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    Can't resume on two netbooks with three different distros

    This isn’t Kubuntu specific, but about Linux in general.

    I have two HP netbooks, both ten years old, both similar models, with similar hardware. They have performed flawlessly over the years with various linux distros.

    Back in March I wiped both netbooks and installed Lubuntu, so I could donate them to a church school.

    Due to COVID, the church school shutdown, and the netbooks were not needed and returned to me.

    Outside of both computers having completely discharged batteries (they sat unplugged for four months) they had no damage.

    I installed a SSD in one of them and installed a low resource distro. After finishing installing, I noticed that the netbook would not come out of sleep mode when opening the cover. The only way to get the OS to come back up was to disconnect the AC adapter and remove the battery.

    The netbook did this consistently, so I assumed that it couldn’t handle the SSD (256GB 6Gb/s). I installed the original hard drive, with the Lubuntu I had on there for the school. After rebooting a couple of times, the netbook started to do the same behavior, not come back up after opening the screen (fans would work, lights on the keyboard, but no response when pressing keys, and no display on the monitor).

    I wiped the Lubuntu, and found another low resource distro. After installation, the behavior resumed.

    Assuming there was a hardware problem, I moved over to the second netbook. Installing the same low resource distro (Q4OS) the same behavior starting happening on the second netbook.

    Trying one more distro (Bodhi) the behavior returned. Both netbooks will not resume when opening the lid. Keys are unresponsive, no display, and the only way to recover is to unplug and remove the battery.

    So what would have happened that two identical netbooks that had no issues, now are BOTH displaying the same resume from sleep problem, across multiple distros?

    #2
    No answers from me, but a couple questions/comments;

    "...both ten years old..." This could be a significant source of the problem. You installed lightweight distros, but with kernels a decade newer then the computer. My first thought is BIOS compatibility issues. Search for boot line entries that disable or modify ACPI responses and features. ACPI has been a source of this type of problem in the past.

    All the distros you installed are Debian based. You might try something else like Manjaro, which is Arch based.

    You need to be more specific about the problem. When you say "...would not come out of sleep mode when opening the cover..." do you mean they do not power up? or they power on but the screen doesn't not power on? or they power on but the screen is black (no image does not equal no power)? etc. There's a huge difference between system off, screen off, and screen blank.

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      #3
      Good question about the laptop. When I close the lids, the netbooks go into suspend mode. The fans turn off, and I can see the power indicator flashing, When I lift the lid, the cpu fan starts up, the power light becomes steady, the light on the wifi and caps lock come on, but none of the keys work. Nothing comes up on the display, no flickering, flashing, nothing. If I close the lid, the cpu fan continues to spin, not turning back off. Opening and closing the display at this point will not change anything, the lights are the same, and the cpu fan continues to run.

      I saw some options for ACPI in the BIOS, I'll go disable options and see what happens.

      Now that you mention it, I did catch this error on both machines..

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        #4
        It's along shot, but you might see if HP has a BIOS update.

        Here's some reading for you: https://01.org/linux-acpi/documentat...ux-acpi-issues

        One thing you can try right away is add "acpi=off" into thr GRUB boot line, but do it from the GRUB menu to test it. That way it's not permanent if it causes problem.

        Here's a how-to on doing that if you're unfamiliar:

        https://askubuntu.com/questions/1600...i-when-booting

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          #5
          Adding the acpi=off option to the grub kept the fans running when I closed the lid, instead of going into suspend mode. Opening the lid demonstrated the same behavior.

          There actually IS an update for the BIOS! I have version F23, HP says latest (2012) is F25. Just downloaded it and will install it later.

          If that doesn't work, any suggestions for distros for old hardware? Or not Ubuntu based?

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            #6
            There are a series of "acpi=" options you should try. The "off" turns ALL of it off, that's why nothing behaved. If you're lucky, you can drill down and figure out which specific acpi feature is causing the problem and just turn it off. One of those links had a list of possible things to try, I think.

            Fingers crossed that the BIOS update solves it for good!

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              #7
              Fixed! It wasn't the BIOS upgrade (only would fix a small keyboard language error, and requires Windows to install, so I skipped it). Loading Manjaro (xcfe) did it. I installed, rebooted, updated, rebooted, then closed the lid and reopened it 3-4 times and it came back up every single time!

              So what does Arch have that Ubuntu/Debian doesn't that caused this to work?

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                #8
                Originally posted by ScottyK View Post
                Fixed! It wasn't the BIOS upgrade (only would fix a small keyboard language error, and requires Windows to install, so I skipped it). Loading Manjaro (xcfe) did it. I installed, rebooted, updated, rebooted, then closed the lid and reopened it 3-4 times and it came back up every single time!

                So what does Arch have that Ubuntu/Debian doesn't that caused this to work?
                Depending on the *Ubuntu version(s) of the distros you've used the major difference is going to be kernel version and build options and patches used. Manjaro/Arch will be much more current on the kernel version.

                Sent from my LM-V600 using Tapatalk

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                  #9
                  I'd take a good look at the grub config and kernel options along with power settings and loading modules. See if you can re-create the Manjaro settings on the other laptop with Kubuntu. BTW, Manjaro has a very nicely done KDE/Plasma version as well. I have it installed here.Remember that while KDE and early versions of Plasma were resource heavy, the latest version are quite efficient and run well on lighter hardware.

                  Also, there are some ACPI tools you could install and have a deeper look at your settings.
                  Last edited by oshunluvr; Aug 07, 2020, 05:19 AM.

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