← Back to context

Comment by oblio

9 hours ago

Does Linux support hibernate or suspend well, 30 years after both technologies have been introduced?

Yes. The initial problem was ACPI tables in the BIOSes. They were wrong for benign (Windows doesn't care about them much, so the manufacturer was not aware that they are important), or not-so-benign (break them to break Linux compatibility on cheaper devices) reasons. Suspend and Hibernate work pretty flawlessly on higher end devices (i.e. Thinkpads, Pro/Elitebooks, Compaq NX series, etc.) for longer since these machines were designed as OS agnostic and had flawless BIOSes in terms of implementation w.r.t. consumer devices.

Remember, Halloween documents' opening salvo was the idea of extending ACPI so that Linux becomes unbootable on PC hardware.

Hibernation is the same deal. You also need to have a swap file/partition slightly larger than your RAM, since it's dumped to SWAP during hibernation.

So, why don't you come over here? We have cookies.

I don't know what "well" means, but I suspend my laptop whenever I move it around, travel, etc. I used hibernation a lot many years ago, where it worked as perfectly as I would expect.

Not even Windows hibernates or suspends reliably. Apple seems to be the only vendor that can get this right.

  • I've been using hibernate on Windows for the last... 15 years? And I don't remember ever having a problem. Lenovo and HP laptops.

Hibernate and Suspend never worked well for me or my coworkers or relatives when we tried it on Windows.

I never understood the point of hibernate/suspend. Just turn off your laptop when you are done.