kernel-2.6.17-1.2139_FC5 won't sleep

[David A. De Graaf]

On Sat, Jun 24, 2006 at 09:51:36PM -0400, Matthew Saltzman wrote:
> On Sat, 24 Jun 2006, David A. De Graaf wrote:
> 
> >With kernel-2.6.17-1.2139_FC5 my IBM T30 laptop will no longer enter sleep
> >mode.  More accurately, it won't wake up.  When I close the lid and later
> >reopen it, the old XFCE4 display lights up, but is frozen.  Nothing works -
> >CTL-ALT-F2, CTL-ALT-BS.  The only option is to press and hold the power
> >button to shutdown and reboot.
> >
> >I was so proud of myself for finally figuring out how to make the sleep
> >mode work with the broken FC5.  The documentation is mighty sparse.
> >If I create these additional files, sleep mode seems to work, although
> >I'm not sure that the battery drain is as low as it used to be:
> 
> Actually, on my T41, FC5 is the first release to suspend/resume correctly 
> right out of the box (modulo an issue with powering off the graphics chip 
> that's been around for a while and has a known workaround).  But I can 
> think of a few points to consider.  For one thing, I'm running GNOME.

One might hope that the window manager would simply manage windows and
have no effect on the sleep function - but that would be probably be
utopian and naive.

> 
> Were you using APM or ACPI in FC4?

I misspoke that sleep mode works in FC4.  Apparently that was
remembered from an even earlier time, say, FC3.  Sorry!  
> 
> Did you update from FC4 or do a fresh install?  Do you have pm-utils 
> installed?

I freshly installed FC5, but I retained a separate partition with the
entire FC4 system.  By rebooting the FC4 system, I found that sleep
mode didn't work there, either.  In the earlier system that did work I
must have been using APM, because I only recently learned about ACPI,
and the new control files that must be added to make sleep work.

I do have pm-utils installed, but don't knowingly use any of the 11
programs contained because there are only 2 man pages, and one of them
is wrong - on_ac_power returns 0 with or without the charger connected.
Call me a coward, but I lack enthusiasm for blindly trying programs that
suggest they might irreversibly change the state of my machine.

> 
> What's your video card?  Are you seeing the machine indicate that it's 
> suspended properly but just stay hot and drain the battery?  What part of 
> the machine stays hot?

lspci says my IBM T30 laptop has this:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc
  Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]

I haven't accurately measured the comparative rates of battery
discharge while asleep vs. awake because it takes a long time to do
the experiment.  I will, though.
I do have the subjective recollection that when the earlier non-ACPI
system slept, the battery drain was very, very low.
Now, after pressing Fn-F4 to enter sleep mode, I can see that the screen,
although blank, seems to still have the backlight on.  That would seem
to use power unnecessarily, but I can't find any way to turn that off,
too.

> 
> Are you logged in when you suspend?

Yes, certainly.  I'm running X, and xfce4.

I've also just tried sleeping from a basic console - with no X running -
with both kernel 2.6.16-1.2133_FC5 and 2.6.17-1.2139_FC5.
Both kernels sleep and awaken satisfactorily.  Therefore the failure of
the newer kernel to awaken with X running is almost surely a misfunction
with the X server.

-- 
	David A. De Graaf    DATIX, Inc.    Hendersonville, NC
	dad at datix.us         www.datix.us