Sporadically lose hibernate option.

[lindsey]

Sporadically lose hibernate option.

Attempt to hibernate - screen goes black momentarily but any mouse keyboard input reactivates the screen again, and it goes nowhere even when you give it time.

When go back to shut down options hibernate and sleep is now missing.

Sometimes when many windows open this happens. Is this relevant?

Help!

[gogalthorp]

Could be how big is your swap file? the swap area is used to put OS image so the more apps running the more space needed. It may just be running out when many apps are open.

[lindsey]

Could be how big is your swap file? the swap area is used to put OS image so the more apps running the more space needed. It may just be running out when many apps are open.

2GB is not enough?

[gogalthorp]

How much memory do you have?

[lindsey]

How much memory do you have?

About the same, 2GB.

[gogalthorp]

That would normally work if you are not using any swap at the time. Maybe watch the swap memory usage and see if it correlates. Though if you are using up more them 2gig memory you may want to reconsider you usage habits.

[lindsey]

That would normally work if you are not using any swap at the time. Maybe watch the swap memory usage and see if it correlates. Though if you are using up more them 2gig memory you may want to reconsider you usage habits.

Would expanding swap rule this problem out?

If so how do I achieve that?

[gogalthorp]

It sounds like it might be the problem. To increase the swap you need to change the partitioning which is not trivial.

open a console and become root
su -

type
fdisk -l ( note that is a lower case L not a one!)

post results here.

[lindsey]

It sounds like it might be the problem. To increase the swap you need to change the partitioning which is not trivial.

open a console and become root
su -

type
fdisk -l ( note that is a lower case L not a one!)

post results here.

As requested:

Disk /dev/sda: 59.8 GB, 59814236160 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7272 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x31f531f4

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 4165 33447330 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 4165 7272 24964978+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 4165 4426 2104452 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 4427 5604 9462253+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 5605 7272 13398178+ 83 Linux

[gogalthorp]

Ok here is the problem swap is the first partition in the Extended partition (sda5) so in order to make it bigger you would first need to reduce the size of sda6 (which I'm guessing is your root) then move that reduced partition to allow space to expand the root partition. Then finely resize sda5 (swap). Now all of this requires some advanced knowledge and I do not recommend a beginner do it. And you end up cutting the space from the root partition.

So a better way is to reinstall. Either backing up the home partition (sda7) or telling the installer to NOT format that partition but just mount it as /home.

In any case you should always backup all important data before playing with partitions.

Also I am just speculating that the problem is insufficient swap. I may be premature to start cutting up the hard drive.

There are many widgets and programs that will show you the memory usage including amount of swap. This is normally 0 but if you open sufficient programs and memory you will start to use swap. So before you start the brain surgery maybe it would be good to monitor your swap usage and see if it corresponds with the hibernate problem.