
New Linux version will reduce suspend and resume times - RougeFemme
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/03/new-linux-version-will-reduce-suspend-and-resume-times/
======
6cxs2hd6
Some of us have the impression that "Linux doesn't work well on laptops",
specifically when it comes to suspend/resume and power consumption.

Under that impression, you have to find on eBay one particular ThinkPad
manufactured in 2005, and spend a day tweaking things. Then it will work.
Usually.

That impression was accurate, not too many years ago. It looks like it's not
anymore?

It seems to me that this update is a great way to change that old impression.
If only because "X works faster" is a way to reinforce that "X works at all".

p.s. To clarify, I'm talking about perception/impression not reality. Changing
how people think.

~~~
valarauca1
I currently use a very cheap read ~250 dollar lenovo laptop. Running Ubuntu.
Its default power settings are great, at light usage I can easily go a day or
two without a charge.

Close lid + suspend works perfectly. I think I've booked about 2-3 months of
it being continuously on. On open I get a black screen that states system
resuming, then a login prompt not 1-2 seconds later (and I hear my hard drive
begin to spin again).

Perfectly fluid, I'm honestly afraid to move away from unity, lest I lose this
feature.

The only issue I have is since upgrading to FireFox 28.0.1 it sometimes
crashes when it resumes. I've sent several reports to mozilla. I think the
issue is flash.

~~~
ggreer
What exact model of Lenovo do you have? I got a Thinkpad x140e in the
configuration certified by Ubuntu:
[http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201309-14195/](http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201309-14195/)

It has been a nightmare.

Bluetooth doesn't work. Changing screen brightness doesn't work. X crashes on
startup. Even Ubuntu's GUI installer crashes on startup. Suspend works, but I
can only resume by opening the lid, not by typing or clicking. Also, once I
resume, focus is often on the last app, not the password input. The first time
this happened, I typed my password. No effect. Confused, I clicked on the
password input and tried again. Success, but my terminal said, "*K&GD#TYIBO("
command not found. That means anyone can run a command as my user simply by
typing it at the password prompt. For some reason this only happens when
resuming from suspend, not after locking the screen.

I have a mostly-working system today. Brightness is still stuck at maximum,
limiting the battery to 6 hours. (Windows 8 gets 9 hours.) The latest beta
Catalyst drivers fix X crashing, but I still get screen tearing so watching
video is extremely annoying. Bluetooth no longer crashes, but it can't see any
discoverable devices or pair with them. Wifi transfers at 802.11n speeds once
I compile the latest drivers.

I thought I'd picked a good laptop to run Linux on, but it turns out that
Ubuntu's hardware certification is worthless. It's so frustrating, because
once you max-out the RAM and install an SSD, the x140e just needs working
drivers.

~~~
noahl
I'm sorry if this is obvious to you, but your post makes it sound like you may
have bought a laptop in the configuration listed and then tried to install
Ubuntu. Quoting from the Ubuntu website you linked,

    
    
        Standard images of Ubuntu may not work at all on the
        system or may not work well, though Canonical and
        computer manufacturers will try to certify the system
        with future standard releases of Ubuntu.
    

Did you use a standard Ubuntu image, or get one pre-installed?

~~~
ggreer
I used the standard Ubuntu image. I tried 12.04LTS, 13.10, and 14.04LTS
alpha/beta/whatever.

I'm not sure it's possible to buy an x140e with Ubuntu preinstalled. When
purchasing from Lenovo's website, the OS choices are all versions of Windows 7
and 8. It would be nice if this potentially modified version of Ubuntu was
released somewhere.

------
viraptor
I'm interested what caused the slowdown in the first place. It must be
architecture dependent, since my laptop (thinkpad) suspends fast enough that I
never thought of measuring it. (2-3 seconds, I guess)

------
higherpurpose
They should ditch ACPI anyway. It seems it's too unsafe:

[http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1332](http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1332)

~~~
kryptiskt
ACPI isn't going away on PCs, ditching it means ditching PCs as a target.

~~~
celebril
They said that for 16-bit CPUs and BIOS as well.

~~~
Dylan16807
Why would anyone ever claim that 16 bit support would never go away? Not that
it did go away: all the x86_64 chips still have 16 bit support.

~~~
Gormo
And modern PC motherboards still ship with traditional BIOS support.

