This is my one deal killer for Linux on the Desktop. I have a stack of laptops with Linux installed (mostly Fedora). They are all Dell Latitudes. My main two are a Gen 12 i7 and a Gen 8 i5. I’d rather use the Gen 12 i7 (it also has more RAM and storage). However, the i7 doesn’t have S2 sleep, only S0ix. When I shut the lid, it will lose about 40%-50% battery over an 8 hour period. The Gen 8 i5 does have S2 and sleeps okay with it. I only get a 10% drop in battery over the same period.
I hear that this is some Microsoft-Dell shenanigans to “better” support Win10/11. But is there a lightweight 14" or 15" laptop out there that will run Linux well and sleep without draining the battery so much? Would and AMD system work better than Intel?
I see all the complaints about sleep but there has to be something better than 40%-50% drop on the nightly that would require me to keep it on power just to have a fresh laptop when I need it.
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all my hardware is recycled trash, so I ain’t got experience with those modern 12th gens, but what worked (and phenomenally so) for my old heaps is implementing
suspend-then-hibernate, a feature that’s off by default and you gotta put in some leg work to make it work, especially on fedora due to zram.this works reliably on every platform I tried - sandybridge macbooks, coffeelake and ryzen zen plus thinkpads, etc. regardless of UEFI sleep support. you leave it in standby and if you don’t touch for, say, an hour, it dumps the RAM to SSD and turns off all power - zero battery drain! when you “wake” it, it restores RAM from the SSD and gives you your lock screen login and this is faster than cold boot and all your shit is how you left it!
once it works, it works like a mac - you leave your laptop for hours, days, weeks and comes back up how you left it, with the battery barely losing a percentage point.
My x1 carbon on mint seems to go for weeks while suspended.
My X1 Carbon does now. But it used to drain to empty after a day or two even if it was turned all the way off. Drove me crazy.
The problem ended up being the always-on USB setting in the BIOS. For some reason, even with nothing connected, that would drain the battery until it was completely flat. Once I turned that off, it’ll sleep for weeks like you said.
OP, maybe check the BIOS settings for “Always on USB” or similar and disable that?
Also have an x1carbon and I usually forget to plug it in for weeks at a time. It’s great and it shipped with Linux, bios updates happen regularly, it’s amazing.
Edit: I got my daughter a framework 13 with the amd CPU. It’s running fedora 42 and she rarely plugs it in. Another great option.
Always did like the look of those models.
All the thinkpads I’ve tried so far work flawlessly with sleep on Linux (both S3 and s0ix, many generations old and new)
if you’re looking for a new laptop have a look at the arch wiki pages for them example, they usually have a lot of info about this stuff
EDIT: oh also remember to buy used/old new stock (by 1-2 years) because new hardware won’t have good software support. should probably run a distro with an up to date kernel as well (e.g. arch, tumbleweed, endeavour)
Thanks for the Archi Wiki link. I always forget about that thing. I’m a bit fan of the late model, low mileage computer purchases. They are cheap and I’m keeping something out of a landfill in Africa.
My Lenovo LOQ 15arp goes to sleep really nicely. Flawlessly, really, every single time.
It just can’t wake up from sleep and requires a reset to be able to do anything after a sleep on kernel 6.11+.
6.10 is fine.
Why the hell is sleep so difficult for Linux machines?
No kidding. My old Dells are great but the newer beefier one requires me to spend alot of thought on keeping it charged. I went back to my M1 Mac just for the lack of worry about having enough power. I wish MS didn’t have such power over the vendors but I also wish we could figure this out on the Linux side. I’ve searched and searched for an S0ix solution but finally gave up and asked here about other hardware.
My issue with sleep has always been resume. I have a lenovo legion and it will go to sleep, waking it back up is another story, half the time the display never comes can and I have to hard reboot
I’ve heard alot of those stories but have never experienced them. I hope I’m not just trading one problem for another in trying to find a good sleeping laptop.
My Framework 13 and my Minisforum V3 both sleep correctly. The only issues I run into are with waking and sleeping BEFORE i remove them from my USB-C doc’s and switch from work to home or home to work. And even then its just slow to figure out what to do at worst.
I’d love a Framework but the 13 is a bit too small for my old eyes and the 16 is just too heavy. I’ve gotten spoiled by lightweight laptops. I was looking at that 16 for a long time, though.
12th gen Intel is the last to support OG standby. 13th gen and up are S0 standby only. AMD gave up on S1-3 standby even earlier.
ThinkPads with 12 gen CPUs support the good standby if you want a nice machine with it.
That’s where my AMD focus came from. I assume the BIOSes are different and may at least have the option to re-enable S2. I’ve seen a few of the 8840 processors and the laptops look nice. There’s specifically an Asus one I like but I’ve ready mixed reviews on it with Linux.
I had two Razer Blades in the past wjere sleep never was an issue. Now switched to a desktop and an old Dell laptop where I tried about five different distros but could not get sleep to work on any of them 😿
