Working with Software Suspend
Deep Soft Sleep
Nearly all motherboards have a power management feature designed to power down the computer and put it into suspend mode. In real life, this feature does not always work. Linux has a software-based workaround for the dysfunctional suspend.
The theory behind Software Suspend is simple: Linux writes the memory content, and other memory buffers such as the graphics memory, out to the swap partition, and then switches the computer off. The next time the computer boots, Linux checks the swap partition, discovers that the computer operating system was not shut down in the normal way but was, instead, stopped by Software Suspend, and restores the memory from the existing files. The approach mainly ignores the BIOS and its power management system, so there is no need to worry about BIOS errors. This is good news for users whose computers do not support internal APM or ACPI-based suspend. In a perfect world, software suspend would work perfectly – wouldn’t it be great if life were that simple? The biggest obstacle for the operating system is capturing the memory data. To do this, Linux needs to launch a new process that actually changes the memory content. In other words, the system needs to be in as stable a state as possible before you put it to sleep. And there are some drivers that refuse to cooperate (for instance, the NVidia and ATI graphics adapter drivers).
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
EU Sovereign Tech Fund Gains Traction
OpenForum Europe recently released a report regarding a sovereign tech fund with backing from several significant entities.
-
FreeBSD Promises a Full Desktop Installer
FreeBSD has lacked an option to include a full desktop environment during installation.
-
Linux Hits an Important Milestone
If you pay attention to the news in the Linux-sphere, you've probably heard that the open source operating system recently crashed through a ceiling no one thought possible.
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.