Linux + Software Suspend 2: Sweeet

**rubicon** · 02-21-2005, 11:39 PM

Anybody using Software Suspend 2 with a late-model kernel?

I'm setting up my M10000 w/Gentoo 2004.3 + Linux 2.6.10, and I just got Software Suspend 2 (2.1.7) and hibernate (1.05) up & running - I love it!

I can be playing an audio file (or viewing porn, or whatever...), and exec a hibernate. Everything's saved to (what is normally a) swap partition, and when I power back on, everything comes back on as it was - in the middle of the music, etc. Brilliant!

Anyhow, for those of you who're familiar with (working) hibernate on GNU/Linux, sorry for taking up a thread, but I previously had no real luck w/it, and just had to share.

**cbergeron** · 02-21-2005, 11:54 PM

Does that board have PSE support? The older SWSUSP code required it. As such, it wouldn't work with the Via Epia-M.

"cat /proc/cpuinfo"

will tell you if you have pse support under the "flags" section. Here's an example from one of my machines:

flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr syscall mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow

Does yours have "pse" and/or "pse36"?

**Nic** · 02-22-2005, 01:26 AM

how long does it take?

**cheerio** · 02-22-2005, 01:43 AM

As long as it takes to write RAM contents to the HD and sync file systems.

**rubicon** · 02-22-2005, 09:12 AM

Originally Posted by Nic

how long does it take?

Don't have an objective estimate, but its fast.

What I really like is the statefulness - kinda like a CD player in your car: when you turn it back on, the music etc. resumes from where it was on shutdown.

Now, here's to hoping that there're no insurmountable problems getting everything working nice - I'm only about 60% through my install.

**rubicon** · 02-23-2005, 10:29 AM

Originally Posted by cbergeron

Does that board have PSE support?

Yes, it has PSE support (among other things that I can't recall 'cause the machine isn't handy at the moment). I made sure to check that before I began the SWSUPS2 adventure.

**rubicon** · 02-23-2005, 10:40 AM

FYI, I've got ~512 MB of RAM w/a ~1024 MB swap partition, and have enabled compression in the suspend setup.

I'd probably get better performance by *not* using compression, but its speedy as-is, and I'm not sure the boost gained by disabling it would justify the risk of not fitting everything into the resume image. But then, once I've installed+configured everything, I might find that (with normal usage) everything *will* fit, and I can run suspend without compression. We shall see.

**cheerio** · 02-23-2005, 08:59 PM

resume data should only be Amount of RAM + a meg or 2 of the descriptor to get everything back in place

**cbergeron** · 02-23-2005, 09:14 PM

resume data should only be Amount of RAM + a meg or 2 of the descriptor to get everything back in place

Yep - when you want to optimize resume/suspend times (if your hardware can't do it like on x86) you should limit/reduce your ram. It's a trade-off because you can't load as many apps, etc. But realistically, in a car who needs more than 128 Megs of ram (at this point in computer evolution). You should be able to easily do GPS Nav, Audio, XM, OBDII, etc. and still have plenty of unused ram. Using 512MB is just insane unless you're using bloated pigware apps. By using 256Megs of ram(half of what you currently have), you'll almost double your boot speed - and I stress "almost". You're more likely to get about a 30-40% boot time reduction.

Hope this helps,
CB

**cheerio** · 02-24-2005, 11:35 PM

The general rule of swap partitions anyways, is double or 1.5 the amount of RAM. More ram, faster computing, slower resume, less ram = faster boot slower computing. its a trade off.