No Automatic Standby

[cweinhofer]

I am running Mint 17 64-bit. Everything was set up fine for a long time, but recently the computer stopped going into standby automatically. It will still work when I do it manually (from the menu etc.), but not automatically after a given time. I checked the settings in Power Management, and it is stet to "suspend when inactive" for a certain number of minutes.

I am assuming that there are logs I can check or somewhere to see what process might be preventing this, but I don't know where to start.

Thanks.

[Pjotr]

Please generate an overview of your system like this:
- launch a terminal window and make it fullscreen, to avoid chopped lines;
- copy/paste this command:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

(if you type: the letter F is a capital letter)

Press Enter.

Copy/paste the output in your next message.

[cweinhofer]

System: Host: Gigabyte-990FXA Kernel: 3.13.0-24-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.2)
Desktop: Gnome Distro: Linux Mint 17 Qiana
Machine: System: Gigabyte product: N/A
Mobo: AMD model: 990FXA-UD3 version: x.x Bios: American Megatrends version: FA date: 10/23/2012
CPU: Octa core AMD FX-8150 Eight-Core (-MCP-) cache: 16384 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 57864.3
Clock Speeds: 1: 1400.00 MHz 2: 1400.00 MHz 3: 1400.00 MHz 4: 3600.00 MHz 5: 2100.00 MHz 6: 3600.00 MHz 7: 1400.00 MHz 8: 1400.00 MHz
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Cape Verde PRO [Radeon HD 7750 / R7 250E] bus-ID: 01:00.0
X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1680x1050@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD CAPE VERDE GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.1.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2
Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Cape Verde/Pitcairn HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 7700/7800 Series] driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.13.0-24-generic
Network: Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: b000 bus-ID: 05:00.0
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 120.0GB (15.7% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: FUJITSU_MHW2120B size: 120.0GB
Partition: ID: / size: 32G used: 18G (60%) fs: ext4 ID: swap-1 size: 8.59GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
RAID: No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 19.1C mobo: N/A gpu: 34.0
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 233 Uptime: 16 days Memory: 1191.9/7952.9MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.2 Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4

[Pjotr]

In this case, you might benefit from a newer kernel. Try the latest *within the 3.13 series*, like this:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... el-updates
(item 3, right column)

Then reboot.

If that doesn't help, try installing all updates from level 4 and 5 (not just the security updates, but all of them). Then reboot.

If that fails, try an upgrade to 17.1 (can be done from within Update Manager).

[cweinhofer]

Thanks for your suggestions. I tried the kernel update and the 4 & 5 updates and those didn't seem to make a difference.

I was just going to try the upgrade to 17.1, but the option doesn't appear to be there in the update manager. This may be due to the fact that I chose "ignore" back when the upgrade first came out. How do I get it back?

[Cosmo.]

It is never a good idea to ignore updates or the update manager, you will likely get no updates at all.

In the update manager open the settings and go to the tab with the ignored updates. Remove the update manager from the list. You will probably have to do a refresh, if you have closed the settings.

[cweinhofer]

Sorry for the confusion. I didn't mean "ignore" in that technical sense. Just that when the original upgrade window came up a few months ago, I clicked the button that said "Skip Upgrading" or something similar.

I was actually able to fix the problem. I reverted to the default repositories and then saw an update to the update manager that was not previously there. Upon applying this update, my upgrade to 17.1 option returned. I am applying now.

[cweinhofer]

The 17.1 upgrade didn't seem to fix the problem either.

Any other ideas how I can find out what is preventing the computer from going to sleep automatically?

[Cosmo.]

2 ideas:

Assuming that the settings are right (that seems to be the case, as you said, that it previously worked for you): Probably a hardware failure? I mean, probably a keyboard.key or the mouse sends events, although you do not touch them. Try to exchange the hardware if possible.

Another approach: Create a new user account and do absolutely no changes except the correct settings for automatic standby. Then test.

[cweinhofer]

The keyboard and mouse tested fine and don't seem to be a problem, so I created a test user as you suggested. The automatic standby seems to work fine there.

So, is there some way to troubleshoot the current user or should I just delete and start fresh?

If the second, I would like to keep the user (I have a lot of permissions set up), but I'm guessing there is a way to wipe the user data and have the default restored.

[Pjotr]

I would like to keep the user (I have a lot of permissions set up), but I'm guessing there is a way to wipe the user data and have the default restored.

There is:

1. Make all the hidden files and folders visible in your /home folder
....which can be done in the file manager with the key combination Ctrl h

2. Then delete all of them, because they contain all of the user settings.

3. Then log out and log in again: every setting should be back to default for that user.

[Cosmo.]

Be carefull with that! By deleting all hidden files and folders the problem would go away nearly for sure, but all probably important data in those files also. That means e.g. any stored keys, settings of all applications (which most probably are not responsible for the problem), besides that all e-mails (if stored in Thunderbird, Firefox-Bookmarks, LibreOffice-Profile and much more.

So the least measurement must be, to store those files and folders on a safe place before deleting them.

Anyway I would at first try to do some other things.
At first try to reset Cinnamon: right click the panel, open the menu for troubleshooting and reset all settings to default. Restart Cinnamon after that and then test.

[cweinhofer]

Cosmo, thanks for the warning.

I was planning to back up the user folder anyway, because I know that some things will have to be restored to the profile; but thankfully this is a HTPC which doesn't have a lot of user data.

BTW, I tried your reset all settings suggestion and no joy - so it looks like the full profile reset will be necessary. At least it's better than a full reinstall.

[Cosmo.]

Some folders, that you might try to delete (after backing up) or - perhaps better - rename (so they can easily restored back):
~/.cinnamon
~/.config/cinnamon-session
~/.config/dconf
~/.local/share/cinnamon
~/.icons
~/.themes
This is just from some theoretical thoughts, not own experience. But as you consider a full profile reset anyway as the last option this does not really hurt. Log off and on after deleting.

Your second account should be member of the group sudo, so that in any case you can do any needed steps from there, if something should break totally.

EDIT: In the meantime I got another idea, how you probably can find out the culprit with less risk, that you probably loose the overview what you did and how to revert:
Copy all hidden files and folders into the new account. In fact you wouldn't need to copy folders / subfolders which only belong to certain programs, but simply copying all or nearly all is probably the easiest and quickest way; only such folders which are very great (e.g. in ~/.thunderbird there could be some GB of mail-data) should get excluded.
It is important, that the task of copying has to be done from inside the test account, otherwise the ownership of the files and folders would be wrong!

After copying a first test should show, that the problem is in the test account reproducible. Now delete all hidden files which are stored directly in home and test again. Then you delete the hidden folders, take a group (say 5 or so), delete and test, until the problem is gone. Now you have a small number of folders, in which the culprit is to be found. Copy them one by one back from the original account and you should - if my theory works - find the folder, where the problem resides. The rest should be rather simply to examine.