Power management problem on a dell vostro 1500

[Krzysieq]

Hi folks,

I have a four year old dell vostro 1500 laptop with Core 2 Duo processor. I've had the issues I'm about to describe also with the 12.04 beta 1 installation, but then they were not systematic. Now after I've reinstalled everything (new hdd partitioning), it's gone worse in terms of power management. Basically I can't power down the system. When I choose to shut down or restart, the computer freezes in a state where the hdd has been powered down, but the mainboard has not (indicated by the control leds still lit). Furthermore, sleep function seems to be working correctly, but hibernate doesn't work at all - it just blacks out the display, but nothing beyond that. Any ideas where this might be coming from? From where I'm sitting, this is a dealbreaker and unless I can fix this, I will have to sadly move back to M$ Win XP. I'd love to stick to kubuntu though, as I really love the kde look&feel.

Thanks in advance for all help.
Cheers,
Chris

[Krzysieq]

I've tried everything I managed to find about power-off issues in ubuntu (kernel options for acpi, apm), nothing seems to help. Sadly I think I'm going to have to move back to M$

[james147]

What happen is you issue sudo halt or sudo reboot or sudo shutdown -h now in konsole?

[Krzysieq]

It really depends, but not what I'd expect in general. I removed the "quiet splash" kernel options from grub, so typically I should see some console output on startup and shutdown, but while for startup it works, it's not always the case for shutdown. When I was tweaking with the acpi, acpi_osi and apm kernel options I sometimes got the pc to power down, in which case that event was preceeded by some console output, but sometimes I didn't - in which case there was no output at all, and the pc freezes in the state of hdd powered down (I think so as I can't hear it turning), but the leds for power and num lock on the laptop case are still on. Similar thing for the reboot - (sudo shutdown -r now) - sometimes it worked and there was some output, other times it didn't, and there was no output on the console. I never managed to get both the reboot and power off working at the same time, and what I observed is that after shutdown worked, the next time power off wouldn't, and the inverse - if power off would, shutdown wouldn't.

Just once and only once during my tests I saw console output during shutdown and the system stayed frozen (oddly enough with the screen on). The only thing I saw go wrong in the output was that it didn't manage to stop the winbind daemon, but I'm not sure if that had any influence on the freezing.

I was tempted to say this could be some hardware malfunction, but just a couple of days ago I still had a dual boot system - 12.04 beta 1 & win 8 customer preview, and none of this was to be seen on windows, while on kubuntu it happened occasionally. Now it's every time...

sudo halt is what? the same as sudo shutdown -h now? sudo reboot = sudo shutdown -r now?

Just to name a few things I've tried, here's a link to where I set off from:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...7&postcount=28

[Krzysieq]

A friend told me he had a somewhat similar issue installing debian a couple of years back. The solution was apparently to compile the kernel on his machine and use that one instead of the distributed one. I've worked on linux for a while, but I have never installed a home-brewed kernel. Do You guys think it could be the solution, and if so, is it possible to install kubuntu like this? Or how about a bios update? Do You think that could do the trick?

Regretfully, this post is written from windows vista

[schnelle]

Yes, bios update could help.

But first you can try with newer kernels. You can find them here: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/
Install v3.3.6-precise and test (install i386 pae debs if you installed 32bit kubuntu or amd64 debs if you installed 64bit kubuntu).

[ScottyK]

Krzysieq - I've got the exact same computer that you have. Now that you mention it, I've noticed that when I close the lid, the notebook cooler isn't turning off. I'll need to investigate this further, I wonder if the computer is still running when I put it in my backpack.

Edit - closing the lid puts the notebook into sleep mode. Confirmed by the blue power LED slowing flashing on and off.

However the USB ports remain power, as the notebook cooler pad continue to operate until I unplug it.

Didn't do that in 11.10, not sure why it's doing it now.

[Krzysieq]

@ScottyK - You can change what happens when You close the lid, I'm sure You know that. For me the preferred setting is for nothing to happen. Screen gets switched off by hardware means, the rest stays on. Which BIOS have You got? I used to have A01 revision, on Saturday I switched it to A06, the latest offered for download by Dell. Not sure if it helps as I don't have Kubuntu on my pc anymore :cry:

For the LEDs, when I powered off, the power led stayed on, but the PC wouldn't wake up after pressing the power button, so it was not sleep that was induced. Only press&hold the power button allowed the pc to power off completely. I can only guess that if I unplugged it, it would stay like this until the battery ran down. Are You observing similar behavior? As far as I can tell, You have pretty much the same setup in Your dell - CPU, video are same, I have less RAM and less HDD, but that shouldn't have any impact I guess...

I'll have to retry again, if it works it stays, if not I'll try what schnelle proposed - newer kernels. If that doesn't help, it will be a bitter goodbye between me and Kubuntu Windows Vista survived less than 2 days - nothing works as it should on that bloody system (oddly enough, the pc does power off / reboot / sleep / hibernate correctly though), now we have Win XP. Compared to 12.04 it's a pain to use, but it works...

[ScottyK]

Yes, I'm running the latest BIOS revision (A06). That's a pretty big jump from your stock BIOS to the latest revision.

You mentioned that you had the power problems, then on Saturday upgraded the BIOS. Have you considered giving it another try (Kubuntu) with the newest BIOS installed?

On my notebook I've got it set up to go into sleep mode when the lid is closed. This is confirmed by the computer getting very quiet (no harddrive or CPU fans running). Lifting the lid up turns the system back on.

I've had Kubuntu on this notebook for about three years now, and it's been solid. I'm curious if the BIOS upgrade will fix your problems.

[Krzysieq]

I will surely give Kubuntu another, well deserved chance But as my holiday is over, I will need a bit of time to do it (especially that now the machine is running win xp and my wife is quite happy about it). That said, she really enjoyed the transition from vista (which the laptop was bought with) to kubuntu 11.10, so she should be relatively easy to convince to endure another OS shift For a start I'll make it dual boot, and if it's rock solid, bye bye windows

[ScottyK]

I dual boot on this computer, and it's worked out. I've got a few windows games that I just can't get to work correctly under Kubuntu, so I don't mind switching over.

Been eyeing the hard drive prices, want to upgrade to a 500GB. Then it will be plenty of room for the MP3 partition that I have set up to be accessible from both OS.

[Krzysieq]

My better and prettier half also has a few apps that might be tricky to get to run in Kubuntu, so windows will stay for now. If I manage to do everything she wants and we need, then and only then will I get rid of windows. For gaming purposes I have PS3 - it's a shame though that Sony blocked the possibility to install linux on it a few years back.

[james147]

My better and prettier half also has a few apps that might be tricky to get to run in Kubuntu, so windows will stay for now. If I manage to do everything she wants and we need, then and only then will I get rid of windows. For gaming purposes I have PS3 - it's a shame though that Sony blocked the possibility to install linux on it a few years back.

On the up side valve are working on a linux port of steam and are possibly going to release a steam based console (that may or may not run linux).

[Krzysieq]

Bios update turned out no good I installed Kubuntu again last night, no change with respect to power off / restart behavior Leaves only the newer kernels on the plate...

[Krzysieq]

Installing kernel 3.3.7 didn't solve it either Maybe I will install kubuntu when we change the pc, but that's not planned anytime soon...