scott wrote:
>>> ...it would drive me mad if I had to shut it down and boot it up
>>> from cold each time I used it.
>>
>> No it wouldn't if it took only less than 5 seconds. And with SSD and
>> proper kernel config and INIT config it is very possible.
> 
> Man, it takes longer than that to just get through the BIOS before it 
> gets anywhere near an OS!

I have servers where the disks take longer than that to spin up. ;-)

...we try not to reboot it much. o_O

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>> Doesn't that mean that after X hours the battery runs flat and you 
>> need to cold boot it anyway?
> 
> X is a very large number though, even after a weekend in standby the 
> battery is still at 90-something %.

I think the last time I used my laptop was about 4 months ago?

(Mind you, that's kind of moot; *my* battery is non-functional now. 
Disconnecting from the mains instantly shuts down the machine.)

>> (I guess it depends on exactly which "sleep mode" you mean...)
> 
> Start -> Shutdown -> Standby
> 
> AIUI it just supplies enough power to the RAM to keep its contents 
> refreshed, everything else is turned off.

Right. Unlike "Hibernate", which writes the RAM image to disk, so next 
time you cold boot it can just reload that.

Either way, don't you find that huge amounts of hardware stops working 
properly when you start it back up again?

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scott wrote:

> Man, it takes longer than that to just get through the BIOS before it
> gets anywhere near an OS!

True in many cases, I agree. But BIOS settings can have big influence on
this too. For example: I don't have a floppy disk drive connected at
all. But if I disable it from BIOS, loading the kernel takes 2 secs more
than if I had it enabled. So grub is someway confused. Maybe a BIOS or
Grub bug.

But there are options in BIOS which might make it faster to reach Grub.
Hopefully we'll see faster BIOS loading in the future, too.

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>> X is a very large number though, even after a weekend in standby the 
>> battery is still at 90-something %.
>
> I think the last time I used my laptop was about 4 months ago?

Right, well mine is on continually during the day at work (I use it for 
email and my desktop for other work), and sometimes in the evening or at 
weekends I use it for a while eg in front of the TV or in the kitchen.  It 
also gets used on the road (eg on the train, in the hotel, at customer 
meetings) every few weeks if I need to travel anywhere.

> Right. Unlike "Hibernate", which writes the RAM image to disk, so next 
> time you cold boot it can just reload that.
>
> Either way, don't you find that huge amounts of hardware stops working 
> properly when you start it back up again?

No, the only thing I notice is that if I put it into standby while it is 
docked at work, then undock it and boot it up at home, the screen resolution 
is wrong for the internal LCD (1600x1200 instead of 1920x1200).  But I can 
cope with that, I usually make sure to undock it before putting it to 
standby (undocking it changes the resolution back from the external monitor 
to the internal one).

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>> Man, it takes longer than that to just get through the BIOS before it
>> gets anywhere near an OS!
>
> True in many cases, I agree. But BIOS settings can have big influence on
> this too. For example: I don't have a floppy disk drive connected at
> all. But if I disable it from BIOS, loading the kernel takes 2 secs more
> than if I had it enabled. So grub is someway confused. Maybe a BIOS or
> Grub bug.

Yeh, this is why I stand-by rather than shut-down, it means when I come back 
I don't have to go through the BIOS.

As a side note, on my BIOS I have to insert my USB security key and enter a 
password, but even without that it still takes longer than it does to resume 
from standby.

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>> Either way, don't you find that huge amounts of hardware stops working 
>> properly when you start it back up again?
> 
> No, the only thing I notice is that if I put it into standby while it is 
> docked at work, then undock it and boot it up at home, the screen 
> resolution is wrong for the internal LCD (1600x1200 instead of 
> 1920x1200).  But I can cope with that, I usually make sure to undock it 
> before putting it to standby (undocking it changes the resolution back 
> from the external monitor to the internal one).

Ah yes, the wonders of docking stations. ;-)

The Dell system we have here is great. If the laptop is powered on while 
docked, it sends it video signal to the external monitor at the correct 
resolution. If you open the laptop, it switches to the internal LCD 
monitor, at the correct resolution. And if you close the laptop again... 
it goes into hibernate mode. o_O

Do you have ANY IDEA how ANNOYING that is?!

You'd expect doing the reverse of what you just did to undo the changes, 
but NOOO... that would be too easy. :-P

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> The Dell system we have here is great. If the laptop is powered on while 
> docked, it sends it video signal to the external monitor at the correct 
> resolution. If you open the laptop, it switches to the internal LCD 
> monitor, at the correct resolution. And if you close the laptop again... 
> it goes into hibernate mode. o_O
>
> Do you have ANY IDEA how ANNOYING that is?!
>
> You'd expect doing the reverse of what you just did to undo the changes, 
> but NOOO... that would be too easy. :-P

You probably have the "When I close the lid" option set to "hibernate", I 
set mine to "do nothing".

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>> Do you have ANY IDEA how ANNOYING that is?!
> 
> You probably have the "When I close the lid" option set to "hibernate", 
> I set mine to "do nothing".

Probably. But it's not like I'm going to go to all 6 laptops and change 
the setting *now*... :-/

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Severi Salminen wrote:
> 
> True in many cases, I agree. But BIOS settings can have big influence on
> this too. For example: I don't have a floppy disk drive connected at
> all. But if I disable it from BIOS, loading the kernel takes 2 secs more
> than if I had it enabled. So grub is someway confused. Maybe a BIOS or
> Grub bug.
> 

I have one mobo (Asus SK8N) that complaints about floppy drive not found
if FDD is disabled from the BIOS. OTOH enabling it removes the error,
even while there is no floppy drive.

-Aero

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Invisible wrote:

> scott wrote:
> 
>> I always put my XP laptop to sleep rather than turning it off, from
>> hitting the power button to windows unlock prompt is always under 5
>> seconds - it would drive me mad if I had to shut it down and boot it up
>> from cold each time I used it.
> 
> Doesn't that mean that after X hours the battery runs flat and you need
> to cold boot it anyway?
> 
> (I guess it depends on exactly which "sleep mode" you mean...)

I think Vista has a feature where it saves the RAM contents to disk and gets
into sleep (not hibernate) mode. If battery lasts enough to keep the RAM
alive, it will be fast to get out of sleep mode, unlike hibernation. If it
doesn't, you have the data saved to disk anyway, unlike sleep.

Or, maybe, the feature was that when it's running low on battery, it wakes
up, saves RAM to disk, and hibernates.

I don't remember the details.

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