Hi,

First I should say that I don't expect someone to have an answer to this - I'm looking for suggestions about how to start to debug the problem. I have been using linux for a long time, but only using it to do other things - I know little about how it works.

I have a laptop with the Phoenix NoteBIOS (4.0). Previously I had Slackware 10.1 installed and was able to use the suspend to disk function without any problems. (I think this worked via apm somehow instructing the BIOS to use its suspend to disk manager, but really I have little idea.)

I changed to Slackware 10.2, and although the suspend to disk works sometimes (apparently via the same mechanism as before), about 1 time in 5 the laptop gets stuck, and often it takes a long time (up to 30 seconds, where usually it is just a few seconds) before the BIOS's suspend to disk manager appears.

On the times where the suspend to disk fails, before the BIOS's suspend to disk manager appears, everything freezes (black screen). After a few minutes the laptop's fan comes on. This will continue until I kill the power (I left it for a few hours one time).

When I installed Slackware 10.1 and 10.2, I don't remember doing anything to customize the installation. I used the default kernels both times, etc, and booted from the CD without passing any options (I think).

I have two devices connected to the computer: a USB mouse and a wireless LAN card (both present when I used 10.1, too). I have a script in /etc/apm/ that stops the hotplug service, and another that does a 'cardctl eject'. I've tried suspending with neither of these devices present, and the results are the same.

How can I work out where the process is getting stuck? I tried looking at /var/log/messages but I don't see anything to indicate where the failure occurs. Of course I might be missing something obvious.


Thanks very much in advance,
Chris

This is a shot in the dark but I'd try using the 2.6.13 kernel in /testing and recompile it with all of the acpi and laptop options enabled.

Thanks, but what I'd really like to do is learn how to use log messages etc. (maybe adding some of my own to various scripts?) to work out at least where the suspend procedure is getting stuck. Knowing the different packages between 10.1 and 10.2, that might allow me to guess what is causing the problem. Or does that sound way too naïve?

Your suggestion might well result in me having suspend to disk working properly on my laptop, solving my problem. But I don't really want to spend my time learning how to do that, particularly since I could render my computer unusable...I need to use it for work!

Thanks anyway