Laptop suspend in Ubuntu

Below is a copy of a post I made on this blog when it was running under NucleusCMS. The Ubuntu version was 7.04 but have recently discovered that this setuip doesn't work now Ubuntu is at 7.10. Hence I've gone back to PCLinuxOS especially as I've sorted the synaptics touchpad error.

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Ubuntu has to be one of the best all round distributions as it seems to work on so many different types of pc hardware and has a fantastic range of packages in it's depositories. Especially good for me is that it overcomes most of the problems related to multiple sound channels that has plagued linux in the past.

But to put the cherry on the cake I've managed to get the suspend function working on my laptop! All it needed was a little tinkering with the options in the acpi-support file.

I changed the flags to what is listed below

MODULES_WHITELIST="fglrx"
SAVE_VBE_STATE=false
POST_VIDEO=false
DOUBLE_CONSOLE_SWITCH=true

My laptop is a model called Crossfire II from Novatech. It's basically a rebadged Uniwill summat or other model. Running a 64-bit AMD core.

You can see all of my acpi-support file here.

# Comment the next line to disable ACPI suspend to RAM
ACPI_SLEEP=true

# Comment the next line to disable suspend to disk
ACPI_HIBERNATE=true

# Change the following to "standby" to use ACPI S1 sleep, rather than S3.
# This will save less power, but may work on more machines
ACPI_SLEEP_MODE=mem

# Add modules to this list to have them removed before suspend and reloaded
# on resume. An example would be MODULES="em8300 yenta_socket"
#
# Note that network cards and USB controllers will automatically be unloaded
# unless they're listed in MODULES_WHITELIST
MODULES="rt2500"

# Add modules to this list to leave them in the kernel over suspend/resume
MODULES_WHITELIST="fglrx"
# changed from blank

# Should we save and restore state using the VESA BIOS Extensions?
SAVE_VBE_STATE=false
# changed from true

# The file that we use to save the vbestate
VBESTATE=/var/lib/acpi-support/vbestate

# Should we attempt to warm-boot the video hardware on resume?
POST_VIDEO=false
# changed from true

# Save and restore video state?
# SAVE_VIDEO_PCI_STATE=true

# Should we switch the screen off with DPMS on suspend?
USE_DPMS=true

# Use Radeontool to switch the screen off? Seems to be needed on some machines
# RADEON_LIGHT=true

# Uncomment the next line to switch away from X and back again after resume.
# This is needed for some hardware, but should be unnecessary on most.
DOUBLE_CONSOLE_SWITCH=true
# uncommented above

# Set the following to "platform" if you want to use ACPI to shut down
# your machine on hibernation
HIBERNATE_MODE=shutdown

# Comment this out to disable screen locking on resume
LOCK_SCREEN=true

# Uncomment this line to have DMA disabled before suspend and reenabled
# afterwards
# DISABLE_DMA=true

# Uncomment this line to attempt to reset the drive on resume. This seems
# to be needed for some Sonys
# RESET_DRIVE=true

# Add services to this list to stop them before suspend and restart them in
# the resume process.
STOP_SERVICES="mysql "

# Restart Infra Red services on resume - off by default as it crashes some
# machines
RESTART_IRDA=false

# Switch to laptop-mode on battery power - off by default as it causes odd
# hangs on some machines
ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=false