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Solaris Common Desktop Environment: User's Guide

Chapter 23 Power Management

This chapter gives an overview of Power ManagementTM and explains the features that apply to your system by default when you use this SolarisTM release. This chapter also explains how to customize the Power Management features.

Value of Power Management

Reducing the amount of power consumed by a computer reduces electricity costs, and reduces the effort required to control the heat surrounding the computer. Reducing power consumption also can extend the effective life of the hardware you use.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established Energy Star® guidelines for computer products. Other nations have issued similar energy efficiency guidelines. To meet these guidelines, hardware products are designed to use power efficiently.

The Power Management software provided in the Solaris operating environment works in conjunction with the hardware to reduce overall consumption of electricity. In some cases, you may need to use this software for your workstation to meet the Energy Star guidelines that apply to that hardware.

Note –

As an Energy Star Partner, Sun Microsystems, Inc. has determined that its hardware products that have the Energy Star symbol on the shipping box or on the product meet the Energy Star guidelines for energy efficiency.

Types of Power Management

Power Management software enables two ways of reducing power consumption: Device power management and Suspend-Resume.

Device Power Management

Device power management automatically reduces the amount of power that individual devices use when they are not performing an function. Disk drives, monitors, adapters, and even CPUs can provide this power-saving feature. The effect of device power management is transparent to the computer user. The overall system is still in operation, and is able to respond to requests for service from devices. Those devices are able to power up for full service within seconds when needed.

Suspend-Resume

Suspend-Resume is a time-saving feature that allows you to turn off the power to your system without losing the state of your current activities. When you use this feature, your workspace and files are preserved when the system is powered off and restored to the same state when the system is powered on. For example, if you are in the middle of revising a document when you decide to leave, you can power off your system using the Suspend feature and your work session is automatically saved. The next time you power on the system, the Resume feature causes your work to appear in the same state as when you switched off the power. Whether a shutdown is initiated automatically through Power Management software, or manually through keystrokes, the Suspend-Resume feature saves checkpoint information about the state of the system at that time.

Suspend-Resume can be active on your system in the following ways:

Caution – Caution –

Do not use System Power Management on systems that do work that should not be interrupted. Conditions where you should choose to not use the Suspend-Resume features are described in Using the Suspend-Resume Feature.

Hardware Support for Power Management Features

All SPARC workstations can use some features of the Power Management software. However, some features only work on certain types of hardware. Some default power states vary from one type of system to another.

The following section describes the Power Management features that are supported by your hardware, as well as the defaults that are in effect when you first use this Solaris release with your hardware.

Note –

Intel hardware running the Solaris operating environment does not support Power Management.

Power Management Features on Different Hardware Systems

The Power Management features are enabled by both the power-saving capability of the hardware, and the software provided with the Solaris operating environment. The exact nature of the power-saving mode your system goes into depends on your hardware and the compliance of the hardware with Energy Star. To determine the version of Energy Star to which your system complies, use the prtconf -vp | grep energystar command.

Power Management-capable hardware provides the features discussed in the following sections.

Energy Star 3.0-Compliant Systems

The Energy Star 3.0-compliant SPARCTM hardware reduces power consumption by entering a low-power mode from which devices can resume full operation automatically. This hardware can turn off monitors and frame buffers, spin down disks, and drop the devices' power consumption significantly when they are idle — all while leaving the system up and running, ready for use, and visible on the network. When a job appears on the system, either through a cron process, or an external demand through a network, the devices and other hardware snap back into full-power mode within seconds.

Energy Star 2.0-Compliant Systems

Energy Star 2.0-compliant SPARC hardware does not have the capability of going into a reduced-power mode. Instead, the system completely shuts down after the designated number of minutes of idleness. The exception to this are the monitors, which do have the capability of going into low-power mode and continuing to operate. When you restart, the system takes a minute to reboot.

Systems Noncompliant with Energy Star

Systems that are noncompliant with Energy Star regulations perform power management for only the monitor. Power management is not performed for any other devices.

System Architecture Distinctions and Default Settings

The SPARC architecture of a workstation determines which Power Management features are available. The default behavior in Power Management functions varies on systems, as described in Table 23–1.

To determine your system's architecture, use the uname -m command.

If you have Sun MicrosystemsTM hardware that is not described in this manual, refer to the Sun Hardware Platform Guide for this Solaris release. The Sun Hardware Platform Guide may contain additional information about how Power Management software functions on your system.

Table 23–1 Power Management Features in Different SPARC Architectures

Power Management Features 

sun4m  

sun4u (Energy Star 2.0) 

sun4u (Energy Star 3.0) 

Servers 

Display PM Available 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Display PM by Default 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Device PM Available 

No 

No 

Yes 

No 

Device PM by Default 

N/A 

N/A 

Yes 

N/A 

Suspend-Resume Available 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

No 

Suspend-Resume by Default 

No 

Yes 

No 

N/A 

AutoShutDown Available 

No 

Yes 

Yes 

No 

AutoWakeup by Default 

N/A 

Yes 

No 

N/A 

Note –

The SPARCstationTM Voyager is a sun4m-architecture system, but is not supported in this Solaris release.

Power Management Software

In most cases, the default Power Management settings should suffice. If you would like to change the default settings, however, you can do so through Dtpower, the Power Management software.

Dtpower Software

Dtpower launches a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows you change your power saving scheme. Dtpower also enables you to designate periods of inactivity after which the devices, including the monitor and the disk drives, and the system go into a power saving mode.

You can also use the Dtpower GUI to set the time of day to activate the Suspend-Resume feature (called AutoShutdown when configured through Dtpower). For example, if you want the AutoShutdown feature to activate only after your regular work hours. On sun4u-architecture workstations, you can also activate the AutoWakeup feature of the Dtpower software, which will power on the system at a specific time following an AutoShutdown.

Power Saving Schemes

The simplest way to manage your system power is by selecting one of three power-saving schemes offered by the Dtpower program:

In addition to these three schemes, you can also create a customized power scheme, which is discussed in Customizing Power Schemes.

Basic Dtpower Settings and Configurations

This section describes the Dtpower GUI and the associated conventions. This section also explains the preset power-saving schemes for Dtpower.

Accessing Dtpower

In previous releases, you needed superuser permissions to start Dtpower and then edit the configurations. In this release, you can start the program in a number of ways, all of which enable you to change the configurations.

Note –

If you are unable to access Dtpower for editing purposes, you might not have the correct permissions. See the dtpower(1M) man page for details.

If Dtpower is already running, the program might appear on your desktop as the following icon:

Figure 23–1 The Dtpower Icon

Graphic

To Start Dtpower Through the CDE Workspace

  1. On the CDE desktop, hold down the menu button on your mouse.

  2. From the pull-down list, select Tools.

  3. From the pull-down list, select Power Manager.

To Start Dtpower From the Applications Manager

  1. From the front panel on the CDE desktop, select Applications Manager.

  2. From Applications Manager, select Desktop_App.

  3. From Desktop_App, select Power Manager.

To Start Dtpower From the Command Line

  1. Start Dtpower:


    # /usr/dt/bin/dtpower &
Note –

Due to system initialization, Dtpower can take some time to launch.

Overview of the Dtpower GUI

Basic Dtpower Window Controls

Every Dtpower window has one or more of the following buttons:

Figure 23–2 The Dtpower Basic Window

Graphic

Power Saving Schemes

The simplest way to select a level of power management for your system is to choose one of the preset power saving schemes. The schemes appear in the Current Power Saving Scheme box in the Dtpower basic window. The default scheme is Standard, as shown in Figure 23–2.

The implementation of the power saving schemes depends on the architecture and the Energy Star capability of the hardware that is running Dtpower.

The implementation of the power schemes depends on the power saving capabilities of your hardware. In addition to the schemes described below, you can also modify any one of these schemes and save the scheme as a Customized scheme. For more information on creating a customized power saving scheme, see Customizing Power Schemes.

The available power schemes are:

To Select a Power-Saving Scheme

  1. Start Dtpower.

    This launches the Dtpower basic window.

  2. From the pull-down list in the Current Power Saving Scheme box, choose a scheme.

    Figure 23–3 Pulldown List of Power Saving Schemes

    Graphic

  3. Click OK.

    Note –

    Some schemes in the pull-down list might be grayed out. You might be unable to select these schemes because you do not have the required permissions.

Customizing Power Schemes

This chapter explains how you can create a customized power scheme, overriding the schemes that come preset in the Dtpower software.

You cannot overwrite the schemes that the system provides, but you can create a customized scheme. When you change a system-shipped scheme, a new scheme called “Customized” is created. When you edit another scheme, the first Customized scheme is overwritten by the new one. Thus, you can only save one customized scheme at any time.

The Customized scheme remains the default scheme even if you reboot your system. The Customized scheme only remains in the system until you select one of the three preset schemes. When you select a preset scheme, the Customized scheme is deleted and removed from the pull-down list of available schemes.

Power Management of Overall System

The system idle time defines the length of time for which the CPU and the devices connected to your system must be idle before they power down. Although you can use the GUI to assign only one idle time for all devices and the CPU, the idle time of each device is measured separately. If a system has two external hard drives, for example, and you are only using one of them, the other drive switches to power-saving mode after 30 minutes of idleness. The first drive switches to the power-saving mode separately, after an idle time of 30 minutes.

For information on configuring a different idle time for each device, refer to the power.conf(4) man page.

To Change System Power Management

  1. Start Dtpower.

    This launches the Dtpower basic window:

    Figure 23–4 The Dtpower Basic Window

    Graphic

  2. In the Dtpower basic window, select More.

    The Quick Edit tab is displayed.

    Figure 23–5 Quick Edit Tab

    Graphic

  3. From the pull-down list for Default System Idle Time, choose the amount of time you want all the devices to be idle before powering down.

    You can also type in the system idle time.

Power Management of Monitors

You can override the power management for the monitor from the overall system power management through the Dtpower GUI. When you change the idle time for monitor power, only the idle time for the monitor power changes. The idle time for all other devices and the system remains as specified in the Default System Idle Time box.

When the screen goes blank, some monitors can power down, and then power up when you use the computer again. Other monitors only blank the screen but do not power down.

Power management of workstations that have two monitors is also handled through Dtpower. In such a case, both monitors receive the same idle time setting.

Note –

In some earlier versions of the Solaris operating environment, power management for monitors was handled through the screensaver options of your windowing system, rather than through the Dtpower program. That is no longer the case. Power management for the monitor, disk drive, and system power are now all handled uniformly through the Dtpower program.

To Change Monitor Power Management

  1. Start Dtpower.

    This launches the Dtpower basic window.

  2. In the Dtpower basic window, select More.

    The Quick Edit tab is displayed.

  3. Check the Monitors - Sleep After Idling For button.

    The pull-down list for the idle time of the monitors becomes active.

    Figure 23–6 Pull-Down List for Disks Idle Time

    Graphic

  4. Either choose a time from the pull-down list of idle times or type a unique value in the edit box.

    You must leave a blank space between the number you type and the units. Abbreviate the units to Sec, Min, or Hr, as appropriate. Decimal values are accepted. For example, if you enter 1.5 Hr, the display idle time is set to 90 minutes.

    If you type a new value, the value is added to the list and is available the next time you use the pull-down list. The value is displayed in the format that you use in the edit box.

  5. Click OK.

To Reactivate the Monitor

  1. Move the mouse or press any key.

This restores the power to the monitor, but you may find that your screen is locked. The screen lock option is set through the Style Manager in CDE. Unlike in previous versions of the Power Management software, the screen lock is now completely independent of the Power Management software. If your screen is locked, enter your password to return to the desktop.

Power Management of Disk Drives

You can override the power management of disk drives just as you can for monitors. When you change the idle time for disk drives, only the power management settings for the disks changes. All disk drives connected to the system receive the same idle time. The idle time for all other devices and the system remains as specified in the Default System Idle Time box, see Figure 23–3.

For information on setting a different idle time for each disk drive, refer to the power.conf(4) man page.

To Change Disk Drive Power Management

  1. Start Dtpower.

    This launches the Dtpower basic window.

  2. In the Dtpower basic window, select More.

    The Quick Edit tab is displayed.

  3. Check the Disk Drives - Sleep After Idling For button.

    The corresponding pull-down list for idle time becomes active.

  4. Either choose a time from the pull-down list of idle times or enter a unique value in the edit box.

    Leave a blank space between the number you enter and units. Abbreviate the units to Sec, Min, or Hr, as appropriate. Decimal values are accepted. For example, if you enter 1.5 Hr, the disk drive idle time is set to 90  minutes.

    If you enter a new value, the value is added to the list, and is available the next time you use the pull-down list. The value is displayed in the format you use in the edit box.

  5. Click OK.

Using the Suspend-Resume Feature

This section discusses the issues to consider when you use the Suspend-Resume feature, for example:

This section points out the differences in how the Dtpower program operates on sun4m-architecture desktop machines, such as the SPARCstationTM 20, and on sun4u-architecture desktop machines, such as the Sun UltraTM 1.

Note –

The Solaris operating environment also provides a command line interface so that a system administrator can change the default settings and idleness definition of a system. For more information, see the power.conf(4) man page.

Choosing to Use Suspend-Resume

Powering off a desktop system may interfere with some operations that involve that machine. This section presents some guidelines to take into account before you use system Power Management features on a desktop machine.

Electronic Mail Issues

Mail is not sent to any mail spool file on a machine while the machine is suspended. Typically, if mail can not be delivered for more than three days, then the mail is returned to the sender as undeliverable.

If you suspend your system for three days or longer, and your machine has a local mail spool, you might not receive messages that the mail application has sent back to the sender.

Mail Alias Issues

Mail aliases on a machine are not available to other users while that machine is suspended. If the machine is suspended long enough, typically three days, messages sent to an alias on that machine are sent back to the sender.

Remote Login Issues

While your machine is suspended, you can not access the machine by remote dial-in. In other words, you can not use rlogin(1) to connect to a machine while that machine is suspended.

Networked Software Issues

The Suspend-Resume feature might have an impact on a networked application. A networked program might fail if the program is not resilient when a peer system is suspended and does not respond to network traffic.

One example of this is when you run an Xhosted application from one system and display the application on a second system. If the Power Management software suspends the second system, the application software might fail.

Solstice AutoClient Issues

Do not use Suspend-Resume features on a machine that uses Solstice™ AutoClient™ software.

ATM Issues

The Power Management software is not supported on SunATM™ devices. The ATM protocol requires that calls must be established between two endpoints, such as workstations, before data can be transferred. Each end of the call must maintain the connection actively, so neither end of an ATM connection can use the Power Management software to suspend and, later, resume the connection.

Cron Job Issues

Operations specified in a cron file do not run during the time a machine is suspended.

When a system resumes, cron jobs scheduled to run during the time the system was suspended with the Power Management software are handled in the following way:

Normally, the cron command identifies the next job to run and calculates the interval to wait to run that job. When a system resumes, the cron command calculates the interval until the first job has expired, then this already-queued cron job is run. The cron process then rechecks the queue of cron jobs. The cron process only considers jobs whose execution time has not yet passed, so any additional jobs whose run time fell during the time the system was suspended are not run.

Calendar Manager Issues

The Calendar Manager software does not display pop-up windows for scheduled events that occur while the desktop machine is suspended.

Thermal Stress Issues

The goal of the Power Management software is to conserve electricity. You should also take into account how an increase in power cycling affects the overall reliability of the hardware.

The Power Management software is active by default on sun4u systems, such as the Sun Ultra 1. Accordingly, the Power Management system for those machines evaluates each automatic power-cycle request that occurs due to the system being idle. If an evaluation determines that the thermal shock of power cycling on a particular occasion would decrease hardware reliability, then that power-cycle request is deferred.

Despite this feature, you can choose to turn off a sun4u system manually at any time. This checking feature prevents an excessive number of automatic power-cycle requests to the hardware.

Suspending and Resuming Your System Manually

The Power Management software includes a timesaving feature called Suspend-Resume. This feature is used by default through the AutoShutdown and AutoWakeup features of the Dtpower program. You can also suspend and resume your system whenever you choose by following the procedures in this section.

The traditional process of powering off your system can be time consuming. Similarly, the process of rebooting and setting up your workspace can also take some time. With the Suspend-Resume feature, you can power off your system and save all your current work-in-progress automatically. When you power on the system, the saved workspace is restored.

You can leave your system suspended and powered off for an indefinite length of time without losing data. However, there are some outside operations, such as receiving mail, that might be affected while your system is suspended. Before you use the Suspend-Resume feature, read Choosing to Use Suspend-Resume.

Note –

The Suspend-Resume feature is not supported on systems configured as diskless clients.

You can suspend your system automatically using the AutoShutdown feature in the Power Management software. To suspend your system manually, follow the instructions in this section.

Suspend allows you to do the following without losing the current state of your system:

Note –

Do not use the Suspend feature if you need to reconfigure your system. You must halt the operating system whenever you want to reconfigure your system.

Before you suspend a system, you must wait for operations such as the following to finish:

Initiating a Suspend and a subsequent Resume usually requires less than a minute. You can initiate Suspend in several ways:

To Suspend Your System Using the Keyboard

  1. Press the Power key.

    For examples of the location of the Power key, see Figure 23–7 and Figure 23–8.

    Figure 23–7 Example of Power Key Location on Sun Type 5 and Type 6 Keyboards

    Graphic

    Figure 23–8 Power Key Location on Sun Compact 1 Keyboard

    Graphic

    After you press the Power key, the confirmation window shown in Figure 23–9 is displayed.

    Figure 23–9 Default Confirmation Window for Power Key Suspend

    Graphic

  2. Select Suspend in the confirmation window.

    Suspend saves the state of the system to disk, enabling you to return later to the current system environment.

    Shutdown synchronizes the disks to a neutral state and effectively shuts down the operating system. This is equivalent to running the shutdown(1M) command.

  3. Wait for the system to power off.

  4. Power off all external devices.

    External devices include disk drives, printers, or other serial or parallel peripherals. See the manual supplied with the external device for instructions.

To Immediately Suspend Your System Using the Keyboard

  1. Press the Shift and the Power key at the same time.

    See Figure 23–7 or Figure 23–8 for the location of the Power key.

  2. Wait for the system to power off.

  3. Power off all external devices.

    External devices include external disk drives, printers, or other serial or parallel peripherals. See the manual supplied with the external device for instructions.

To Disable the Power Key

  1. As root, edit the /usr/openwin/lib/speckeysd.map file


    # vi /usr/openwin/lib/speckeysd.map

  2. Comment out the two lines starting "SunPower" by putting a "#" as the first character in the line.


    #SunPowerSwitch                  -       $OPENWINHOME/bin/sys-suspen
#SunPowerSwitchShift             -       $OPENWINHOME/bin/sys-suspend -n

  3. Save the edited file.

  4. Shut down and restart the system.

To Suspend Your System Using the Standby Switch

Some systems, such as the Sun Ultra 5 and Sun Ultra 10, have a standby switch on the front of the system.

  1. Press the standby switch while you are in a windowing environment.

    Caution – Caution –

    If you are not in a windowing environment, pressing the standby switch immediately shuts down the system.

    In a windowing environment, the confirmation window shown in Figure 23–10 is displayed.

    Figure 23–10 Default Confirmation Window for Standby Switch

    Graphic

  2. Select Suspend in the confirmation window.

    Suspend saves the state of the system to disk, enabling you to return to the current system environment.

    Shutdown synchronizes the disks to a neutral state and effectively shuts down the operating system. This is equivalent to running the shutdown(1M) command.

    In the window for the standby switch, Shutdown is the default. In the similar window that appears when you press the power key, Suspend is the default.

  3. Wait for the system to power off.

  4. Power off all external devices.

    External devices include disk drives, printers, or other serial or parallel peripherals. See the manual supplied with the external device for instructions.

To Suspend Your System Using CDE

  1. Place your cursor in the workspace and hold down the menu button.

    The Workspace menu is displayed.

  2. Select Suspend System from the Workspace menu.

    The Suspend confirmation window is displayed, as shown in Figure 23–9.

  3. Select Suspend in the confirmation window.

  4. Wait for the system to power off.

  5. Power off all external devices.

    External devices include disk drives, printers, or other serial or parallel peripherals. See the manual supplied with the external device for instructions.

To Initiate Suspend Using the sys-suspend Command
Note –

You do not need to run a windowing system, such as CDE, for the sys-suspend shell command to work, nor do you need to be superuser.

  1. At the prompt, initiate the system suspend process:


    example% /usr/openwin/bin/sys-suspend

    The Suspend confirmation pop-up window is displayed, as shown in Figure 23–10. If a window system is not running, the command executes without displaying the confirmation pop-up window.

  2. Click Suspend.

  3. Wait for the system to power off.

  4. Power off all external devices.

    External devices include disk drives, printers, or other serial or parallel peripherals. See the manual supplied with the external device for instructions.

To Resume a Suspended System

  1. Power on all external devices connected to your system.

  2. Press the Power key.

    See Figure 23–7 or Figure 23–8 for power key locations.

  3. Enter your password to unlock the system.

    Whenever the system is suspended, it is automatically locked.

System AutoShutdown and AutoWakeup Controls

You can use the Dtpower program to specify times for your system to shut down automatically. This feature is called AutoShutdown. If you have a sun4u desktop machine, you can also set your system to power on automatically at a specified time. This feature is called AutoWakeup.

Note –

Read Choosing to Use Suspend-Resume before you change the AutoShutdown settings.

AutoShutdown uses the Suspend feature to automatically power off your system. When the system powers up again, the system resumes in the state in which the system was suspended.

Through the Dtpower window, you can activate or deactivate the AutoShutdown and AutoWakeup features. You can also specify the following values:

Figure 23–11 AutoShutdown Configuration for All Day

Graphic

Note –

AutoWakeup does not occur after you suspend a system manually. AutoWakeup can occur only after an AutoShutdown.

To Set an Idle Time for AutoShutdown

  1. Start Dtpower.

    Note –

    Consecutive executions of AutoShutdown do not occur less than five minutes apart, even if the idle time setting is under five minutes.

  2. In the Dtpower basic window, click More.

    The window expands to show the Quick Edit tab.

  3. In the Quick Edit tab, check Enable AutoShutdown.

  4. Click Edit.

    The AutoShutdown window is displayed.

    Figure 23–12 AutoShutdown Window

    Graphic

  5. Enter the time you want the AutoShutdown feature to start to be active.

  6. Enter the time you want the AutoShutdown feature to cease being active.

  7. In the numerical box for Shutdown During This Interval If Idle for, enter the duration for which the computer must be idle before shutting down.

    In Figure 23–12, the AutoShutdown occurs after 1 hour of idle time between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m.

  8. Click OK when all the settings you want are displayed.

    If you want to reject the displayed settings, select Cancel. The currently active settings are displayed in the window.

To Disable AutoShutdown

  1. Start Dtpower.

  2. In the Dtpower basic window, click More.

    The window expands to show the Quick Edit tab.

  3. In the Quick Edit tab, uncheck Enable AutoShutdown.

  4. Click OK.

To Enable AutoWakeup
Note –

The AutoWakeup feature is available only on sun4u desktop systems.

  1. Start Dtpower.

  2. In the Dtpower basic window, click More.

    This expands the window to reveal the Quick Edit tab.

  3. In the Quick Edit tab, check Enable AutoShutdown.

  4. Click Edit.

    The AutoShutdown window is displayed.

  5. Set the idle time for AutoShutdown.

    See To Set an Idle Time for AutoShutdown.

  6. Check the Restart at <time> button.

The time the computer restarts is the second time you specify for AutoShutdown.

To Disable AutoWakeup

  1. Start Dtpower.

  2. In the Dtpower basic window, click More.

    This expands the window to reveal the Quick Edit tab

  3. In the Quick Edit tab, uncheck Enable AutoShutdown.

  4. Click Edit.

    The AutoShutdown window is displayed.

  5. Uncheck the Restart at <time> button.

To Exit Dtpower

  1. Click OK to activate the new settings you made in the Dtpower window.

    The Dtpower window closes.

Troubleshooting Power Key Problems

If pressing the Power key does not suspend your system, refer to the following procedure.

To Respond When the Power Key Does Not Suspend the System

  1. Verify that the key processing daemon is present:


    % ps -eaf | grep speckeysd

    If the resulting message does not list /usr/openwin/bin/speckeysd, you need to start the key processing daemon.

  2. Become superuser and start the key processing daemon, if necessary:


    % /usr/openwin/bin/speckeysd

Troubleshooting Suspend Failures

When the system fails to suspend, an alert appears. The exact message within the pop-up window may vary, depending on the cause of the problem, but the Suspend Failed window appears similar to the following figure.

Figure 23–13 Suspend Failed Window

Graphic

When any Suspend Failed window appears, click either of the buttons at the bottom of the window:

To Respond to a Device Suspend Failure

  1. When the Suspend Failed window appears saying Device error during suspend, select Cancel.

    If you have not already saved your work, do so now. Take the following corrective action before you try to suspend your system again:

  2. Check for more information in the console window in the workspace.

    An unsupported device or a device performing nonresumable activity might be the cause of this problem.

    If the device specified by the console message is performing a nonresumable activity, stop the activity and try to suspend again.

    If your system contains devices in addition to the default configuration, then these devices might not support the Suspend feature. In that case, continue with the next step.

  3. Unload the device driver.

    Before you try to suspend again, you must attempt to unload the device driver. Perform the following steps:

    1. Get the module ID by running modinfo.

    2. Unload that module:


      modunload -i module_id

    You might not be able to unload a driver for one of these reasons:

    • There is no detach support in the code.

    • You must unload another driver first, such as audio(7I) and dbri(7D).

    • The device is in use and busy.

    In such a case, contact your system administrator.

  4. Try Suspend again.

    • If Suspend succeeds, the system saves your activities and the system powers off successfully.

    • If Suspend does not succeed, the alert window is displayed again. In this case, continue with the next step.

    Caution – Caution –

    Save your work if you have not already done so.

  5. Select Power Off.

    Since the error persists, you can suspend your system. You can select Power Off to shut down the system properly without causing file system damage. When you power on again, your system automatically reboots.

    Your data is not saved unless you save the data manually.

    If you select Power Off and the command fails, your system does not support software power off. An alert window is then displayed with information about the power-off failure, as shown in the following figure:

    Figure 23–14 Power Off Failed Pop-up Window

    Graphic

  6. Select Continue.

    Your system might not support software power off due to a non-Type 5 keyboard or an outdated system PROM. If you do have a Type 5 keyboard installed, then contact your system provider for a system PROM upgrade.

    Also, some sun4m-architecture systems drop to an OpenBootTM PROM prompt after a suspend operation, because those systems do not support software power off.

  7. Save your work if you have not already done so.

  8. Halt the operating system.

  9. Power off by pressing the power switch on the back panel of the system to the off (0) position.

    Note –

    When possible, obtain and install a device driver that supports Suspend features, to solve the problem for that device in the future.

To Respond to a Process Suspend Failure

  1. Select Cancel when the Suspend Failed window appears with the following message: Process cannot be stopped

    If you have not already saved your work, do so now. Try to suspend again.

  2. Check for more information in the Console window in the Workspace.

    If a process is a real-time process or is performing certain special network operations, that process might refuse to suspend gracefully. In most cases, this is only a temporary condition that you can correct by trying to suspend again.

    However, if the problem persists, stop the offending process, as specified in the console message, and try to suspend again.

  3. Try Suspend again.

    • If Suspend succeeds, the system saves your activities and the system powers off.

    • If Suspend does not succeed, the alert window is displayed again.

    Caution – Caution –

    Save your work if you have not already done so.

  4. Select Power Off.

    Your data is not saved unless you save the data manually.

    When you power on again, your system automatically reboots.

To Respond to an Abnormal Condition

  1. Select Cancel when the Suspend Failed window appears with the following message: Abnormal condition during suspend,

    You must take corrective action before you can try to suspend again.

    If you have not already saved your work, do so now.

  2. Check for more information in the Console window in the Workspace.

    You might be able to take further corrective action by checking the console error messages.

  3. Try Suspend again.

    • If Suspend succeeds, the system saves your activities and the system powers off.

    • If Suspend does not succeed, the alert window is displayed again. In this case, continue with the next step.

    Caution – Caution –

    Save your work if you have not already done so.

  4. Select Power Off.

    Your data is not saved unless you save the data manually.

    When you power on again, your system automatically reboots.

Troubleshooting a Shortage of Disk Space

When you execute a Suspend command, your system creates a statefile to preserve the current state of your system. If the file system that contains the statefile is full, a Suspend Failed window appears with the following message:

Suspend requires more disk space for statefile.

Perform the following procedure in response to this message.

To Respond to a Disk Space Limitation

  1. Select Cancel.

    You must take corrective action before you can try to suspend again.

    If you have not already saved your work, do so now.

  2. Check for more information in the Console window in the Workspace.

    You must have a minimum of 10 Mbytes of free space. Clean up a partition before you try to suspend again. Another solution is to change the location of the statefile to a file system with sufficient space, as described in the power.conf(4) man page.

    Contact your system administrator for assistance, if necessary.

  3. Try Suspend again.

    • If Suspend succeeds, the system saves your activities and the system powers off.

    • If Suspend does not succeed, the alert window appears again. In that case, continue with the next step.

    Caution – Caution –

    Save your work if you have not already done so.

  4. Select Power Off.

    Your data is not saved unless you save the data manually.

    When you power on again, your system automatically reboots.

Disabling the Screen Lock

After a Resume, the system screen lock is invoked by default. To disable the screen lock before you use the power key to Suspend, use the following procedure.

Note –

You cannot disable screen locking that is put into effect by AutoShutdown. This is a security feature. It ensures that only someone who knows your password can get access to your work session when the system resumes.

To Disable the Screen Lock After Using the Power Key to Suspend

  1. Modify the speckeysd.map file to add the -x flag to the sys-suspend entry.

    For more information, see the man page for speckeysd.map(4).

    Caution – Caution –

    Save your work if you have not already done so.

  2. Exit the current windowing session and restart.

    In place of this step, you may also kill the speckeysd daemon and then restart the daemon.