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Comment by xorcist | Hacker News Reader

> What was the last time you thought about how OS X or Windows does suspend

Every. Freaking. Time. That is, since an employer equipped me with a cheap Dell. It looks like it suspends, but one time out of ten it'll come straight out of sleep and cook in my bag.

I've only used Thinkpads, with Linux, for my own work before, and they suspend multiple times a day without a problem ever. So this was a big a-ha moment for me regarding Linux usability complaints, to see what it is that people actually try to do.

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Some laptops have a mechanical lid switch (instead of a magnetic one) that easily triggers when some pressure is applied to the lid. I have the same problem with... a Thinkpad. Luckily, under Linux, you can disable wakeup through the lid switch:

    # cat /proc/acpi/wakeup 
    Device	S-state	  Status   Sysfs node
    LID	  S4	*enabled   platform:PNP0C0D:00
    ...

    # echo "LID" > /proc/acpi/wakeup

    # cat /proc/acpi/wakeup 
    Device	S-state	  Status   Sysfs node
    LID	  S4	*disabled  platform:PNP0C0D:00
    ...

It's not a one-shot setting though, as the desktop environments reset it before suspending. As far as I can remember, I put a script in /usr/lib64/pm-utils/sleep.d to make it permanent.

If memory serves this is also possible in Windows under the advanced Power Management settings.

I don't understand the point you're trying to make: are you saying that no matter the OS, some hardware platforms will be flaky and others well supported?

Yes. If my first impression of a Linux desktop would be an install on this crap hardware, I might blame the software as well.

You are not alone. I also have a work provided Dell that I have to shutdown unless I want to use my work bag to keep me warm on the walk home. We have another Toshiba at home running windows that will at random times of the night just spin up its hard drives and perhaps throw out the odd notification sound before spinning down again. It seems for windows suspend is not really go to sleep until you are woken up again by a human.

True, for some the ability for background services or the system clock to wake the computer is a feature not a bug.

As long as they are in control of it.

And I think that may be the crox of the issue.

The recent changes to the Linux middelware ecosystem has added a mass of new automations.

Supposedly making people's lives easier, but for many producing issues that remind them of why they moved from Windows to Linux in the first place.

I have a Dell M4600 running Windows 8.1 (started off with Windows 7). Suspend and resume has always worked. I never think about suspending - I just close the lid or hit the sleep button and throw it in the bag. When I get home I press it into the home dock and press the power switch on the dock to wake up. Windows 7 also never had a problem. Yes, this is anecdotal evidence to counter anecdotal evidence.

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