How to Hibernate and Suspend Your Artix Linux

Introduction

Modern Linux systems offer three distinct power-saving methods to help preserve battery life and quickly resume your work:

Hibernate (Suspend to Disk)

Hibernation saves your system's complete state to the swap partition and then powers off the machine entirely. When you power it back on, your session is restored exactly as you left it. This method consumes zero power while the system is off, making it ideal for extended periods away from your computer.

Sleep (Suspend to RAM)

Sleep mode preserves your system state in RAM while cutting power to most other components. This allows for near-instant wake-up times while still saving significant power. It's particularly useful for laptops when you close the lid or during short breaks, though it requires minimal power to maintain the RAM's contents.

Hybrid Sleep (Suspend to Both)

This clever approach combines the best of both worlds. Your system state is saved to both RAM and the swap partition. If your battery remains charged, you get the quick resume from RAM. If the battery dies, you can still recover your session from disk—slower than RAM, but your work remains safe.

Setting Up Hibernation

To enable hibernation on your Artix Linux system, follow these steps carefully:

Step 1: Configure elogind

First, uncomment and configure the Sleep section parameters in /etc/elogind/logind.conf:

# /etc/elogind/logind.conf

[Sleep]
AllowSuspend=yes
AllowHibernation=yes
AllowSuspendThenHibernate=yes
AllowHybridSleep=yes
AllowPowerOffInterrupts=no
BroadcastPowerOffInterrupts=yes
AllowSuspendInterrupts=no
BroadcastSuspendInterrupts=yes
HandleNvidiaSleep=no
SuspendState=mem standby freeze
SuspendMode=deep
HibernateState=disk
HibernateMode=platform shutdown
HybridSleepState=disk
HybridSleepMode=suspend platform shutdown
HibernateDelaySec=10800

Step 2: Add the Resume Hook

Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and add the resume hook after udev:

# /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf block filesystems keyboard resume fsck)

Important: The resume hook must come after udev because the swap partition is referenced using a udev device node.

Next, regenerate the initramfs to apply these changes:

sudo mkinitcpio -p linux

Step 3: Configure the Resume Kernel Parameter

First, identify your swap partition's UUID by running:

$ lsblk -fs

NAME  FSTYPE  LABEL  UUID                                  MOUNTPOINTS
. . . SOME OUTPUT . . .
sda3  swap    SWAP   5b069c37-9ece-41cf-abf6-74b9d35758ac  [SWAP]
└─sda
. . . MORE OUTPUT . . .

In this example, the swap UUID is 5b069c37-9ece-41cf-abf6-74b9d35758ac.

Now, add this UUID to your GRUB configuration in /etc/default/grub:

# /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="resume=UUID=5b069c37-9ece-41cf-abf6-74b9d35758ac"

Step 4: Test Hibernation Before Rebooting (Optional)

To test hibernation immediately without rebooting, you'll need to configure the resume device manually. First, find your swap partition's major and minor device numbers:

$ lsblk --include=8

NAME    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda       8:0    0 465.8G  0 disk
... output ...
├─sda3    8:3    0    10G  0 part [SWAP]
... more output ...

Then write these numbers in major:minor format to /sys/power/resume:

echo 8:3 > /sys/power/resume

Note: If you're using a swap file instead of a partition, refer to the Arch Wiki guide on swap file hibernation.

Step 5: Regenerate GRUB Configuration

Finally, regenerate your GRUB configuration to apply the kernel parameters:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Step 6: Test Your Setup

Now you're ready to test hibernation:

loginctl hibernate

If everything is configured correctly, your system will save its state and power off. When you turn it back on, your session should resume exactly where you left off.

Using Different Power Modes

Once hibernation is properly configured, you can use these commands to manage your system's power state:

Suspend (Sleep)

Quickly suspend your system to RAM for fast resume:

loginctl suspend

Hibernate

Save your session to disk and power off completely:

loginctl hibernate

Hybrid Sleep

Combine suspend and hibernation for maximum flexibility:

loginctl hybrid-sleep

Suspend-Then-Hibernate

Suspend to RAM initially, then automatically hibernate after the delay specified in logind.conf (default: 3 hours):

loginctl suspend-then-hibernate

This is particularly useful for laptops—enjoy quick resumes for short breaks while ensuring your work is saved to disk if you're away longer.

References

1. Power Management/Suspend and Hibernate - Arch Wiki
2. Elogind - Artix Linux Wiki
3. logind.conf Manual Page