Introduction:

The suspend  functionality is broken at the initial installation level.  Using the installed toolset, the user will not be able to in iniitiate or awaken from a system suspend.  This short paper will walk you through the steps required to correct this situation.

Intended Audience:

Users of Mint Debian (may apply to other Debian derivatives as well as Debian itself - untested beyond Mint Debian).  The user should be familiar with how to access the Terminal mode.

Scope:

The following methods were used in Mint Debian Gnome 64 bit Spin 201109.  The following was applied after the initial updates were run post-installation.

Problem:

There are two things that may be contributing to a broken suspend in the installed operating system:

1.  The uuid of the swap partition may be incorrectly identified.

2.  The construct and the uuid of the swap partition required for the resume funcitonality may also be in error.

Correcting the Problem:

1.  Go the terminal mode.

2.  The next step involves finding the correct uuid of the swap partition.  This is done by:

$  sudo ls /dev/disk/by-uuid -lh

From the output above, find the uuid of the swap partition.  Select and copy the uuid into the paste buffer.

3.  The next step involves checking the fstab file to make sure that it contains the correct uuid. 

First make a backup copy of the existing fstab file by:

$ cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab-bu

This will make a copy of the existing fstab file called fstab-bu

The next step involves editing the fstab file.

$ gksu gedit /etc/fstab

When the file has opened up in the gedit text editor, go the line below the swap entry and paste the contents of the paste buffer into the new line.  Compare the uuid that was just pasted into the fstab with the one that the system generated during installation.  If they are the same, quit with no changes.  If they are different, replace the uuid that was installed with the one that is in the paste buffer.  Don't forget to delete the line below the swap partition that contains only the uuid that you pasted in there initially.  Go ahead and save the new fstab and exit.

4.  The next step will correct the entry made in the resume file.

$ gksu gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume

You will see one line of code like:

RESUME=UUID=e22swff9ip87nnt7ea

Comment out this line  as in:

#RESUME=UUID=e22swff9ip87nnt7ea

below or above the commented line:

RESUME=/dev/disk/by-uuid/xxxxxxxx

Insert the contents of the paste buffer in where the xxxxxxxx above is shown.

Save the contents of the file and exit.

5.  At this point the initramfs must be regenerated.  This is accomplished by

$ sudo update-initramfs -u

It may take a small amount of time for this update to run.  When it is completed, exit from the termial mode.

6.  Re-boot the operating system and the suspend should be working as configured in the power settings.