While setting up Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on a tablet/laptop (Medion Akoya), I faced a very strange issue. I wanted to install Ubuntu via a live USB stick.
Once the Ubuntu live system was booted completely, the laptop went to sleep. I was able to wake it by pressing the power button, but after some random 20-30 seconds, it would suspend again, over and over. Within a few cycles of going to sleep and waking the PC again, I was able to run a command on the shell.
The output of dmesg let me know that it was an issue connected to systemd always suspending my machine. After some research, I found a solution to this problem. The core problem is that systemd wants to suspend your PC because it thinks the laptop lid is closed.
There is a way to prevent this (by editing the file /etc/systemd/logind.conf), but unfortunately this was not possible in my live environment, as it requires a reboot. Rebooting the live system will discard all changes to the file system and the error would persist.
Fortunately, DELL Austria provides a solution to this problem. Run the following commands in a terminal, and systemd will stop hibernating/suspending your device:
systemctl mask sleep.target suspend.target hibernate.target hybrid-sleep.targetAfter successfully installing Ubuntu on the PC, the error came back, obviously, as the issued command was only a temporary fix. But as the PC was now installed with Ubuntu 20.04, i could go the normal way of preventing the laptop-lid-close-bug.
I edited the file /etc/systemd/logind.conf
sudo nano /etc/systemd/logind.confand uncommented the following line, by removing the leading hash:
HandleLidSwitch=suspendHere it says suspend, which is not the preferred behaviour, therefore I changed it to
HandleLidSwitch=ignoreSave the file by pressing CTRL+O and exit from the editor by pressing CTRL+X and reboot the PC.
Based on reading the Dell article you link to, and the fact that the systemctl command you give failed to work for me, I believe that systemctl command’s subcommand should be „mask“ *not* „unmask“. The „unmask“ version *enables* random sleep. Am I wrong?
Hi Phil,
yes you are right. The correct one is „mask“ and not „unmask“. Looks like I copy-pasted the wrong line from the DELL article. I’ve already corrected the command.
Thanks a lot for clarification!
Hi Gabriel,
you most definitely saved a life today. Been facing this thing since yesterday and even thought running Ubuntu in dual-boot mode would help (there’s more to this thought, trust me).
Thanks so much for this.
Hey Nana, thanks a lot for your reply! Glad this article was helpful to you!
All the best!
Had the same problem on my Medion Akoya E2221T, with a 15s suspend loop.
Finally the solution.
Thanks a lot!