When I put my Linux computer (tumbleweed, latest release) into hibernate mode and then start it up again, certain programs such as Firefox, Thunderbird and others regularly crashed. All windows that were previously placed on other desktops are moved to the first one too. Hibernate mode is therefore unusable. A restart is less strenuous.
Is this a known problem? Is there a remedy?
Background: I recently switched to the nouveau driver because I was tired of the constant trouble with compatibility problems between the Nvidia driver and the Linux kernel. I only use my Linux computer for normal office work and therefore have no particular demands on the graphics performance. I was therefore able to make this switch without any restrictions.
There is no “the” nouveau driver. There is a nouveau kernel module provided by every kernel which is historically required for use with all competent X drivers, but possibly may not be for recently introduced “open” NVidia drivers. Other X components also exist having nouveau as part of their names. When using non-recent NVidia GPUs, the nouveau kernel driver is required for the competent X drivers nouveau and modesetting. Thus, you may try switching between those two X drivers to see if one or the other works better. The modesetting is the upstream default, but that may be overridden by having xf86-video-nouveau installed, or via a .conf file in the /etc/X11/ directory tree to expressly specify which of the two is to be utilized. Run inxi -G to have reported which of those two X drivers is loaded.
Due to xf86-video-nouveau being installed, nouveau is your currently loaded X driver. You may simply remove xf86-video-nouveau with YaST or zypper, then restart X to switch to the currently unloaded modesetting X driver, and see whether it makes any difference in hibernation behavior.
It’s possible for this switching method to fail due to an optional .conf file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/. If your X restart fails, inspect that directory for any .conf file that specifies Driver “nouveau” and either remove or rename that file to not end in .conf, or edit it to instead contain Driver “modesetting”. Optionally, if such file exists, instead of uninstalling xf86-video-nouveau, you may make this latter file edit and then restart X.
There are numerous accounts reported describing similar suspend and hibernation issues associated with the ‘nouveau’ kernel driver. FWIW, just one of such reports… https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=278306
I’m not sure much can be done here (apart from a change of graphics card perhaps). Does Plasma Wayland behave the same for you?
In fact, I already use Plasma(Wayland). I have now switched to Plasma(X11) for test purposes. But now after I log in, a new X session starts, which is even worse.
If the nouveau driver doesn’t work reliably either and the problem with the proprietary Nvidia driver still hasn’t been solved after what feels like a decade, what would be a good alternative? My PC is now five years old. Which graphics card would be less annoying for a pure office environment?
I’m not asking why it hasn’t been possible in so many years to at least add a dependency to the package so that the kernel or the Nvidia driver are only updated if the two are compatible with each other.