OS won't sleep

[tomcloyd]

I fairly mindlessly do updates whenever I see a notification, and then something doesn't work and I'm not at all sure just what happened. Such is the case now. We recently had some "kernel header" updates, I think. I don't know what they are but noted the word "kernel"...and soon thereafter (a day or so?) I can't get my laptop to sleep. This is annoying and just not right, so I'm trying to figure out how to troubleshoot or fix this.

I run Timeshift before every major-looking update, so I could revert to an early version of my OS, but isn't there a way to easily switch to an earlier kernal without doing something so drastic?

I seem to recall it comes up on the grub screen, which I NEVER see any more. Why is that? Shouldn't that always show? Instead, when I boot it goes directly to the Kubuntu login screen.

Suggestions?

My system:
System76 Galago Pro (galp5) laptop
Operating System: Kubuntu 20.04.3 LTS
Kernel Version: 5.13.0-30-generic
KDE Plasma Version: 5.18.8
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.68.0
Qt Version: 5.12.8
OS Type: 64-bit
Processors: 8 × 11th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-1165G7 @ 2.80GHz
RAM: 16 GiB
Disk: 512 GiB (SSD)
Display: 1920x1080 pixels / Mesa Intel(R) Xe Graphics (TGL GT2)

[Snowhog]

As to getting Grub to display on boot.

Open konsole and navigate to /etc/default

Edit the file grub (I prefer using nano: sudo nano grub) and change GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE= so it reads GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
If you want to keep the Grub Menu on screen until you make your selection (I prefer it this way), change GRUB_TIMEOUT= so it reads GRUB_TIMEOUT="-10"

Save/Close the file. Then run the command sudo update-grub
Restart your system. You will now have the Grub Menu displayed to you. If you want to boot into a previous kernel, choose Advanced options for Ubuntu and then select one of the available -generic kernels.

[tomcloyd]

Wow! Now THAT is service...thank you. I came back here after I realized I had forgotten to give my system specs, and also to share some interesting new information, but your response re: the grub issue is much appreciated. I'll do that right away.

[tomcloyd]

OK, I did exactly as you said, and set GRUB_TIMEOUT="-10"

Sleep mode now seems to be working, which makes no sense to me at all. I'll take it, however, and we'll see where this goes from here...

Thanks again for you help.

[Snowhog]

Are you booted into a previous kernel?

[tomcloyd]

Are you booted into a previous kernel?

No. I only made those grub changes. This is strange, I know.

And when I say the OS would not sleep, before, let me be more descriptive: the screen would go dark and the mouse cursor would vanish, but the "power-on" led on the side of my laptop would stay on without starting to blink. Blinking is what it does normally when it enter sleep mode, and that is what System76 says SHOULD happen in sleep mode. When it doesn't happen I am merely inferring that sleep mode is not happening.

UPDATE: The problem has returned. No matter how I try to sleep the system - function key, launch menu, or CL "sleep 1" (which does nothing), I get only a blank screen and disappearing mouse.

[claydoh]

Being a System76 machine, have you added their PPA for better mainboard drivers/firmware, as well as their custom kernels?

https://support.system76.com/articles/system76-driver/

You can see what is in the repository here:
https://launchpad.net/~system76-dev/...s_filter=focal

[tomcloyd]

Re: the System76 PPA, I had no idea that existed - and that distresses me. And they do seem to apply to those who run a non-Pop!OS operating system. Thank you so much for finding this. I do love this laptop, and it is the most expensive I've even purchased, so having it function well is a top priority.

And...this morning, so far...sleep mode IS functioning normally. I continue to try to isolate the circumstances that cause it to malfunction. This is plain weird.

[GreyGeek]

...I do love this laptop, and it is the most expensive I've even purchased, so having it function well is a top priority.
...

My son bought an S76 gazp9 (Gazelle Pro) in 2014 and loves it. He switched to Kubuntu immediately and just a couple of weeks ago he asked me to install KDE Neon on it. It is the easiest laptop to work on that I've ever worked on. Take the battery off, unscrew two screws, pop the cover, and you have direct access to every thing that is easy to service or replace.

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forum/...lle#post660718

He's so fastidious with his computers that his gazp9 still has a pristine right-out-of-the-box look. It amazes me how he does that. I had a 9 year old Acer that I wore the letters on the keys off during that period. With a spinner and 12Gb RAM the gazp9 was taking about 90 secs to boot to a working desktop. After putting a Samsung 500Gb SSD in it and boosting the RAM to 16Gb it now boots in 5.3 seconds and is lightening fast. SSD's really make a difference. I installed Miredo from the repository to add an IPv6 tunnel, unblocked the label and preference lines in /etc/gai.conf and set "filter-aaaa-on-v4" to false (boolean), which I had to add in his version of FF, but it was present in my version. Miredo doesn't check for subnet addresses so adding Miredo to two or more computers on the same wifi won't work because the same IPv6 address will be generated, so the first PC to generate the tunnel owns it. The tunnel is maintained using systemd and miredo.service. Beautiful! I find it to be about half as fast as my IPv4 connection when testing downloads.

[tomcloyd]

My son bought an S76 gazp9 (Gazelle Pro) in 2014 and loves it. ...

Your story supports my decision to purchase this laptop. About a year prior to this purchase I paid about $900 for an Acer Spin5, after owning an Acer Swift 3. I replaced the Win10 OS with Kubuntu and was fairly pleased - certainly with the hardware and speed. But over a few months, more and more hardware features became problematic or just inaccessible. I finally gave up, and purchased my System76, which immediately blew me away with its speed.

What is especially gratifying - and a major reason for my choosing this Sys76 laptop - is the by-design ease of DIY hardware upgrades. This expensive box (~$1700, configured per my request) will likely more than pay for itself over time, for that reason. Meanwhile, it is a joy to use.

My 15Gb RAM and 500Gb SSD are proving their worth constantly. And the idea of having a box specifically designed for Linux is proving most wise.

Trying to access that Sys76 PPA I ran into a small problem, but I'm contacting Sys76 about it and it surely will be resolved.

[tomcloyd]

I have done the System76 driver install now. So far, so good. But BEFORE I did this, for several days, sleep mode has been working perfectly. Electricity works in mysterious ways, especially when circuit boards are involved.

Thanks for the detailed and thoughtful responses. They just may have helped!