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Logout, Restart and Shutdown are all self explanatory to me.

What are the differences between Suspend and Hibernate on the shutdown menu?

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5 Answers 5

Reset to default
165

Suspend does not turn off your computer. It puts the computer and all peripherals on a low power consumption mode. If the battery runs out or the computer turns off for some reason, the current session and unsaved changes will be lost.

Hibernate saves the state of your computer to the hard disk and completely powers off. When resuming, the saved state is restored to RAM.

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  • 41
    So is it this: Suspend to RAM, Hibernate to disk?
    – Richard Holloway
    Aug 31, 2010 at 17:59
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    @Richard: yes, exactly (although hibernation is sometimes called suspend-to-disk; but suspension is never called hibernate-to-memory).
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Sep 1, 2010 at 0:00
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    This calls for a hack to switch suspend to hibernate when battery's about to die.
    – Oxwivi
    Feb 21, 2011 at 19:08
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    There is no hibernate button on my system I am using ubuntu15.04 whenever I press power button of my laptop I get a menu which has lock,suspend,restart,poweroff options no Hibernate option. Is hibernate option removed from my version?
    – Chinmaya B
    Oct 1, 2015 at 10:30
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    Hardware support is probably one of the main challenges using linux, not such a big deal these days, but I am finding that after suspend it comes back to life properly whereas after hibernate it comes back only half alive and needs a restart. Wonder if it's everyone's experience that sleep is lower risk than hibernate.. Does anyone know how many watts are used when it sleeps?
    – cardamom
    Nov 13, 2017 at 12:46
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The power-management scripts use these terms:

  • suspend -- suspend to ram; some folks call this "sleep"
  • resume -- restart after suspend to ram; does not use grub
  • hibernate -- suspend to disk; includes power-off, looks like shutdown
  • thaw -- restart after suspend to disk; includes a trip through grub

Bonne chance.

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  • @user11224: Please have a look at our editing help. Also, to my knowledge the term "thaw" is unusual in this context, and technically incorrect, since one (in nature) normally wakes up from hibernation.
    – oKtosiTe
    Feb 21, 2011 at 19:41
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    @oKtosiTe he said that the scripts used those terms :)
    – MiJyn
    Jan 6, 2014 at 16:43
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    Thank you. The difference is how system resumes: with GRUB or without. Accepted answer ignores (or skims over) this substantial difference.
    – Peter M. - stands for Monica
    Aug 5, 2014 at 20:51
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  • Logout: Stops user applications specific to users.

  • Shutdown: Completely power off your system viz. PC, laptop.

  • Restart: Power off and then start again.

  • Suspend/sleep: Put your computer at very low power state, screen off but everything else is on but at very low power so that you can resume your work where you left off but if battery die you loose all your unsaved data.

  • Hibernate: suspend to disk; includes power-off, looks like shutdown. Basically, everything in the Ram is copied to swap memory and system shutdown completely. when you start your computer back everything copies back to Ram and you continue where you left off.

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    drives, network, and usb are also shut down in suspend. all that is kept on is the CPU in a low frequency and power to maintain RAM contents
    – ravery
    Jul 8, 2017 at 20:41
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Try this command: 

pm-suspend-hybrid

Hybrid-suspend is the process where the system does everything it needs to hibernate, but suspends instead of shutting down. This means that your computer can wake up quicker than for normal hibernation if you do not run out of power, and you can resume even if you run out of power.

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This is a very old thread, and although it is not asking for how to do either suspend or hibernate, I think it is one of the reasons some people land in this question.

At the time of writing (August 2023) pm-XYZ commands are obsolete and systemctl XYZ commands are to be used.

So, complementing the accepted answer with man systemctl:

  • Suspend: Suspend the system. This will trigger activation of the special target unit suspend.target. This command is asynchronous, and will return after the suspend operation is successfully enqueued. It will not wait for the suspend/resume cycle to complete. systemctl suspend
  • Hibernate: Hibernate the system. This will trigger activation of the special target unit hibernate.target. This command is asynchronous, and will return after the hibernation operation is successfully enqueued. It will not wait for the hibernate/thaw cycle to complete. systemctl hibernate
  • Suspend then Hibernate: Suspend the system and hibernate it after the delay specified in systemd-sleep.conf. This will trigger activation of the special target unit suspend-then-hibernate.target. This command is asynchronous, and will return after the hybrid sleep operation is successfully enqueued. It will not wait for the sleep/wake-up or hibernate/thaw cycle to complete. systemctl suspend-then-hibernate --> This is exactly what @oxwivi commented to the original post.
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