I am running XFCE on an ancient Dell Latitude E6410. I am 99% certain there is some hook in the wake-up procedure that is faulty but I don’t know how to figure it out. I want to check the logs, but how? More details below, but the basic question is: how do I identify and view the relevant log entries for this problem?
The issue in a bit more detail: through the XFCE Power Manager settings, I have set my laptop to “Suspend” when I close my laptop lid, both on battery and plugged in. If the laptop is plugged into the charger before I close the lid, while it is suspended, and while I open the lid, it will reliably wake from suspend and activate the display correctly. If the laptop is not connected to the charger, there is a slight chance that the display will not activate correctly.
What do I mean by “activate correctly” you ask? The first and most common mode of failure, maybe one in 10 or one in 12 times, is that the screen receives no power and the computer appears to be completely unresponsive. I have tried the magic REISUB key combination, but it does not work. The only thing that works is holding down the power button for five seconds, forcing a hard shutdown. The second and far less common mode of failure, maybe one in 100 times or one in 200 times, is that the screen backlight does not come on. In this case I can just barely make out that the pixels are colored. With bright light, usually from my phone, I can shutdown my computer via the XFCE system menu.
Let’s focus on the more common situation for now. Surely it should be easy to get log information about what the system was doing immediately prior to the forced shutdown. Some sort of journalctl
command, right? Having dug around a little, I used journalctl -b-1 --no-tail > journal.txt
so I could easily copy/paste the end of it here:
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop systemd-logind[839]: Lid closed.
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop systemd-logind[839]: Suspending...
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop ModemManager[889]: <msg> [sleep-monitor-systemd] system is about to suspend
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop NetworkManager[833]: <info> [1731510548.4725] manager: sleep: sleep requested (sleeping: no enabled: yes)
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop NetworkManager[833]: <info> [1731510548.5770] manager: NetworkManager state is now ASLEEP
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop NetworkManager[833]: <info> [1731510548.5773] device (wlp2s0): state change: activated -> deactivating (reason 'sleeping', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop systemd[1]: Starting Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service...
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop systemd[1]: Started Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service.
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop wpa_supplicant[934]: nl80211: send_event_marker failed: Source based routing not supported
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop wpa_supplicant[934]: wlp2s0: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=3c:bd:c5:ba:46:5c reason=3 locally_generated=1
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop wpa_supplicant[934]: wlp2s0: CTRL-EVENT-DSCP-POLICY clear_all
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop NetworkManager[833]: <info> [1731510548.7856] device (wlp2s0): state change: deactivating -> disconnected (reason 'sleeping', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop NetworkManager[833]: <info> [1731510548.7862] dhcp4 (wlp2s0): canceled DHCP transaction
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop avahi-daemon[835]: Withdrawing address record for fe80::e7cb:db8a:e759:2474 on wlp2s0.
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop NetworkManager[833]: <info> [1731510548.7862] dhcp4 (wlp2s0): activation: beginning transaction (timeout in 45 seconds)
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop avahi-daemon[835]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface wlp2s0.IPv6 with address fe80::e7cb:db8a:e759:2474.
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop NetworkManager[833]: <info> [1731510548.7863] dhcp4 (wlp2s0): state changed no lease
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop avahi-daemon[835]: Interface wlp2s0.IPv6 no longer relevant for mDNS.
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop wpa_supplicant[934]: wlp2s0: CTRL-EVENT-REGDOM-CHANGE init=CORE type=WORLD
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop avahi-daemon[835]: Interface wlp2s0.IPv4 no longer relevant for mDNS.
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop avahi-daemon[835]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface wlp2s0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.6.
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop avahi-daemon[835]: Withdrawing address record for 192.168.1.6 on wlp2s0.
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop NetworkManager[833]: <warn> [1731510548.7893] platform-linux: do-change-link[3]: failure 23 (Too many open files in system) (assume success changing address)
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop NetworkManager[833]: <info> [1731510548.7897] device (wlp2s0): set-hw-addr: set MAC address to 0E:A8:D8:27:C3:90 (scanning)
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop avahi-daemon[835]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface wlp2s0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.6.
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop avahi-daemon[835]: New relevant interface wlp2s0.IPv4 for mDNS.
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop avahi-daemon[835]: Registering new address record for 192.168.1.6 on wlp2s0.IPv4.
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop avahi-daemon[835]: Withdrawing address record for 192.168.1.6 on wlp2s0.
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop avahi-daemon[835]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface wlp2s0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.6.
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop avahi-daemon[835]: Interface wlp2s0.IPv4 no longer relevant for mDNS.
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop NetworkManager[833]: <info> [1731510548.8846] device (wlp2s0): supplicant interface state: completed -> disconnected
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop NetworkManager[833]: <info> [1731510548.8859] device (wlp2s0): state change: disconnected -> unmanaged (reason 'unmanaged-sleeping', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop NetworkManager[833]: <warn> [1731510548.8879] platform-linux: do-change-link[3]: failure 23 (Too many open files in system) (assume success changing address)
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop NetworkManager[833]: <info> [1731510548.8883] device (wlp2s0): set-hw-addr: reset MAC address to C0:CB:38:6A:89:92 (unmanage)
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop systemd[1]: Reached target Sleep.
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop systemd[1]: Starting System Suspend...
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop wpa_supplicant[934]: wlp2s0: CTRL-EVENT-DSCP-POLICY clear_all
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop systemd-sleep[6776]: Successfully froze unit 'user.slice'.
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop wpa_supplicant[934]: wlp2s0: CTRL-EVENT-DSCP-POLICY clear_all
Nov 13 10:09:08 david-laptop wpa_supplicant[934]: nl80211: deinit ifname=wlp2s0 disabled_11b_rates=0
Nov 13 10:09:09 david-laptop kernel: IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlp2s0: link becomes ready
Nov 13 10:09:09 david-laptop kernel: ata5: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
Nov 13 10:09:09 david-laptop kernel: ata6: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
Nov 13 10:09:09 david-laptop systemd-sleep[6776]: Performing sleep operation 'suspend'...
Nov 13 10:09:09 david-laptop kernel: PM: suspend entry (deep)
So… nothing appears to be logged when I open the lid again, wait, and then issue a force-reboot. How on earth do I figure out what is going wrong here?
Thanks!