Xfce Forum

Hiballer

Member

From: Ohio, USA

Registered: 2014-10-15

Posts: 15

Website

How to recover from suspend/sleep

I am using XFCE4/Xubuntu 14.04 and somehow (I don't know how I managed it) my computer screen suddenly went dark and after 10 seconds or so, the display went into "no video signal" mode.  This is a 64-bit desktop, not a laptop with a lid.

I have no idea what caused this, nor could I find any way to bring the computer back to life.  I tried every key combination I could but the keyboard/mouse were completely "dead".  I finally had to hold down the power button and start up the computer again.  This (as you can imagine) managed to mess up a LOT of settings and such so I had to go back and change things to the way I had them.

If this should happen again, how do I re-start the computer without resorting to the power button?

Bill

Last edited by Hiballer (2014-10-25 15:15:33)

Jerry3904

Member

Registered: 2013-11-09

Posts: 863

Re: How to recover from suspend/sleep

I first try Ctrl-Alt-Bksp to kill X and get to the login screen. If that doesn't work, then I run REISUB, though it doesn't work in all situations.

---

MX-23 (based on Debian Stable) with our flagship Xfce 4.18.

Hiballer

Member

From: Ohio, USA

Registered: 2014-10-15

Posts: 15

Website

Re: How to recover from suspend/sleep

The keyboard is non-responsive to ANY key combinations.  The computer actually appears powered down, although the power LED is still lit.  There is NO disk activity at all and the video has stopped running to the display.

MountainDewManiac

Member

From: Where Mr. Bankruptcy is Prez

Registered: 2013-03-24

Posts: 1,115

Re: How to recover from suspend/sleep

nor could I find any way to bring the computer back to life.  I tried every key combination I could but the keyboard/mouse were completely "dead".  I finally had to hold down the power button and start up the computer again.

"Hold down," as in hold it down for >2 seconds? Just pressing and releasing it normally (and quickly) neither woke the computer nor initiated a regular shutdown according to however you had your system configured to react to a normal press of the power button?

As to the mouse and keyboard being nonresponsive, are they connected via USB? If so, check in your computer's BIOS configuration utility or Extensible Firmware Interface (whichever applies) and look for a setting that powers-down or disables communication with USB devices/ports when the computer is in sleep mode, hibernation mode, or (possibly) turned off and change it so that this is not the case. Be aware that some consider USB ports which are disabled/unpowered when the computer is not active to be a security feature

If, OtOH, your mouse and keyboard are connected via the traditional (aka "legacy") PS/2 ports, then I don't have any suggestions.

This (as you can imagine) managed to mess up a LOT of settings and such so I had to go back and change things to the way I had them.

It is actually somewhat hard to imagine in a modern computer which runs a linux OS. Are you not using ext4, ext3, or another journaling file system type? I live in a semi-rural location and have had the power interrupted numerous times in the past and, while it probably didn't do my computer much good - the interruptions often were not "clean" ones, lol - it never seemed to cause noticeable harm or reset any settings.

Regards,
MDM

---

Mountain Dew Maniac

How to Ask for Help <=== Click on this link

Hiballer

Member

From: Ohio, USA

Registered: 2014-10-15

Posts: 15

Website

Re: How to recover from suspend/sleep

Mouse and keyboard are traditionally connected using the normal blue and green plugs on the back of the box, so USB doesn't enter into it.

The settings and whatnot I had to reset were trivial in nature; such as having Cairo Dock re-connect to my three USB hard drives.  Normally, they connect as I boot up, but for some reason they didn't this time.  In this case, I held down the power button for around 6 seconds which, powered the computer down for a cold restart.  The bootup process took longer than usual also (around 90 seconds compared to 30) with a lot of disk thrashing going on.

I am still not sure what keys (or combinations thereof) I hit to make this whole thing happen, but I have gone into the keyboard shortcuts and removed a lot of them I do not use.  I've always been a mouse & keyboard type of guy since the mouse first came into existence, which tells you how long I've been in computers and the like. (started in 1962).

Thanks for the return.

Bill

Last edited by Hiballer (2014-10-25 23:28:50)