The power is in your hands.

Mar 27, 2009 21:01 GMT  ·  By

If you are a notebook/netbook owner you probably do whatever you can to save every bit of energy left in your battery. One of the most important features an operating system should support for this purpose is Suspend (a.k.a. Stand By or Sleep) whenever you close your portable computer lid. The Suspend function cuts the power from all the machine's components, leaving only the RAM alive. Thus, users can quickly return to their desktop while still saving a lot of energy.

It is known that many users encounter problems using this function, regardless of the operating system. The Ubuntu Kernel Team wants to make sure that the Suspend/Resume function will work properly in the upcoming Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope). Therefore, if you have Ubuntu 9.04 Beta installed on a PC or laptop, you can help testing the functions using a script, and then send the results to the developers. More information about how to download and execute this script can be found HERE.

The test consists of several suspend/resume cycles that are estimated to last approximately 30 minutes. The first few stages are quick and will require you to press the "Enter" key, while the last one will automatically suspend and resume your computer at decreasing time intervals.

The team also asks users who will participate in the program to add, along with the test results, any hardware information that isn't yet available in the Wiki page. If one or more tests fail and the computer reboots, Apport (Ubuntu's crash reporting tool) will gather as much system information as it can and will instruct users to the steps that need to be taken next in order to properly submit a bug report.

Additional information and existing feedback can be found by accessing the Suspend/Resume Testing Feedback Page.