I have a lowend netbook with debian-type linux only (no dualboot). Power management should be via XFCE4’s xfce4-power-manager-settings.

I’m having weird behavior with suspend and trying to identify/troubleshoot it. It seems to be usually draining power and never charging when the lid is closed for many hours.

I tried explicitly entering power off, hibernate and suspend followed by unplugging then leaving it a few hours but couldn’t replicate. It seems to be doing something on its own after being unplugged a long time.

What logs can I look at to see when my device changes its power modes, what were the triggers, what settings are governing it etc?

I can’t tell if it’s a software issue or there is some sort of power saving thing going on in the hardware or what.

Just hoping for some investigation tips here, I know its not enough info to solve.

Edit to clarify no dual boot.

  • mazzilius_marsti@lemmy.world
    5·
    3 days ago

    So when lid is closed, OS doesnt suspend or takes long to suspend? The best way is to use journalctl. Close the lid, wait 2 - 5 mins, then open it up and check most recent journalctl messages. Hopefully that gives you some clues.

    Now, are you dual booting Windows? Try to check Bios if your laptop has any funny settings for power. On Lenovo, there used to be something like “Power scheme for both Linux and Window” button…

    Lastly, xfce4-power-manager app really is just a GUI for your core systemd services. So… as a test, can you not autostart it? Xfce has a setting for that. Or just remove it, you can easily install it back later.
    Once youre done, reboot back and check:

    1. Does closing the lid make the laptop to go into suspend mode? If yes, great. Test again to see if behavior is erratic, i.e. sometimes it takes 5 sec to suspend, sometimes it does not suspend at all…etc.

    2. If above fail, try to run “systemctl suspend” to check if suspend really works on your system.

    3. if 1) and 2) fail, you can play around with /etc/systemd/sleep.conf script. Maybe uncomment “AllowSuspend” or something similar…

  • kibiz0r@midwest.socialEnglish
    3·
    3 days ago

    upower -d can provide some useful info on-demand. I think there’s a daemon component to it too, which may have variable log levels.