[Tfug] suspend to ram question

[Bexley Hall]

Hi Chris,

> Is it safe to transport my laptop when it's in pm-suspend? I typically
> shut my laptop down when it's time to hit the road, but sometimes when
> I'm in the middle of a heavy session and I want a change of scenery,
> it would be nice to just close the laptop lid and go to a coffee shop
> without having to close everything.

"In general", there is no problem doing this.  The big problem
is if the battery quits on you.  (assuming what you were doing
was somewhat "precious" to you  :> ).

Note that your laptop *should* be smart enough to at least alert
you to this impending possibility and/or automatically wake up and
save everything on disk (i.e., a restorable memory image).

What is more insidious is the connection between your battery
and the laptop itself.  Some can be quite flakey.  E.g., some
older Sony models dangle the battery pack off the back end
of the laptop and often lose integrity in one of the two
catches/latches responsible for holding the battery onto the
laptop.  If the laptop becomes *electrically* disconnected
(i.e., it could still be MECHANICALLY connected but the
electrical connection might be compromised in transit) for
"long enough", the machine's state could be corrupted.

> It never occurred to me that this might be an option. Of course, this
> is a linux laptop that I'm using, if it matters.