New Linux PC can't suspend
 

Please,
I just installed Mint on a refurbished Alienware tower. These systems are not designed to run GNU/Linux. After much troubleshooting I was able to boot into a fresh install and things work fine for the most part. The issue is that the system cannot suspend. When I tell it to do so, the screen goes black but the machine is still running, fans and all, and unresponsive. I believe that the fault lies with the motherboard as it is peculiar. The BIOS provides very few options and I don't think that there's anything to be done in there. Maybe I could find a work around in the operating system... Can you help me?
Thank you,
Andrew

Hardware: Alienware Area-51 R2, Intel 5820k, 16GB Ram, 3x GTX 980s with SLI bridge, 1600W PSU

What distro/version/desktop environment did you install on this box and what precisely did you do in attempting to suspend it.

Try install the nvidia proprietary video driver.

Swap?

As above, ^^^

When you installed Mint did you set up a swap file? For the suspend function to work (as I understand it!) you need a swap file which is equal in size to the amount of memory you have filled (You may want to set it to the max allowable memory in case you later upgrade the memory.)

Then, when you ask to suspend the computer, the memory contents are dumped into the swap file, the computer shuts down, clearing the main memory.
When you restart from suspend, the swap contents are restored to main memory and you can continue from where you left off.

No computer that I can think of is "designed to run Linux", Linux is designed to run on any computer and can run on probably more architectures than Windows does, Intel, Sparc,Dec Alpha, ARM, etc.

Just my :twocents: worth!

Play Bonny!

:hattip:

Swap file is used for hibernation, not suspend.

Member Response
 

Hi,

@OP You might want to look at this to get some understanding; https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pow..._and_hibernate

Arch always has a reputation for good information that one can rely on.

Hope this helps.
:hattip:

I stand corrected.

Play Bonny!

:hattip:

I'm running Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon. It is using the recommended Nvidia driver and has NO swap partition. After I made this thread last night, I experimented a little. The first time that I tried to suspend, the screen went black but the computer wouldn't go to sleep. The second time it DID go to sleep but would not display when awoken. A few minutes ago I tried suspending and it's doing what it did the first time, that is: no display and not going to sleep. I'm literally just clicking "suspend" in the "quit menu". That's it. I have other computers running Linux Mint and they don't do wierd things like this. The motherboard is a replacement but the old one had the same problems, and the firmware is up to date. I worry that this issue might be caused by an engineering mistake or sloppy firmware implementation. There are some other problems with this system not related to the issue presented in this thread. What things can I try to solve this issue?

The linux kernel documentation describes a useful command-line parameter that can help with suspend:

The first thing would be to read the logs.

That's for hibernating to swap.