The default install of Ubuntu (in my case 19.10, but it’s been the same for all the releases I’ve ever installed), doesn’t support hibernation. Most laptops I’ve had support hibernation on Ubuntu. I wish Canonical would make it an option during install.
So, the first thing I did was install Ubuntu and I selected the option to encrypt the entire drive. This has the side-effect of using LVM (Logical Volume Manager) on the disk.
After installing, I booted with the Ubuntu USB drive and opened the Disks application and decrypted the drive. Then I opened a terminal and resized the root and swap partitions. I reduced the root partition by the amount of memory my laptop has and increased the swap partion by the same amount.
lvresize -r --size -8GB /dev/vgubuntu/root
lvresize --size +8GB /dev/vgubuntu/swap_1
After booting into my installed version of Ubuntu, I edited /etc/default/grub and added resume=/dev/vgubuntu/swap_1 to the line shown below:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash resume=/dev/vgubuntu/swap_1"
Afterward, I ran this command to update grub:
sudo update-grub
The next thing I did was edit /etc/systemd/sleep.conf. There are a number of
commented lines, and the values are what is compiled in as defaults. I changed
the following line:
HibernateDelaySec=1800
That sets the system up to hibernate 30 minutes (1800 seconds) after the system goes to sleep.
The final file that needed to be changed was /etc/systemd/logind.conf
HandleLidSwitch=suspend-then-hibernate
HandleLidSwitchExternalPower=suspend-then-hibernate
That allows the system to enter hibernation after sleeping for the configured amount of time. The setting will take effect after a reboot or you can run the following command. Be aware, you will be immediately logged out when you run it!
sudo systemctl restart systemd-logind.service
After all this, I’m able to shut my laptop, put it in my bag and not worry about my battery being dead when I don’t use it again for a few days!