How can I suspend/hibernate from command line?

Question

How can I suspend or hibernate my laptop using command line, without installing additional software?

Solution 1

Traditionally ubuntu supported a fairly blunt method of suspend and hibernate. Neither would integrate well with other apps and sometimes not even work on some machines. This new method doesn't require root and notifies all applications listening for power events.

Systemd Method

Starting with Ubuntu 16.04, systemctl call must be used (See Suspend command in Ubuntu 16.04)

systemctl suspend

and

systemctl hibernate

New Method (obsolete)

Obsolete circa Ubuntu 16.04; use systemctl instead, as above.

See the answer here on this page from Adam Paetznick regarding the use of dbus. Ideally you would create a ~/bin/suspend shortcut/script that makes the use of this action easy.

For use over ssh, you should modify policykit rules as outlined by Peter V. Mørch

Old Method

According to the Ubuntu Forum you can use the following commands:

pmi action suspend

and

pmi action hibernate

This requires that you install the powermanagement-interface package (not tested).

sudo apt-get install powermanagement-interface

I have also found the commands sudo pm-suspend and sudo pm-hibernate to work on my netbook.

Solution 2

The gnome-friendly way is to use dbus.

dbus-send --system --print-reply \
    --dest="org.freedesktop.UPower" \
    /org/freedesktop/UPower \
    org.freedesktop.UPower.Suspend

There are two advantages to this command over pm-suspend.

1. It will lock your screen (upon resume) if you have that option selected in gnome.

2. It does not require root privilege, so it is easy to add it as a keyboard shortcut, for example.

As mentioned in the comments exchanging the Suspend in the last line to Hibernate creates a hibernate command:

dbus-send --system --print-reply \
    --dest="org.freedesktop.UPower" \
    /org/freedesktop/UPower \
    org.freedesktop.UPower.Hibernate

If the hibernation throws Error org.freedesktop.UPower.GeneralError: not authorized your user might not be allowed to hibernate. Edit or create /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/com.ubuntu.enable-hibernate.pkla so it contains the following section: (source)

[Re-enable hibernate by default]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.upower.hibernate
ResultActive=yes

This was tested on UbuntuGnome 14.04.

Note: This is basically the same as qbi's answer, but updated to work for newer versions of Ubuntu as well as including hibernate.

Solution 3

English

If you want your computer to suspend in one hour because you want to go to bed listening to your favorite radio station, open terminal and type:

sudo bash -c "sleep 1h; pm-suspend"

and your computer will fall asleep in 1 hour. When you awake, it will have kept your open images and all your stuff.

You can replace 1h by what you want: h for hours, m for minutes, s for seconds, d for days.

Good night!

Français

Si vous voulez juste que votre ordinateur se mette en veille dans une heure parce que vous voulez vous endormir en ecoutant votre radio préférée, ouvrez Terminal et tapez :

sudo bash -c "sleep 1h; pm-suspend"

et votre ordinateur s'endormira dans une heure. Quand vous vous réveillerez, il aura conservé en mémoire vos applications ouvertes.

Vous pouvez remplacer 1h par ce que vous voulez: h pour les heures, m pour les minutes, s pour les secondes, d pour les jours.

Bonne nuit!

Español

Si quieres suspender tu computadora en una hora porque quieres ir a dormir escuchando tu estación de radio favorita, tan solo abre el terminal y escribe:

sudo bash -c "sleep 1h; pm-suspend"

y tu computadora se quedará dormida en 1 hora. Cuando despiertes, allí habrán quedado abiertas tus imágenes y todas tus cosas.

Puedes reemplazar 1h por lo que desees: h para horas, m para minutos, s para segundos, d para días.

¡Buenas noches!

Solution 4

To get Hibernation:

sudo pm-hibernate

To get Suspend:

sudo pm-suspend

Solution 5

You can use the file /sys/power/state to do this. First find out what states are supported:

user@linux:_> cat /sys/power/state
standby mem disk

root@linux:~> echo -n mem > /sys/power/state  # suspend to ram
root@linux:~> echo -n disk > /sys/power/state  # suspend to disk

or via dbus:

# Suspend dbus-send --session --dest=org.gnome.PowerManager \ --type=method_call --print-reply --reply-timeout=2000 \ /org/gnome/PowerManager org.gnome.PowerManager.Suspend #Hibernate dbus-send --session --dest=org.gnome.PowerManager \ --type=method_call --print-reply --reply-timeout=2000 \ /org/gnome/PowerManager org.gnome.PowerManager.Hibernate

According to this entry in launchpad the above interface was removed. So it would not work anymore in Ubuntu.

View more solutions

Comments

[CJlano]

For Ubuntu 16.04, see this question: askubuntu.com/questions/777178/suspend-command-in-ubuntu-16-‌​04 and its answer systemctl suspend

[user1034]

pm-suspend and pm-hibernate works for me and it's easy. Requires sudo but that's OK. (Found pmi idea before but installing a package to use suspend is well bad...)

[user1034]

First idea gives me: "bash: echo: write error: Invalid argument" Dbus idea gives output: "Error org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method "Suspend" with signature "" on interface "org.gnome.PowerManager" doesn't exist"

[qbi]

I added a small explanation to the /sys/power/state-thing. Furthermore the dbus method was removed from Ubuntu so it won't work anymore.

[txwikinger]

added sudo to the description

[nealmcb]

Note that you have to apt-get install powermanagement-interface to run pmi.

[Omegafil]

On 11.10 only pm-* works, also with powermanagament-interface added

[David Guo]

Your answer really should be first. It's non-root no-packages-to-be-installed gnome way of doing it. Like!

[dadexix86]

That's the right answer! :D

[rsjethani]

"sudo pm-suspend" not working on mint 13 mate :(

[mx7]

Yeah I think that package was not installed . look for those packages in synaptic.

[rsjethani]

the package is installed, I think 'mate-power-manager' is interfering with it.

[Petr]

AFAIK there is another advantage: It allows other program to detect that suspend/resume happened and act accordingly (for example an IM to resume a network connection to a server).

[somethis]

doesn't work with my ubuntu 12.10. after apt-get install powermanagement-interface

[airtonix]

While this is actually the right way to do it (tm), SSH users should take note of : askubuntu.com/questions/21586/…

[nilsonneto]

Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference.

[Patryk]

Under 13.10 I get Error org.freedesktop.UPower.GeneralError: not authorized

[user2399705]

on my 13.10 it does work. however, the screen is not locked upon resume, even though in "Security and Privacy", "Require my password when waking from Suspend" is activated.

[Gui Ambros]

Didn't work for me (Gnome 3.12, Ubuntu 14.04). Seems the [UPower.Suspend] interface was removed, according to bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-power-manager/+bug/…

[ruX]

That's my use case I'm looking for! AFIK pm-* can be run without superuser permissions

[Hubro]

$ sudo echo -n mem > /sys/power/state - bash: /sys/power/state: Permission denied

[RandomInsano]

This works great. For people having problems with this method when using sudo, the "pipe to file", aka ">" is running in your current shell, so it doesn't get super user privileges while your echo did. You'll need to use sudo -i first, or pipe to sudo tee like so: echo mem | sudo tee /sys/power/state

[jhrs21]

Perfect, thanks the pm-suspend was exactly what I was after without having to install all the X related junk with the powermanagement-interface package. All that's needed to use pm-* is the the pm-utils package.

[Stenner93]

The drawback of this method is that if you are using the GUI, pm-suspend will NOT block your session, which can be insecure.

[ijk]

new method is now broken see unix.stackexchange.com/questions/153099/…

[Sathiya Narayanan]

sudo pm-hibernate is amazing for making SATA drives really hotplug! :)

[Khurshid Alam]

Suspend interface was moved to logind; askubuntu.com/questions/652978

[redchief]

sudo pm-suspend works well but while waking up after doing so doesn't ask me for password. what should I do.

[Sk4ry]

It works on ubuntu 15.10, too.

[Vitaly Zdanevich]

works on 14.04 lts

[phil294]

none of the above works, even with sudo rights. not the pm-hibernate, pmi action hibernate, not the dbus stuff. I am sad.

[ichbinblau]

I'm using Xubuntu 15.04. The command systemctl suspend does suspend the computer, but it does not cause the screen to be locked, even though I've checked the "Lock screen when system is going for sleep" checkbox in Settings -> Power Manager -> Security. Anyone have any idea why?

[ichbinblau]

I've upgraded to Xubuntu 16.04. The command systemctl suspend still suspends the computer. Now, it also causes the screen to be locked, if and only if the "Lock screen when system is going for sleep" checkbox in Settings -> Power Manager -> Security is checked.

[Victor Schröder]

My XPS 13 9350 with Debian/Gnome was with suspend/hibernate issues when closing the lid. After running this command (and the equivalent for hibernation), it went successfully into suspension (and hibernation) and now closing and opening the lid work as expected!

[Tobia Zambon]

I'm on 16.04 and both systemctl suspend and pm-suspend work; the difference being that the latter does not first lock the screen and requires sudo to run.

[user1851105]

Nice. Or xscreensaver-command --lock as the case may be.

[Tfb9]

Please evaluate if this gnome-friendly method is not superceded by 'the new command of systemd' as indicated in (askubuntu.com/questions/777178/suspend-command-in-ubuntu-16‌​-04)

[NullVoxPopuli]

This didn't work for me under Gnome+i3wm in 18.04

[Eric]

systemctl suspend -i It required the -i flag for me on ubuntu 18.04

[Nils]

To suspend after one hour: sleep 3600 && systemctl suspend

[Bashar Al-Abdulhadi]

Works on 20.04 too :)

[Ryan]

systemctl suspend worked for me on Ubuntu 20.04, although it made me type my password twice.

[Steve Baroti]

evidently, this solution needs the pm-utils suite: apt-get install -y pm-utils :-)

[Abdollah]

systemctl hibernate doesn't work for me. I have Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS on Lenovo-Z50-70.

[Bram]

Doesn't work on my 21.10 OS. Even when root, and executed locally: Unit suspend.target is masked.

[M.K]

systemctl hibernate worked for me in Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS BUT, while hibernating, the screen seemed to freeze, and also the fans when turning it on where insanely loud for at least 10 seconds... I am not sure why.

[Han]

Both of systemctl suspend and systemctl hibernate work well on my Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

[questionto42standswithUkraine]

Why the Systemd Method header when the method is systemctl instead? They are not the same. Perhaps still good to have that header for search hits, though.