Blank screen after suspend/hibernate on 14.04

Question

I did a fresh install of Ubuntu 14.04. Everything works great except after hibernate/suspend I am getting a black screen. I can use Alt+Ctr+F1 then Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart and the screen comes back fine.

I am using the open-source X.org X-server drivers.

My laptop is hp pavilion g6, APU A8-3520M with Radeon HD 6620G

What can I do to make screen come back after suspend/hibernation? I've checked some old thread from 2010 where people add a little piece of code to somewhere in the system to force the screen come back or something.

Answer 1

Killing the process light-locker (discovered by using xwininfo) helped us temporarily, then uninstalling light-locker with dpkg --purge light-locker light-locker-settings fixed it more permanently.

We are using Gnome 3, so this might not be a solution for everybody.

(In general, there's probably a process displaying a black screen that you need to kill; try to find it!)

Answer 2

Which kernel are you using? Check this with uname -r. I am not a fan of the AMD proprietary drivers on Linux. I find lots of issues with them. I prefer running the open source drivers and newer kernels have many new fixes and features for AMD graphics. You can take the OPEN SOURCE ROUTE, or the PROPRIETARY ROUTE.

OPEN SOURCE ROUTE

If you are using 3.13, then try the newer 3.16 kernel

sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-lts-utopic

or try the entire Utopic LTS Enablement Stack which is better...

sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-lts-utopic libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-utopic libegl1-mesa-drivers-lts-utopic

If you are already running 3.16, then try removing the Utopic LTS Enablement Stack

sudo apt-get remove linux-generic-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-lts-utopic libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-utopic libegl1-mesa-drivers-lts-utopic

If none of this helps, you can try the newest stable kernel. This is a bit more tricky, and could cause some issues, but I have been running the linux 4.0 kernel on Ubuntu 14.04 for a while now with no issues.

mkdir linux4-0-4
cd linux4-0-4
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.0.4-wily/linux-headers-4.0.4-040004-generic_4.0.4-040004.201505171336_amd64.deb http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.0.4-wily/linux-image-4.0.4-040004-generic_4.0.4-040004.201505171336_amd64.deb http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.0.4-wily/linux-headers-4.0.4-040004_4.0.4-040004.201505171336_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-4.0*.deb linux-image-4.0*.deb

After installing or removing any kernels, you will need to reboot in order to test them.

PROPRIETARY ROUTE

You can install the AMD proprietary Catalyst driver fairly easily in Ubuntu 14.04. Simply run

sudo apt-get install fglrx
sudo apt-get install fglrx xvba-va-driver libva-glx1 libva-egl1 vainfo
sudo amdconfig --initial

If you are using multiple AMD graphics cards or AMD dual graphics (i.e.: notebook users), use:

sudo amdconfig --adapter=all --initial

After installing or removing Catalyst, you will need to reboot in order to test.

Answer 3

I had this problem that Ubuntu could not load after upgrading from 12.04 to 14.04. After running startx there was just a black screen. I fix it by going to recovery mode and just picking Repair broken packages and check all file systems, but I think only the first option will work.

Answer 4

Did you turn off the power of the Radeon graphical device? Because I did it and what you describe here was what I experienced. I canceled the VGA power turning off and the standby exit works again for me.

Answer 5

I'm quite sure it is a kernel bug (I have the same issue with Intel, and it started only 3-4 weeks ago).

Try to install a different (old) kernel and boot with it. Right now in the repository I can see this is the oldest kernel version:

sudo apt-get install linux-image-3.13.0-24-generic

Answer 6

I've had the very same problem on Xubuntu 14.10 my Lenovo Yoga.

I've unchecked the 'Configure new displays when connected' checkbox at display settings dialog.

Give it a try - I hope it helps.

Answer 7

After trying many different suggestions, I finally gave up on 14.04 and installed 15.04 and now the problem is gone.

I have installed 15.04 on Lenovo Yoga 2 pro.

Answer 8

Same problem with NVidia card. Light Locker did not fix it. Solution: Make sure to switch to using NVidia screen drivers by first making sure you have a live Internet connection, then

System Tools->Software Updater ->  (Settings) button
[Additional Drivers]  tab

NVidia Corporation:  Unknown          select radio button:
  (*) Using NVIDIA binary driver--version etc. (tested)
  ( ) Using X.Org X server -- Nouveau
(Apply Changes) button, it takes a while to download & install
**restart your computer**

check your install with System Tools->NVIDIA X Server Settings, should be there and come up with the green penguin splash on the tool.

This did the trick for me.

Answer 9

I had the same problem on a Dell Inspiron 3558 with nvidia graphics (GK208M (GeForce 920M) with driver 340.102) with Ubuntu 14.04 (64-bit intel i5).

Earlier I did a software update and kernel version was:

linux-image-3.13.0-144-generic 3.13.0-144.193 amd64
Linux kernel image for version 3.13.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP

Whenever I suspended (closed the laptop lid), it never started, although I could hear the fan start. I saw some posts on increasing hibernate swap memory, but I didn't think that could be the issue because earlier when I purchased the laptop it was working and even after I custom increased my RAM. I installed Ubuntu afresh as well.

It was just after a particular kernel update that it was gone.

So, I updated linux-generic (currently 3.13.0-160-generic), and I tested it with heavy load software and suspension. It works fine now :)