Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

Lazer · 2008-01-31 00:02:57

Tried hundreds of Linuxes on my Linux-hostile hardware (Sony, Compaq, Acer laptops - new and old). None of them is working perfectly but some are getting close. One of them was Archlinux but it failed to get suspend-to-ram working (Sony) like many other distros. Since Ubuntu forums are crowded with unexperienced guys, maybe this one's a different league. If there is anyone who could tell me how to convince my Sony to go to sleep AND wake up again - that would be really great.

Any success in this respect would definitely force me to use Archlinux on a regular basis - although package selection and installation through a command line interface is probably the first thing I'd be inclined to change if I was in charge and wanted Archlinux to race up the Distrowatch rankings (I just hope I have not insulted any "religious beliefs" out there by mentioning that). Otherwise Archlinux looks pretty neat.

Any hope for my hardware to cooperate before Kernel 5.0.0?

Thanks.

Cerebral · 2008-01-31 00:44:22

Lazer wrote:

although package selection [...] is probably the first thing I'd be inclined to change

I'm sorry to not have the answer to your suspend issue, but based on the quote above, please contribute to this thread: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=42984&p=2

Misfit138 · 2008-01-31 01:06:08

Lazer wrote:

package selection and installation through a command line interface is probably the first thing I'd be inclined to change if I was in charge and wanted Archlinux to race up the Distrowatch rankings (I just hope I have not insulted any "religious beliefs" out there by mentioning that).

Blasphemer!

Sjoden · 2008-01-31 02:32:51

There are a few suspend to HD and to RAM options, searh the archwiki, also, there is areunofficial GUI installers for packages. The one i've heard about, and used a tiny bit is Jacman. There are links to these in the archwiki. Good luck .

dmartins · 2008-01-31 02:52:26

Unfortunately, suspend is a tricky thing to get working on any laptop. I don't have a real answer for you, but you might want to provide more than just the brand name your laptop is
Model, including some basic specs like chipset and video card info would be a good start.
I hope you learn to enjoy arch, it really is one of the best distros around right now. However, it won't get your suspend working automagically -- that is up to you!

Lazer · 2008-01-31 03:33:43

Thanks guys for all your feedback. I was told quite a few times "men never grow up". So I suppose it's all right if I play around with that d***d Sony for some more time. If worst comes to the worst I'll have to consider spending a bit more and get myself a Thinkpad ....

iBertus · 2008-01-31 04:38:36

Lazer wrote:

Thanks guys for all your feedback. I was told quite a few times "men never grow up". So I suppose it's all right if I play around with that d***d Sony for some more time. If worst comes to the worst I'll have to consider spending a bit more and get myself a Thinkpad ....

It's what I should have done. I'd be alot happier right now if my HP would suddenly become a Thinkpad. My homebrew desktop is working flawless, my factory built laptop is two steps up from a brick with linux. I'm forced to dual boot Vista and Arch because the thing still has random lockups with linux when running with SMP enabled. Sucks...!

phrakture · 2008-01-31 05:37:41

Lazer wrote:

although package selection and installation through a command line interface is probably the first thing I'd be inclined to change if I was in charge and wanted Archlinux to race up the Distrowatch rankings (I just hope I have not insulted any "religious beliefs" out there by mentioning that)

Well it's a good thing you're not in charge then, or else we'd be yet-another-ubuntu-clone 8)

dhave · 2008-01-31 07:19:48

phrakture wrote:

Lazer wrote:
although package selection and installation through a command line interface is probably the first thing I'd be inclined to change if I was in charge and wanted Archlinux to race up the Distrowatch rankings (I just hope I have not insulted any "religious beliefs" out there by mentioning that)
Well it's a good thing you're not in charge then, or else we'd be yet-another-ubuntu-clone 8)

It's just a matter of time before Distrowatch features a new distro ... Archbuntu.

xd-0 · 2008-01-31 09:36:30

The command line and pacman gives so much controll over package managment. I think you will enjoy it when you get to learn the basics, so give it some time.
But as everyone said, there are some good frontends to pacman.

madeye · 2008-02-01 07:27:29

iBertus wrote:

I'd be alot happier right now if my HP would suddenly become a Thinkpad. My homebrew desktop is working flawless, my factory built laptop is two steps up from a brick with linux. I'm forced to dual boot Vista and Arch because the thing still has random lockups with linux when running with SMP enabled. Sucks...!

I don't know if this will help you, but my HP notebook works super after I added NOAPIC to the kernel line. Before that I also had the random lockups.

neotuli · 2008-02-01 08:18:39

Since the problem is across many distros, I tend to think that it is probably a kernel-level issue. We don't patch our kernel much (that's another part of the "arch way", vanilla-as-possible), so if it's upstream and none of the other distros have patches for it, you might be waiting for a while.

...or you could get your hands dirty and submit some patches upstream, i'm sure they wouldn't say no 8)

iphitus · 2008-02-01 11:07:27

With a lot of hardware, there's a tonne of tweaks you can try which may make it work. Once you know what they are, suspend can be surprisingly reliable.

Where does your suspend normally fail? And what exactly happens?

schivmeister · 2008-02-01 14:17:52

Essentials
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Suspend_to_RAM
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Suspend_to_Disk

Suspend to RAM

This one is flawless, given your hardware is friendly with acpi. First of all, if you're in KDE, try KLaptop, as that's the only GUI I have experience with. It's in KDEMod as klaptop-daemon. What it does, is basically asks permission to take care of stuff for YOU. After that, it's all right-click-choose-suspend-to-ram.

Suspend to Disk

This is a little more work than RAM. Read above wikis.

Notes

- It's not anybody's fault if nothing works; you chose Linux, you chose Arch Linux, so you are responsible for everything
- Arch Linux is not x Linux; not Ubuntu, not Gentoo
- Distrowatch is not significant at all; it does not exist
- Blame exotic hardware
- May want to give Mac or Windows a try
- If however you refuse to do the above, and nothing works, do not complain, all you can do is cry alone
- Some hardware are just plain bad, even if they're expensive, they sway too much out of standards and tend to rely heavily on proprietary software (hence not being able to work with basic acpi functions) to make them work. It is a conspiracy, yes. Welcome to the World.

Testimonial

Both kinds of suspend work as well as they could with my Compaq V3000 (not too much exotic stuff), however I like using the stock kernel and it's been a few days since I rebooted/changed kernel so s2ram is really all I can do, and like.

22:25:36 up 10 days,  1:34,  1 user,  load average: 0.36, 0.58, 0.52

Disk takes a significantly longer time than Windows or Mac, say about 10 seconds or so. So I don't like it as much, but it's helpful when battery is close to 0 mins.

Last edited by schivmeister (2008-02-01 14:29:16)

patroclo7 · 2008-02-01 15:18:16

The ability to suspend properly to ram with s2ram depends on the presence of your laptop model in the s2ram whitelist. So, when you find the right, minimal combination of tricks following the wiki article above, report it to the suspend-devel mailing list.

pelle.k · 2008-02-01 16:49:27

recompile kernel with support for acpi_debug (i belive), and run

sync; echo 1 > /sys/power/pm_trace

before entering sleep state with "kernel interface", s2ram, pm-suspend or powersave.
"try" resuming, then reboot yuour computer and save the ouput of dmesg to study it in detail.

This is from a wiki article used for the same procedure in ubuntu;
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingKernelSuspend

endzeit · 2008-02-08 23:29:01

I use Suspend2Disk via pm-hibernate on my Acer Aspire 1640 Series Notebook (vanilla kernel) and it just works without any problems.

(Although I now know that a Suspend2* Button in the XFCE4 Shoutdown dialog is unfortunately Ubuntu specific.)
But thats not a big deal, s2ram does work out-of-the-box.

Last edited by endzeit (2008-02-08 23:31:25)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-01-31 00:02:57

Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

#2 2008-01-31 00:44:22

Re: Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

#3 2008-01-31 01:06:08

Re: Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

#4 2008-01-31 02:32:51

Re: Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

#5 2008-01-31 02:52:26

Re: Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

#6 2008-01-31 03:33:43

Re: Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

#7 2008-01-31 04:38:36

Re: Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

#8 2008-01-31 05:37:41

Re: Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

#9 2008-01-31 07:19:48

Re: Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

#10 2008-01-31 09:36:30

Re: Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

#11 2008-02-01 07:27:29

Re: Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

#12 2008-02-01 08:18:39

Re: Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

#13 2008-02-01 11:07:27

Re: Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

#14 2008-02-01 14:17:52

Re: Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

#15 2008-02-01 15:18:16

Re: Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

#16 2008-02-01 16:49:27

Re: Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

#17 2008-02-08 23:29:01

Re: Arch isn't too bad, actually, but ...

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