Announcement

**Snowhog** · Mar 25, 2010, 10:36 AM

Re: pm-suspend trigger control

When you have made the changes in Power Manager (System Settings), have you rebooted?

**gtrip** · Mar 25, 2010, 10:48 AM

Re: pm-suspend trigger control

Yes, I've rebooted. I've spent much time prior to my post doing research and trying every software package related to power management from the repositories with no success. I do know that this particular new Toshiba model has been causing great problems for many. All that I've spoken with are finding "some" solutions to many problems. I've used Fedora12 with KDE and now Kubuntu on this machine. There seems to be a problem with kernel and package development due to the lack of tech help to the kernel developers from (Toshiba) for it's proprietary Toshiba hardware and also acpi support.

This suspend problem now seems a relatively minor issue compared with what it's taken to have the machine work well and reliably to this point.

**Snowhog** · Mar 25, 2010, 10:53 AM

Re: pm-suspend trigger control

What BIOS settings are active that (might) be controlling ACPI activities?

**gtrip** · Mar 25, 2010, 11:00 AM

Re: pm-suspend trigger control

This is a "InsydH20" bios REV. 3.5. There is nothing in it's BIOS power management related to acpi.

**dibl** · Mar 25, 2010, 11:45 AM

Re: pm-suspend trigger control

I have a Tosh NB205, with sidux/KDE4 installed. Generally I love it, but there is that disk sleeping thing.

Here's the deal -- Toshiba makes both the hard drive and the motherboard. This means they control the interface totally. I believe (but haven't proven) that there is custom Toshiba firmware, either on the hdd itself or in the controller, that puts the drive to sleep if it doesn't get a poke from Windows every so often. That's how they stretch the battery life so long. Their Windows motherboard driver apparently monitors the user's activity and keeps the drive going as long as the user is doing something. But of course there's no such special driver for Linux. So, if you are letting a script run (like the installer, or apt-get update, etc.) and it does not get any stimulation from the GUI, it falls asleep.

You can either twiddle the touchpad, or play music files, to keep it from falling asleep during upgrades and idle time. I don't quite know if this exactly your situation -- you may also have some video issue going on. Mine has an Intel GPU on it.

**gtrip** · Mar 25, 2010, 12:03 PM

Re: pm-suspend trigger control

I seem to have not found this to be an issue with me. Other than power management and function (<FN>+<F*>) and possibly a not so consistent Realtek WIFI operation, all works equally or better than the dual booted Windows 7 on this machine. NVIDIA was a problem, but with a few tweaks to xorg.conf and running the 195 driver, video is great.

You may find interest in the thread I created in the Fedora forum. http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=239763 and and email I received:

- [ubuntu] Installing Linux on a Toshiba A505-s6033 - in the
Installation & Upgrades forum of Ubuntu Forums.

This thread is located at:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...2&goto=newpost

Here is the message that has just been posted:
***************
I've got this same laptop, and - after a weekend of extensive
research, banging my head against the wall, and almost re-installing
Windoze on it - I've finally succeeded in getting the following
working:

* NVIDIA GeForce 310M graphics card.
* RealTek RTL8191SE-VA2 wireless network card.
* WebCam
* USB

Here's some step-by-step instructions (for Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala).
Note that you need an Internet connection - most likely through a
wired connection.

1. Following a clean install, update all of your packages to the most
up-to-date versions:

Code:
---------
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
---------
2. Make sure you have some required packages installed. These are
needed to build some of the required drivers:

Code:
---------
sudo apt-get install build-essential ia32-libs
---------
3. Now edit the default GRUB settings. This is done for two reasons:
firstly, so that you can get to a recovery console to fix any boot
problems that you may subsequently experience (also needed to install
the NVIDIA driver) and secondly to change a Kernel Parameter that, all
by itself fixes most of the problems running Linux on this machine.
a. Edit the file (I use nano to edit system files - feel free to use
vi or emacs or whatever):

Code:
---------
sudo nano /etc/default/grub
---------
b. Comment out the line that defines GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT by placing
a '#' at the start of the line. This tells GRUB to show you a menu at
boot time, which allows you to select a recovery console later.
c. You should also see a line with the following contents:

Code:
---------
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
---------
Edit this line so that it reads:

Code:
---------
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi=noirq"
---------
All by itself, this fixes most of the problems with the machine. It
appears that the i7 processor does some funky stuff with the IRQ
signals, causing problems for many of the hardware devices under
Ubuntu.
d. Save the modified file (Control+"O" + RETURN to save, Control+"X"
to exit in nano) and then have grub update its configuration with the
command:

Code:
---------
sudo update-grub
---------
4. OK. Now let's get that problematic NVIDIA card working. Go to
the NVIDIA web-site and download the latest driver. If you have
installed the 64-bit (AMD64) variant of Karmic, use the first link -
otherwise use the second:
64-bit Ubuntu: http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_d...195.36.15.html
32-bit Ubuntu: http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_d...195.36.15.html
I'm going to assume that this file is downloaded into the
"/home/someuser/Downloads" directory.
5. Restart your machine. When the GRUB menu appears, select the
recovery mode for the most recent Kernel version installed (second
option from the top, typically). The machine boots and eventually
brings up a menu. Select the top menu option (resume). This will
bring you to a console login - log in.
6. When you get to a command prompt, issue the following command to
install the NVIDIA drivers:
64-bit Ubuntu:

Code:
---------
sudo /home/someuser/Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-195.36.15-pkg2.run
---------
32-bit Ubuntu:

Code:
---------
sudo /home/someuser/Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-195.36.15-pkg1.run
---------
(Check the version numbers to ensure they match the version you
downloaded. Also don't forget to replace "someuser" with your user
name.

)
Follow the instructions in the installer to build the driver, install
it and generate your "xorg.conf" file accordingly.
7. IMPORTANT: You now need to edit the "xorg.conf" file to add a
couple of lines:
a.
Code:
---------
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
---------
b. Locate the "Device" section and add the lines indicated in red below:

Code:
---------
Section "Device"
Identifier "InternalCard"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP-0"
Option "CustomEDID" "DFP-0: /proc/acpi/video/NGFX/LCD/EDID"
EndSection
---------
c. Save the modified version of the file.
8. Now reboot your machine to activate the NVIDIA driver. (Let the
GRUB menu time-out so that it boots normally). If all has gone well,
you should see the NVIDIA logo appear before getting to the X login
screen.
9. Login as normal. Now we're going to get the wireless driver
running. Download the driver from the RealTek web-site:
http://www.realtek.com/downloads/dow...Downloads=true
Select the any of the site numbers for the Linux driver for kernel 2.6.X option.
10. Now build and install your wireless driver:

Code:
---------
cd /home/someuser/Downloads
tar xvzf rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0015.0127.2010.tar.gz
cd rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0015.0127.2010
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe r8192se_pci
---------
And you're all set!
11. Enjoy your new laptop running Ubuntu! You should find your USB
ports and web-cam are now working too!

**dibl** · Mar 25, 2010, 12:23 PM

Re: pm-suspend trigger control

I see.

Even though the nvidia driver is doing a good job on your video, you should know that suspend/hibernate issues are often attributable to a video driver.

Open nvidia-settings, and see what the "power management" or whatever it's called, is set to. You might try fiddling with those settings, and see if you observe any change in the behavior.

**gtrip** · Mar 25, 2010, 12:35 PM

Re: pm-suspend trigger control

Attached NVIDIA-settings screen capture

Attached Files

**dibl** · Mar 25, 2010, 01:19 PM

Re: pm-suspend trigger control

It's not obvious that there is anything wrong with the setup. But, it is possible that the Nvidia "Powermizer" is causing some kind of conflict with the other power management packages.

When you booted the Live CD, and it did not have an Nvidia driver installed, did you have the same issue with the automatic S2RAM? Or was it so messed up that you couldn't tell (because of the other problems)?

**gtrip** · Mar 25, 2010, 01:45 PM

Re: pm-suspend trigger control

The live cd worked fine after putting acpi=off OR acpi=noirq in the boot. These settings seemed to only allow USB ports to work and the internal cam to work. It would not suspend at all with liveCD or after first installing Kubuntu OR Fedora12on the HD. There was no NVIDIA driver installed at these points.

Originally posted by dibl

It's not obvious that there is anything wrong with the setup. But, it is possible that the Nvidia "Powermizer" is causing some kind of conflict with the other power management packages.

When you booted the Live CD, and it did not have an Nvidia driver installed, did you have the same issue with the automatic S2RAM? Or was it so messed up that you couldn't tell (because of the other problems)?

**dibl** · Mar 25, 2010, 02:12 PM

Re: pm-suspend trigger control

OK, so that does sound like maybe the Nvidia Powermizer is influencing the S2RAM. Kinda guessing, but it is definitely a prime suspect.

It's not a problem I've solved myself. Here are some things that Google found on the topic:

http://linux.aldeby.org/nvidia-power...wersaving.html

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=113105

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NSJx3G9-zc

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...1&postcount=55

**gtrip** · Mar 25, 2010, 02:18 PM

Re: pm-suspend trigger control

I will explore these links, but for now I'm trying what I just receive in an email to patch the kernel that fixed his similar problems running F12 realtime kernel on the same Toshiba machine.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1301101&page=8

Except that you will need to change the link they tell you to down the
patch from to this:

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/attachment.cgi?id=25669

After you've followed their steps you'll need to boot with the option
"acpi=copy_dsdt". I also use "nohpet".