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Aside from the kernel items mentioned above, another thing to be aware of is Fedora/Linux uses the swap partition when hibernating (suspend to disk).
Note: Suspend to RAM (or sleep mode) does not require disk space, just an ongoing power supply (AC or Battery).
What this means is that the swap partition needs to be at least the same size as the amount of RAM you have - that is, if you have 8 GiB of RAM, then your swap partition must be at least 8 GiB in size, probably 12 GiB.
The reason for the extra space in the swap partition is in case your swap partition is already in use when you choose to hibernate. The kernel will offload all of your RAM in to swap, and you are already consuming swap space - there must be enough space for both sets of data.
I would question if you really even need to hibernate?
Historically, hibernation has been used for two reasons:
- The operating system was slow to boot up and and often slow to shutdown - consequently it was often quicker to hibernate and then resume, particularly with RAM sizes less than 4-6 GiB. However, most recent versions of Fedora are very quick to shutdown and boot, negating this issue.
- You want to preserve the current state of applications and work in order to resume again quickly when you need to. If you have a reliable battery on your laptop (with reasonable charge remaining), or you have AC plugged in, then you can suspend to RAM and then resume when you need to. This is very quick typically, and requires no swap/disk space. Remember to save any unsaved work first, just in case you do loose power while in sleep mode.
I have used suspend to RAM for several years now (on both laptops and desktops), without any issues - including on laptops over an entire weekend. Resuming typically takes 1-2 seconds - much quicker then resuming from hibernate or using the shutdown/restart cycle, and for me has been just as reliable. Just something to think about.
| | 2 | No.2 Revision |
Aside from the kernel items mentioned above, another thing to be aware of is Fedora/Linux uses the swap partition when hibernating (suspend to disk).
Note: Suspend to RAM (or sleep mode) does not require disk space, just an ongoing power supply (AC or Battery).
What this means is that the swap partition needs to be at least the same size as the amount of RAM you have - that is, if you have 8 GiB of RAM, then your swap partition must be at least 8 GiB in size, probably 12 GiB.
The reason for the extra space in the swap partition is in case your swap partition is already in use when you choose to hibernate. The kernel will offload all of your RAM in to swap, and you are already consuming swap space - there must be enough space for both sets of data.
I would question if you really even need to hibernate?
Historically, hibernation has been used for two reasons:
- The operating system was slow to boot up and and often slow to shutdown - consequently it was often quicker to hibernate and then resume, particularly with RAM sizes less than 4-6 GiB. However, most recent versions of Fedora are very quick to shutdown and boot, negating this issue.
- You want to preserve the current state of applications and work in order to resume again quickly when you need to. If you have a reliable battery on your laptop (with reasonable charge remaining), or you have AC plugged in, then you can suspend to RAM and then resume when you need to. This is very quick typically, and requires no swap/disk space. Remember to save any unsaved work first, just in case you do loose power while in sleep mode.
I have used suspend to RAM for several years now (on both laptops and desktops), without any issues - including on laptops over an entire weekend. Resuming typically takes Both suspending and resuming only take 1-2 seconds each - much quicker then resuming from hibernate than hibernate/resume or using the shutdown/restart cycle, and for me has been just as reliable. Just something to think about.
