines just don't wake from suspend or sleep with their fans and drives running. Weird.
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post #12 of 23
5/17/09 at 8:25am
OS & release Michael? Using NetworkMangler?
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post #13 of 23
5/17/09 at 8:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by quantumstate View Post

OS & release Michael? Using NetworkMangler?

I am using both 8.04 and 8.10 of Ubuntu and I avoid using networkmanger where possible. I tried every hack known or mentioned on Ubuntu's forum with no luck - sometimes I could fix one thing but then break something else. My current work machine is a generic intel ICH9 mobo with 7600gt nvidia and nothing else installed.
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post #14 of 23
5/17/09 at 8:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by feh View Post

There isn't anything in /var/log/messages at all related to the attempted suspend. The last entry is from the previous boot.

That doesn't sound good, there should be messages, this is what I get when doing STR:

Code:
May 17 17:39:22 colibri kernel: sky2 eth1: disabling interface
May 17 17:39:22 colibri NET[7946]: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown-post : updated /etc/resolv.conf
May 17 17:39:22 colibri mdkapplet[6186]: Checking Network: seems disabled
May 17 17:39:23 colibri kernel: Syncing filesystems ... done.
And on resume I get a whole bunch more of messages, similar to boot messages, just not as many.

I don't know what else to suggest as I have never had to troubleshoot suspend/resume, it always just worked for me.
My only suggestion would be to try another distro, to see if it's distro related or if it's a general Linux acpi problem with your hardware, you don't even have to install it, try a live boot CD distro, my suggestion would be Mandriva, as that's the one that works for me:
http://www.mandriva.com/
(get the Mandriva Linux One 2009 Spring CD, either Gnome or KDE4, whichever you prefer)
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post #15 of 23
5/17/09 at 8:48am
Hm, works for Jay on Ubongo. Implies hardware. Do you have the BIOS set right?
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post #16 of 23
5/17/09 at 8:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by quantumstate View Post

Hm, works for Jay on Ubongo. Implies hardware. Do you have the BIOS set right?

I didn't mean that acpi doesn't work in Ubuntu in general, I meant it might not work with Michael's or feh's specific hardware and therefore it could be worth trying a different distro.
Distros use different kernel versions and many distros apply their own patches to the kernel, so it could work with one distro while it doesn't work with another.

It's not uncommon that some hardware doesn't work with one distro, while it works perfectly with another.
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post #17 of 23
5/17/09 at 9:07am
You'd posted tux, before I could get that post in for Michael.
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post #18 of 23
5/17/09 at 9:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by quantumstate View Post

You'd posted tux, before I could get that post in for Michael.

Ok no probs, now I get it, I thought yours was a comment about my suggestion.
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post #19 of 23
5/17/09 at 1:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by feh View Post

I've got a new install of Kubuntu 9.04...

Hmm... seems pulseaudio affects suspend in Jaunty.

Bug# 312505: Pulseaudio inhibits suspend and hibernate
Killing pulse allows people to suspend.

More at ubuntuforums.org
Installing the .29 kernel fixed it for one member.
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post #20 of 23
5/17/09 at 3:40pm
Oh, Pulseaudio, is there anything you *can't* eff up??
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post #21 of 23
5/18/09 at 6:11am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay_S View Post

Hmm... seems pulseaudio affects suspend in Jaunty.

Bug# 312505: Pulseaudio inhibits suspend and hibernate
Killing pulse allows people to suspend.

More at ubuntuforums.org
Installing the .29 kernel fixed it for one member.

Thanks, I'll try these suggestions tonight.
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post #22 of 23
5/19/09 at 6:27am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by feh View Post

Thanks, I'll try these suggestions tonight.

Bummer. Pulse audio isn't running on my system (it isn't even installed), and I installed the 2.6.29-3 kernel, but that made no difference at all - exact same behavior.
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post #23 of 23
5/25/09 at 9:04am
Thread Starter 
Some more info, as I've been able to work on this a bit lately...

I have found that the /etc/acpi/sleep.sh command actually is able to put my machine to sleep (suspend to ram). If I run that command without arguments, nothing happens, but if I use the "force" argument, the machine does suspend.

The problem is that it doesn't resume properly. It tries to wake up, but it spews a bunch of error messages regarding my root filesystem, and then unmounts it, requiring a reset of the machine.

I've done some googling, and I'm wondering if this is an XFS problem. Are any other folks using XFS and are able to get their machine to suspend/wake?

Thanks.
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