Feedback on the Lenovo ThinkServer TS140

Hi Par,
it sounds like you're using a desktop environment (as you mentioned select suspend from the menu), this system was certified with 14.04.1 Ubuntu Server, without GUI, I will suggest you to give it a try.

Regards.
Sam

Hi Sam,

Do you know for sure if suspend to ram is supported? (I tried
pm-suspend which does not use the GUI.) In any case, this would be
very interesting given that

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkServer-Towers/TS140-S3-S4-power-states/td-p/1857627

indicates that

"ThinkServers do not have S3/S4 enabled in the BIOS and there is no
plan to add it. These options are available on our ThinkStation and
Desktop varieties, but not on servers."

If I could get suspend to work I'd be happy to install the server
version, but unless I have a good indication that it at some time
worked it unclear whether reinstalling is worth trying - if you can
confirm that suspend to ram worked on the certified machine I'd be
happy to give it a try.

Best,
Par

On Mon, Nov 9, 2015 at 3:07 AM, Po-Hsu Lin
<email address hidden> wrote:
> Your question #273871 on Ubuntu-Certification changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu-certification/+question/273871
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Po-Hsu Lin changed the question status:
> Hi Par,
> it sounds like you're using a desktop environment (as you mentioned select suspend from the menu), this system was certified with 14.04.1 Ubuntu Server, without GUI, I will suggest you to give it a try.
>
> Regards.
> Sam
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.

As you found on the Lenovo forums, Suspend to RAM or S3 is not supported by the hardware/firmware. That is not an OS fixable issue, the S3 sleep state is simply not present in the BIOS for that system.

In fact, I have never come across server hardware (real server hardware, not desktop hardware running a server OS) that supports S3 or S4 sleep states (Suspend to RAM and Suspend to Disk, or Hibernate, respectively).

Those sleep states are originally intended for laptops to preserve battery life when the lid is closed and happen to also be available to desktops as desktops are also common targets for soft power-down type scenarios.

Servers, however, by design, are meant to be operational with as close to 100% uptime as possible, and thus have never really supported those power saving sleep states.

Hope that helps.

As previously mentioned, hibernate and suspend are intentionally disabled on a hardware / BIOS level for the ThinkServer TS140.

However, I ended up getting around this by installing uswsusp to emulate hibernation using the swapfile.

See https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/ht079445 and https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PowerManagement/Hibernate 

Aha, thank you *very* much!

Regarding Akeem's comment: suspend to ram might not be supported, but
suspend to disk seems to be supported (the computer powers down etc;
if I remember correctly this is via pm-hibernate), and waking it up
works *occasionally*. The Ubuntu-Certification status for TS140
should perhaps mention this.

On Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 2:02 AM, Akeem McLennon
<email address hidden> wrote:
> Your question #273871 on Ubuntu-Certification changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu-certification/+question/273871
>
> Akeem McLennon proposed the following answer:
> As previously mentioned, hibernate and suspend are intentionally
> disabled on a hardware / BIOS level for the ThinkServer TS140.
>
> However, I ended up getting around this by installing uswsusp to emulate
> hibernation using the swapfile.
>
> See https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/ht079445 and
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PowerManagement/Hibernate 
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu-certification/+question/273871/+confirm?answer_id=3
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu-certification/+question/273871
>
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.

PS: I thought the second email came from someone else, but upon
rereading I realise that you (Akeem) wrote both of them. Sorry!

On Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 10:04 AM, Par Kurlberg <email address hidden> wrote:
> Aha, thank you *very* much!
>
> Regarding Akeem's comment: suspend to ram might not be supported, but
> suspend to disk seems to be supported (the computer powers down etc;
> if I remember correctly this is via pm-hibernate), and waking it up
> works *occasionally*. The Ubuntu-Certification status for TS140
> should perhaps mention this.
>
> On Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 2:02 AM, Akeem McLennon
> <email address hidden> wrote:
>> Your question #273871 on Ubuntu-Certification changed:
>> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu-certification/+question/273871
>>
>> Akeem McLennon proposed the following answer:
>> As previously mentioned, hibernate and suspend are intentionally
>> disabled on a hardware / BIOS level for the ThinkServer TS140.
>>
>> However, I ended up getting around this by installing uswsusp to emulate
>> hibernation using the swapfile.
>>
>> See https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/ht079445 and
>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PowerManagement/Hibernate 
>>
>> --
>> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
>> know that it is solved:
>> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu-certification/+question/273871/+confirm?answer_id=3
>>
>> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
>> following page to enter your feedback:
>> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu-certification/+question/273871
>>
>> You received this question notification because you asked the question.

I tried your fix: I've been able to have the server wake up from
suspend a couple of times without any trouble (knock on wood...)

Thank you *very* much!

On Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 10:12 AM, Par Kurlberg
<email address hidden> wrote:
> Your question #273871 on Ubuntu-Certification changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu-certification/+question/273871
>
> You gave more information on the question:
> PS: I thought the second email came from someone else, but upon
> rereading I realise that you (Akeem) wrote both of them. Sorry!
>
> On Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 10:04 AM, Par Kurlberg <email address hidden> wrote:
>> Aha, thank you *very* much!
>>
>> Regarding Akeem's comment: suspend to ram might not be supported, but
>> suspend to disk seems to be supported (the computer powers down etc;
>> if I remember correctly this is via pm-hibernate), and waking it up
>> works *occasionally*. The Ubuntu-Certification status for TS140
>> should perhaps mention this.
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 2:02 AM, Akeem McLennon
>> <email address hidden> wrote:
>>> Your question #273871 on Ubuntu-Certification changed:
>>> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu-certification/+question/273871
>>>
>>> Akeem McLennon proposed the following answer:
>>> As previously mentioned, hibernate and suspend are intentionally
>>> disabled on a hardware / BIOS level for the ThinkServer TS140.
>>>
>>> However, I ended up getting around this by installing uswsusp to emulate
>>> hibernation using the swapfile.
>>>
>>> See https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/ht079445 and
>>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PowerManagement/Hibernate 
>>>
>>> --
>>> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
>>> know that it is solved:
>>> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu-certification/+question/273871/+confirm?answer_id=3
>>>
>>> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
>>> following page to enter your feedback:
>>> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu-certification/+question/273871
>>>
>>> You received this question notification because you asked the question.
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

Seems to have been resolved with help from the community with a workaround to emulate the sleep states.