CF-29N Linux Power managment

Every google search about these systems leads me here, so this MUST be the place to ask my CF-29 Questions.

Like above, I am having NO luck getting suspend, or hibernate events to work on either of my CF-29's. I've tried several different distro's, Lubunu and Mint Xfce most notably, and they both have this problem of acpi support.

If I lid close, the PC goes black screen, never to wake again. If I choose suspend, then close: erradic maybe zombie black screen, maybe nothing responsive, but not a return to full function in either regard.

To avoid rehashing all my troubleshooting, I am currently testing run of the mill Linux Mint 17 on the CF-29N. I would like to get these stable to use for my kids homeschooling this next semester.

Anyone have experience with Power managment issues on these systems? I'm not new to linux, but I'm no ace at it either.

Thanks to the forum for all the help so far! (lurkers gonna lurk)

 

Welcome to the forum. Please post your complete model # i.e. CF-29Nxxxxxx
This will make it easier for people responding to your questions.
Also, what do you mean by "run of the mill"?? Did you load XFCE , MATE , KDE, ...etc??
How did you choose 17 over the well tested and proven Mint 13 found here: Editions for Linux Mint 13 "Maya" - Linux Mint
I'm curious, that's all.
Left coast (Sadlmkr) should have some insight, once he checks in.

 

CF-29NAQGZBM I am getting similar problems with the mark 1 (it's physically unavailable right now) so I didn't include that info.

Good question. I have mint 17 XFCE running nicely (except for the power managment issue) on the above laptop. I have tried 13 xfce. Same issue with the PM, but I like the interface of 17 better. In fact 13XFCE is still bootable and available in grub, I just prefer the "feel" of 17. I will reboot to 13 after posting.

As for my reasoning: one of the first steps was to install 13 xfce, and I experienced the APM issues and something else that I cannot recall. After resolving the something else, and finding no solution to the APM issue, I thought that perhaps some fix was pushed to the next release candidate, so I installed 17 XFCE. Same APM issues but it felt nicer.

Why XFCE? I'm a decidedly KDE fan, and on minimal systems LXDE. But.. Mint does not have LXDE version, and I feel that KDE is too much for the application, so.. XFCE. If you feel MATE or {other DE here} would be a better fit; I'm Game! Input always appreciated.

 

Hi heartbt
I haven't tried it on either of my toughbooks, but on an HP8510 wattOS performs great, I forget which kernel wattOS is running but it had the best support for the 8510 wireless, etc. wattOS is a deb based distro, xfce DE. I had also done a test run of straight debian and I have to say the "out of the box" experience was better with wattOS. If your checking Linux distros for use on older hardware it's better to go with an older kernel(some older hw was phased out on the latest kernel, isn't that the way it always goes).

 

Well, here goes WattOS. It makes sense that I try a Distro that is geared towards power saving on laptops for the issue that I'm having. I'll give it a shot. Thank you.

I was under the impression that most major distros switched to loadable kernal modules to maintain functionality of older hardware. Interesting. I would think that any modules needed for the toughbook series would be popular enough to maintain as well, but perhaps not. Thanks for the info!

 

Well WattOS LXDE 8 is... interesting. I installed it and the first "out of the box" thing you will notice is that the stupid touchpad resolution thing is present. Well that's true with every Distro. Also, no wifi out of the box. Easy fix, but...

Then the suspend issues are still there. Lid close, black screen. Suspend, the touchpad does not respond, wifi will not enable, must full restart to resume.

I don' t think that I'm going to go back steps to fix the same problem. I'm further away from the PM issue..

Any other tips?

 

Is anyone running a flavor of distro that is running power managment successfully on this or similar cf-29?

 

The latest Debian LXDE jessie/sid (unstable) power management is fine, but there are a few other minor niggles. I live on the bleeding edge.

 

What Niggles?? I may be willing to live with some niggles. I may just pop that in the other partition and check it out. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Touchpad speed (as usual), odd behaviour with nm-applet and mobile broadband, need to download wifi firmware through ethernet, reboot and shutdown from the LXPanel not working (known bug) and a few other minor adjustments I've had to make. Nothing particularly serious and mostly stuff I'm used to dealing with. Suspend and Hibernate functions properly on both my CF-29's and my CF-19F.

Keep in mind that LXDE uses Openbox as a desktop manager and it is one of the most minimalist and fastest GUIs around, and I love it. I hate ribbons, docks, gadgets, transparencies, heavy menus, icons and any screen clutter as a general rule so to me this is perfect. For the unitiated it's seems rather sparse at first, but you can fancy it up to your liking if you insist.

Current stable release is wheezy so either download the weekly testing iso or install stable to be safe then modify your sources.list to use sid then dist-upgrade the hell out of it.

Pro tip: Switch from LXDE to Openbox menu, then use obmenu to add your most used applications. So in lieu of icons on your desktop, you just right click on the desktop to launch your favourite apps or commands through the pop-up menu. There's something about a completely blank desktop with a small slit at the bottom that looks like it's all business and no fluff.

Pro tip 2: Right-clicking on the slit, choosing Panel Settings and increasing the margin gives you space to right click on a small piece of desktop at the bottom left to pop up your Openbox menu when your screen is full with a maximized window.

 

I'm so on this. I'll put up some feedback after I get this up and running.

 

I WAS so on this, until I ran into a new issue and had to retire the CF-29s. I did get debian installed and had no issues with the installation, I did not however complete my assessment when I was handed an upgraded requirement from one of my software providers that makes the 29 no longer viable for the kids. Now its something with mucho more ram. ugh.

But I hate those threads that seem to lead to an answer and then no one ever hears from the "I'll let you know how it works" dude. It does work, but to resolve ACPI issues: unconfirmed.

 

Yes we have a few threads like that....just a few

 

Heh, I was wondering about this recently.