Here you can find step-by-step instructions how I got software suspend to work on Dell Latitude D800. This page was inspired by similar page here created by Ryan.

• kernel version

  $ uname -srv
  Linux 2.6.10-gentoo-r6 #4 Fri Feb 4 15:38:45 CET 2005
  

• download swsusp2 patches

   
  $ wget http://download.berlios.de/softwaresuspend/software-suspend-2.1.5.15-for-2.6.10.tar.bz2
  

  (Try to look here for more recent ones)

• extract patches

   $ tar xjvf  software-suspend-2.1.5.15-for-2.6.10.tar.bz2

• go to your kernel source tree

  $ cd /usr/src/linux

• run this

  $ /path/to/patches/apply 

  This should complain about not being able to apply patch cleanly, so I simply moved these patches away from /path/to/patches/. In my case there were two such ones: 100-kdb-v4.4-2.6.10-common-1 and 130-bootsplash-3.1.4-2.6.10.diff.

• now again run

  $/path/to/patches/apply 

  in kernel source tree and everything went well

• let's configure our kernel (we are in /usr/src/linux)

  $ make menuconfig

  then navigate:

      Power management options (ACPI, APM)  --->
          [*] Power Management support
          ...
              Software Suspend 2  --->
                   <*> Software Suspend 2
                   <*>    Swap Writer
                   <*>    LZF image compression (Preferred)
                   <*>   Text mode console support
                   [*]    Warn if possibility of filesystem corruption
  

• compile your kernel

  $ make

  and install

  $ make modules_install ; make install

• in the meantime emerge hibernate script

  $ emerge hibernate-script

• and configure it

  $ vim /etc/hibernate/hibernate.conf

  here go all uncomented lines from my hibernate.conf

      ...
      UseSwsusp2 yes
      Reboot no
      EnableEscape yes
      DefaultConsoleLevel 1
      ...
      UseSysfsPowerState disk
      PowerdownMethod 5
      ...
      Verbosity 0
      LogFile /var/log/hibernate.log
      LogVerbosity 1
      ...
      SaveClock yes
      ...
      UnloadBlacklistedModules yes
      LoadModules auto
  

• kernel should be compiled now, reboot

  $ shutdown -r now

  You can try hibernate right now. If it doesn't work yet read on.

Troubleshooting

• when I tried to suspend I got this

  $ hibernate
  Some modules failed to unload: nvidia
  hibernate: Aborting suspend due to errors in ModulesUnloadBlacklist (use --force to override).
  

  solution is either using:

  $ hibernate --force

  or go to the file /etc/hibernate/blacklisted-modules and comment nvidia module out:

      ...
      #nvidia
      ...
  

• windows always run scandisk after suspend

  This is probably due to mounted ntfs partition. Solution is simple, go to your hibernate.conf write this:

      ...
      Unmount /win
      ...
  

  where /win is my ntfs partition holding Win XP.

I haven't tested this much but it's been working quite reliably for past 3 weeks (suspending 1-2 times a day).

Sorry for my bad English. For questions, suggestions whatever use this address: on%onyon!net (%=@;!=.).