Hibernate

[camper52]

Hello,
I'm a senior who is trying Mint an old HP Pavillion because I'm fed up with Microsft telling me what I can or cannot do on MY machine and hate the data-mining/phishing done by microsoft. Please note I am NOT a developer nor programmer in any way.
I really miss having the Hibernate feature in the shutdown menu, as I constantly use it in Windows. Far better than "Sleep/Suspend".

Is there an app I can download to get Hibernate onto Mint 20 ?? THANK YOU

[newlyminted7]

I don't think Hibernation works "out of the box" in Linux Mint.

However, I think this post might be one of the only ways to get it to work, which is to have Hibernate write to a swap file:
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=284100&hilit=hibernate
The post is from 2018, but a few people recently said they got it working in LM 20 (see posts toward the end of the thread). Might want to give that a try?

I think you also might need to ensure that your swap file size is larger than your available RAM. Hibernate saves session state to disk, where Suspend saves to RAM, so you need to ensure you have enough swap.

There's also this guide, which is only a few months old and says it works with Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... 20-and-pre
I have to agree with the guy who posted that guide:

I do not understand why hibernation on linux is not a simple feature that just works and why enabling it has to be so complicated.

From what I understand, it has to do with hardware and not all hardware supporting Hibernate, but I'm no expert. Maybe other people can post on here and let you know other / better ideas.

[camper52]

Thanks for the replies.
As for Hibernate being hdwe dependent, I'm using my old windows laptop to learn /get comfortable with linux {Mint}. I had no trouble using Hibernate on this nor any other machine running Windows. As Suspend saves to ram, it requires the computer to be 'plugged-in', which Hibernate avoids. That makes Hibernate far better for any computer being used in different locations (IE: travel, camping, etc).

[SMG]

As for Hibernate being hdwe dependent, I'm using my old windows laptop to learn /get comfortable with linux {Mint}. I had no trouble using Hibernate on this nor any other machine running Windows.

The manufacturers of those computers worked with Microsoft so Windows software would work properly on that specific hardware. They set up the BIOS/UEFI firmware so hibernate would work properly for Windows on that specific HP Pavilion laptop. Hibernation requires coordination between the software and all the individual hardware components of a computer.

The open-source community that writes the Linux-based software does not have the resources or contacts at all the different computer manufacturers, past and present, as well as a sample of every computer made, to be able to test a hibernation app.

Here are the instructions for hibernation. While they were created for LM19, they also work in LM20.
[GUIDE] How to hibernate to a swap file in Linux Mint 19.x
How to enable hibernation with swap partition on Linux Mint 19

[Hoser Rob]

Actuallly hibernation was removed as an option in Mint 20, and while this may not be what you want to hear, I think it was a good idea. Hibernation in Linux is so unreliable that it's been a running joke for years. As mentioned you can get it to work but it's not a simple straightforward thing. See:

https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... 20-and-pre

https://www.fosslinux.com/45454/enable- ... x-mint.htm

I'd just forget about hibernation because the above linked ways are extremely unlikely to make hibernating any more reliable than it was before. In fact the usual expert advice for ubuntu users with hibernating problems was to just disable it.

[Fizz]

Not just Hibernation, but Suspend has issues too, at least it does in conjunction with a screensaver / password (it may be fine without screensaver). I tried playing with settings for awhile, but the board members here ultimately convinced me to not use it. Now that i'm not using Suspend, i find i don't actually miss it.

-Fizz

[Etienne9]

I can confirm that method from response 1 is still working with Mint 20.1. I don't really know why Ubuntu base have removed the possibility, since it is still working with Debian out of the box. Are there still developers behind Ubuntu ?

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Actuallly hibernation was removed as an option in Mint 20, and while this may not be what you want to hear, I think it was a good idea. Hibernation in Linux is so unreliable that it's been a running joke for years. As mentioned you can get it to work but it's not a simple straightforward thing. See:

https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... 20-and-pre

https://www.fosslinux.com/45454/enable- ... x-mint.htm

I'd just forget about hibernation because the above linked ways are extremely unlikely to make hibernating any more reliable than it was before. In fact the usual expert advice for ubuntu users with hibernating problems was to just disable it.

Mint's disdain for Hibernation is disappointing since there are valid reasons for needing to use it. For me, it enables a UPS to fully protect against the loss of data in the event of a power outage. Many UPSes have an option to hibernate a computer instead of merely shutting down a computer when there is a loss of power while the computer is unattended. That way, any work you had in progress would not be lost.

[rene]

Mint's disdain for Hibernation is disappointing since there are valid reasons for needing to use it.

It can not be helped and is not Mint but Ubuntu or even "Linux" generally. As far as hardware is concerned hibernation equals being shut down, and to bring hardware back from fully off to the exact live state it was in when the system got hibernated you need hardware documentation/knowledge at a level of detail that primarily GPU-vendors consider valuable secrets. As a result "the linux community" can't do other than e.g. reverse engineer Windows drivers but that's neither trivial (remember, "valuable secrets") nor reliable since you observe only those states which you think of to invoke/test. This results in hibernation being unreliable on Linux, and so unreliable that across all hardware it's been long better to say "no hibernation" than to frustrate users with it failing.

[newlyminted7]

Not just Hibernation, but Suspend has issues too, at least it does in conjunction with a screensaver / password (it may be fine without screensaver). I tried playing with settings for awhile, but the board members here ultimately convinced me to not use it. Now that i'm not using Suspend, i find i don't actually miss it.

-Fizz

I've had no issues with Suspend, but I haven't been using it with a screensaver. I personally love it and use it every day. Otherwise I'd have to shut down the computer and then re-open all the applications I had open, which would be a bit tedious to do every single day. My 2c, anyway.

[Fizz]

I've had no issues with Suspend, but I haven't been using it with a screensaver. I personally love it and use it every day. Otherwise I'd have to shut down the computer and then re-open all the applications I had open, which would be a bit tedious to do every single day. My 2c, anyway.

To further clarify... screensaver wasn't the right term. it was an issue with Suspend and Locking (which i used in conjunction with screensaver). What I think occured is that suspend occured slightly before the lock. So when it comes out of suspend, the system was locked. So i'd end up with effectively a locked screen: i could move the mouse, but never get back the password dialog in order to unlock the machine.

So, yes,you are probably correct that it's not Suspend itself. But on my machine combining Suspend with Locking caused me some issues. So i just don't Suspend anymore. (The machine has really good battery life so hasn't been an issue anyways.)


-Fizz