Dell XPS 15 (9550) rebooting after suspend

Question

I have a dell XPS (9550 revision - this is essentially the same hardware as the Precision 5510 which is available with Ubuntu out-of-the-box) and amazingly it pretty much always worked properly out of the box with 16.04. In the last few days though, suspend has stopped working, when on battery power¹.

Basically the laptop appears to suspend, but when I wake it up, it goes through the normal boot process.

Here are the last few lines from /var/log/syslog from the suspend logging:

Jan 14 13:06:10 xps15-laptop whoopsie[827]: [13:06:10] offline
Jan 14 13:06:11 xps15-laptop kernel: [   15.829125] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp2s0: link is not ready
Jan 14 13:06:11 xps15-laptop wpa_supplicant[1300]: nl80211: deinit ifname=p2p-dev-wlp2s0 disabled_11b_rates=0
Jan 14 13:06:11 xps15-laptop nm-dispatcher: req:3 'down' [wlp2s0]: new request (1 scripts)
Jan 14 13:06:11 xps15-laptop nm-dispatcher: req:3 'down' [wlp2s0]: start running ordered scripts...
Jan 14 13:06:11 xps15-laptop wpa_supplicant[1300]: nl80211: deinit ifname=wlp2s0 disabled_11b_rates=0
Jan 14 13:06:12 xps15-laptop systemd[1]: Reached target Sleep.
Jan 14 13:06:12 xps15-laptop systemd[1]: Starting Suspend...
Jan 14 13:06:12 xps15-laptop systemd-sleep[2271]: Failed to connect to non-global ctrl_ifname: (nil)  error: No such file or directory
Jan 14 13:06:12 xps15-laptop systemd-sleep[2273]: /lib/systemd/system-sleep/wpasupplicant failed with error code 255.
Jan 14 13:06:12 xps15-laptop systemd-sleep[2271]: Suspending system...

Does anything jump out there? The lines following that seem to just be what'd you'd expect from a cold boot:

Jan 14 13:06:54 xps15-laptop rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="8.16.0" x-pid="923" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] start
Jan 14 13:06:54 xps15-laptop rsyslogd-2222: command 'KLogPermitNonKernelFacility' is currently not permitted - did you already set it via a RainerScript command (v6+ config)? [v8.16.0 try http
://www.rsyslog.com/e/2222 ]
Jan 14 13:06:54 xps15-laptop rsyslogd: rsyslogd's groupid changed to 109
Jan 14 13:06:54 xps15-laptop rsyslogd: rsyslogd's userid changed to 105
Jan 14 13:06:54 xps15-laptop systemd-modules-load[228]: Inserted module 'lp'
Jan 14 13:06:54 xps15-laptop systemd-modules-load[228]: Inserted module 'ppdev'
Jan 14 13:06:54 xps15-laptop systemd-modules-load[228]: Inserted module 'parport_pc'
Jan 14 13:06:54 xps15-laptop systemd[1]: Started Apply Kernel Variables.
Jan 14 13:06:54 xps15-laptop loadkeys[220]: Loading /etc/console-setup/cached.kmap.gz
Jan 14 13:06:54 xps15-laptop systemd[1]: Started Set console keymap.
Jan 14 13:06:54 xps15-laptop systemd[1]: Started Create Static Device Nodes in /dev.
Jan 14 13:06:54 xps15-laptop systemd[1]: Starting udev Kernel Device Manager...
Jan 14 13:06:54 xps15-laptop systemd[1]: Started udev Kernel Device Manager.
Jan 14 13:06:54 xps15-laptop systemd[1]: Starting Remount Root and Kernel File Systems...
Jan 14 13:06:54 xps15-laptop systemd[1]: Started Remount Root and Kernel File Systems.
Jan 14 13:06:54 xps15-laptop systemd[1]: Reached target Local File Systems (Pre).

Not too much has changed lately except that the kernel hit version 4.4.0-59 (previously was 4.4.0-57), and I tweaked a BIOS option to disable my embedded sound device (since restored with no change).

Finally, here's what a successful suspend/wakeup looks like (when on battery power):

Jan 14 13:15:49 xps15-laptop kernel: [  540.190809] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp2s0: link is not ready
Jan 14 13:15:49 xps15-laptop wpa_supplicant[1298]: nl80211: deinit ifname=p2p-dev-wlp2s0 disabled_11b_rates=0
Jan 14 13:15:49 xps15-laptop dbus[803]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher' unit='dbus-org.freedesktop.nm-dispatcher.service'
Jan 14 13:15:49 xps15-laptop systemd[1]: Reached target Sleep.
Jan 14 13:15:49 xps15-laptop systemd[1]: Starting Suspend...
Jan 14 13:15:49 xps15-laptop systemd[1]: Starting Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service...
Jan 14 13:15:49 xps15-laptop dbus[803]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher'
Jan 14 13:15:49 xps15-laptop systemd[1]: Started Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service.
Jan 14 13:15:49 xps15-laptop nm-dispatcher: req:1 'down' [wlp2s0]: new request (1 scripts)
Jan 14 13:15:49 xps15-laptop nm-dispatcher: req:1 'down' [wlp2s0]: start running ordered scripts...
Jan 14 13:15:49 xps15-laptop wpa_supplicant[1298]: nl80211: deinit ifname=wlp2s0 disabled_11b_rates=0
Jan 14 13:15:54 xps15-laptop whoopsie[931]: [13:15:54] Cannot reach: https://daisy.ubuntu.com
Jan 14 13:15:54 xps15-laptop whoopsie[931]: [13:15:54] offline
Jan 14 13:15:54 xps15-laptop whoopsie[931]: [13:15:54] Cannot reach: https://daisy.ubuntu.com
Jan 14 13:15:59 xps15-laptop systemd-sleep[2690]: Selected interface 'wlp2s0'
Jan 14 13:15:59 xps15-laptop systemd-sleep[2690]: 'SUSPEND' command timed out.
Jan 14 13:15:59 xps15-laptop systemd-sleep[2696]: /lib/systemd/system-sleep/wpasupplicant failed with error code 254.
Jan 14 13:15:59 xps15-laptop systemd-sleep[2690]: Suspending system...
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  550.254337] PM: Syncing filesystems ... done.
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  550.268354] PM: Preparing system for sleep (mem)
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  550.268979] Freezing user space processes ... (elapsed 0.002 seconds) done.
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  550.271751] Freezing remaining freezable tasks ... (elapsed 0.001 seconds) done.
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  550.273159] PM: Suspending system (mem)
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  550.273197] Suspending console(s) (use no_console_suspend to debug)
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  550.486068] brcmf_fil_cmd_data: bus is down. we have nothing to do.
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  550.613975] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: resuming kernel object tree...
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  550.717482] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: priv: HUB0: 10ecc0 ffffffff (1d40822c)
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  550.764382] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: resuming client object trees...
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  550.764397] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: evicting buffers...
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  550.764398] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: waiting for kernel channels to go idle...
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  550.764412] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: suspending client object trees...
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  550.765770] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: suspending kernel object tree...
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  551.638247] PM: suspend of devices complete after 1155.310 msecs
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  551.654829] PM: late suspend of devices complete after 16.561 msecs
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  551.656867] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: System wakeup enabled by ACPI
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  551.671878] PM: noirq suspend of devices complete after 17.027 msecs
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  551.672619] ACPI: Preparing to enter system sleep state S3
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  551.695080] ACPI : EC: EC stopped
Jan 14 13:16:52 xps15-laptop kernel: [  551.695082] PM: Saving platform NVS memory

Note that some of the messages "after" the wakeup (starting at 13:16:52) seem to actually be related to actions leading up to the suspend. I guess the logging facility shuts down at some point during the suspend so that messages after that point show up only after wakeup (so I don't get to see these in the failed case).

---

¹ In particular, suspend works fine if the laptop is on AC power during the entire suspect process - at the point of suspension, at the point of wake and all the time in between. Simply unplugging the AC adapter, even for a second, while the host is sleeping will cause the failure described above.

Solution 1

Here is what worked: Completely powering off my laptop, then turning it back on. Note: don't just reboot... fully power down.

The only side effect is that Wifi stops working (as in the wireless interface is not recognized at all). A simple sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager solves that... and if you don't want to have to do that after ever suspend you could make a script this script:

/lib/systemd/system-sleep/99restartnm

That contains:

#!/bin/sh
case "$1" in
    post)
        systemctl restart NetworkManager
    ;;
esac

and make it executable:

sudo chmod +755 /lib/systemd/system-sleep/99restartnm

(I know that answer was in the comments of the question but its kinda easy to miss... thanks @BeeOnRope, I really did just about try anything else out except for fully powering down... facepalm)

Solution 2

I have been experiencing the same issue with the XPS 9550 for the last 2.5 years since it was first introduced, occurring every few weeks. I've been using Debian/Ubuntu linux, but comment #20 suggests this occurs on Windows too:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/xps-9550-crashes-and-reboots-in-sleep.789827/page-2

The issue seems to be with the embedded controller, so resuming from suspend causes a cold reset. The workaround is to perform a full poweroff, unplug the charger and plug in; this reboots the embedded controller, clearing the faulty state.

Solution 3

After not having issues with failed suspensions/resumes for quite a while, it started coming back. Since I update things rather frequently, I suspect it was a kernel upgrade.

It had been a few months since I updated by BIOS, I updated from 1.2.19 to 1.2.25. My problems with suspend/resume went away after updating BIOS. Also no wifi issues on my end. Running Ubuntu 16.10 with xfce flavor.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/xps-15-9550-laptop/drivers?os=biosa

Best of luck to all others.

Comments

[Luke Maurer]

Any leads on this? I appear to have precisely the same problem—down to how it works so long as AC power is connected the whole time. Occasionally it starts working otherwise as well, but stops working as soon as a hard reboot happens. I'm running 16.10 now, though it also happened when I was running 15.10 and then 16.4. What hardware have you got? nVidia GPU?

[BeeOnRope]

I have the Intel + nVidia combo yeah. For me, the problem went away after a full shutdown + restart. I.e., before I was just plain restarting, never doing a full power-off and then pushing the power button. Once I did that, the problem never returned.

[BeeOnRope]

@LukeMaurer - you can also try on the project sputnik community. Technically it only supports the precision models which come with Ubuntu like the XPS 13 and Precision 5xxx, but hardware-wise the XPS is pretty much the same so just keep your exact model a bit ambiguous if you post.

[Luke Maurer]

*sigh* Full shutdown didn't fix it for me. What did fix it just now was downgrading to BIOS 1.2.0, but now when it wakes up from suspend, wifi is broken …

[BeeOnRope]

Yes I'm still on an earlier BIOS (forget which, but I haven't updated it in a year) and won't change until I see one released where people aren't complaining about issues.

[BeeOnRope]

I am still on BIOS 1.0.6. I've being paying attention from time to time to see if a new BIOS is problem free, but almost every BIOS has had reported issues, especially for Linux.

[Charles Green]

This will shortly be marked as 'not an answer', but I also have a dell, and I am unable to update BIOS. How did you perform this?

[William Bernting]

@Charles should I delete my answer?

[Charles Green]

Yes, or just wait, and it will be deleted eventually. Submit it as a new question. I looked back over at Dell and did find a (maybe workable) method to update my slightly older laptop!

[William Bernting]

Easiest way is to update it via a Windows dual boot. Otherwise you will need to create a bootable USB drive to out the bios update file on. Dell has a support page about it.

[web.learner]

@CharlesGreen This looks like an answer to me. William said it solved his problem.

[Charles Green]

@seth I may have read it backwards? I think I saw the first paragraph and read that it came back...

[web.learner]

@charles no worries, I've done the same before.

[BeeOnRope]

For what it's worth, after not having this problem for over a year (since I originally posted about it), it came back today, after I updated a lot of packages, including the kernel, and purged a bunch of old kernel package). I ended up back here, but the first shutdown didn't seem to fix it. I booted a slightly older version of the kernel, which did work, and the current version (4.15.0-32) started working again. I can't really tell what fixed it this time. FWIW I'm on Dell BIOS 1.6.1 now (quite recent).

[BeeOnRope]

I'm starting to think this might be the answer: I recently had this problem and a plain restart didn't do it. I did some other "restarting and other things" and it worked before I read this, so I'm not sure if I did the above "restart+unplug+plug" sequence at any point, but try to remember if it happens again.

[BeeOnRope]

I think this answer is also promising per my comment there.

[BeeOnRope]

I am very interesting in the GPU shutoff option. About "you'll see the white charge LED at the front come on for 1s even if fully charged." you mean when you plug in the cable when shut down you see this and this is some kind of indication the EC has been reset?

[josemrivera]

This also worked form me @BeeOnRope. Same Dell XPS 9550 with Ubuntu 18.04: Shutdown + unplug + plug + start. Then tested with: unplug + suspend + resume and I was presented the login screen rather than the nasty reboot. Thanks guys!

[Cerin]

The full power down fixed the problem for me on a Dell Precision 5520. I had no issue with wifi. Thanks.

[BeeOnRope]

Still interested in the discrete GPU disable if you have a moment to post that info.

[BeeOnRope]

For what it's worth, more than three years later I'm still having this problem on the XPS 15 9550 and a full shutdown usually solves it (just happened today).