Subject: Re: Macbook Core Duo and Hibernation (swsusp, swsusp2, uswsusp) - msg#00231

Hi Samuli,


Samuli Seppänen wrote:
> I've been trying to get Software Suspend 2 and Userspace Software
> Suspend work on my Core Duo Macbook. So far I have not had any luck. I'm
> quite familiar with Software Suspend 2, as I've used it (with hibernate
> scripts) for a couple years on two other (PC) laptops.

I have some experience to share on this subject:

My colleague had a Macbook Pro with the Core Duo (not Core 2 Duo) for a
while and he installed Kororaa (~gentoo++) on it (from the then current
live CD - this was about 9 months ago). Without any kernel recompilation
and it succeeded in suspending to disk - I doubt he ever did more than a
handful of cycles.

Like you, I've used suspend2 successfully for many years on other
laptops so I was very optimistic in getting it to work on my MBP C2D
when I got it, but it has proved a challenge: With a fair bit of
fiddling I can often get it to suspend to disk for about a week's worth
of cycles (~10 in my case), but then I typically get some kind of crash
from fglrx causes suspend2 to hang on the way down to suspend. Also, the
only way to have reliable resume is to reset the NVRAM on EVERY resume
as well as before the initial bootup - without it, resuming will
complain about mismatched memory sizes (it something to that effect).

At the moment I use suspend to ram instead as when fglrx fails I at
least get the chance to have a decent reboot rather then a crash - and
it is of course significantly faster. Sadly, it isn't more stable - my
worst experience so far is that it refused to wake up at all a few days
ago - the power led refused to pulse, it just lit when the lid was
closed and darkened when it was open. I had to use force power off.

> So far I've
> gotten the best results with userspace software suspend. My Macbook is
> whitelisted, so in theory it should "just work". The problem is that it
> really doesn't. Suspending to RAM seems to work when in console, but
> when I switch to X (gdm login screen), the laptop either reboots
> instantly, or X dies and tries to restart itself. After a while the
> whole laptop hangs and I have to do a forced shutdown.

Well, we have different hw so don't get your hopes too high, but for w
few cycles I usually can get suspend2 to work as outlined here:
http://www.xms.se/~zap/linux/macbookprocore2duo.html

I'll happily provide more details if needed.



> I'm running Debian Etch stable with mactel-patched 2.6.22-rc6 kernel.

As mentioned on my page, I currently run 2.6.22-r5-mactel with Ortwin's
config:

http://www.odi.ch/prog/macbookpro/

100% stable suspend2 (or lacking that, 100% stable suspend to ram) is at
the top of my personal wish list. The iffy battery time isn't a priority
to me since a typically can get plugged in and ndiswrapper works fine
these days. High speed fans are annoying, but I can live with it. So
second on my list is probably stable ACPI reporting of battery state -
mine currently reads:

# cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/info
present: yes
design capacity: 0 mWh
last full capacity: 0 mWh
battery technology: rechargeable
design voltage: 0 mV
design capacity warning: 250 mWh
design capacity low: 100 mWh
capacity granularity 1: 10 mWh
capacity granularity 2: 10 mWh
model number:
serial number:
battery type:
OEM info:

Occasionally it works for a long time. but this is after just over 10
hours of use since last reboot.

> Have any of you managed to hibernate (and resume) any Macbook / Macbook
> Pro successfully? I wouldn't want to risk destroying my filesystem with
> hard poweroffs unless I really need to...

Nor would I, but the reality is that I've never had a real problem on
the MBP, ext3 has always saved my bacon. And (due to the above) I've
typically crashed at least once a week for the last 6 months...

/ Jonas
--
Jonas Petersson | XMS Penvision | mailto:Jonas.Petersson@xxxxxx
Box 3294, Västgötegatan 13, S-600 03 Norrköping | www.penvision.se
Tel: +46 11 400 13 00 | Dir: +46 11 400 13 05 | Fax: +46 11 10 30 50

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