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Whenever I leave my Pi for too long, especially overnight, it shuts down rather than goes to sleep. Or sleep mode makes it shut down. I see the power LED off. I move the mouse and type on the keyboard and then it wakes up! Only problem is it boots from the beginning... it doesn't leave me where I last left the Pi on the desktop.

What's going on? Is there a setting so that sleep mode is not shut off?

I'm using the Debian Linux distribution from Raspberry Pi's download page.

UPDATE: When the Pi is in sleep mode, the monitor is blank but still on and the LEDs are all off. However, when I choose Log off->Shut down from X in the Debian operating system, the monitor reports there's no longer an HDMI connection and goes into that semi-sleep mode itself when a computer is unplugged. And the Power LED on the Pi remains lit red. Finally, of course, moving the mouse or typing on the keyboard does NOT wake up the computer after I've powered down.

at.
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    possible duplicate of [How do I disable suspend mode?](http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/1384/how-do-i-disable-suspend-mode) – John La Rooy Aug 07 '12 at 02:39
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    @gnibbler, no this seems very different from that question. I like my Pi going to sleep, I just don't like it rebooting when it wakes up... – at. Aug 07 '12 at 02:44
  • It shouldn't reboot if it is going to sleep. I suspect that you have it changed to something else. –  Aug 07 '12 at 03:03
  • Ah ok. Is it possible that it is crashing when going into sleep mode? Here's how you can connect a serial cable to see if there are any helpful console messages http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/a/1231/590 – John La Rooy Aug 07 '12 at 04:53
  • @BryanDunsmore - you suspect I have what changed? This is a fresh image off the raspberry pi downloads webpage. – at. Aug 07 '12 at 05:43
  • @gnibbler - that's a little bit of a pain regarding the serial console. Isn't there a log like /var/log/error.log I can look into? – at. Aug 07 '12 at 05:44
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    Posting your logs to pastebin and editing in links could be useful. However, are you sure it's the PWR LED going off? As this is directly connected to the power supply... – Alex Chamberlain Aug 07 '12 at 06:21
  • Perhaps, but when the kernel is crashing the serial console is very simple and likely to keep working compared to the SD card where heaps of things could go wrong and maybe nothing gets written out. – John La Rooy Aug 07 '12 at 06:24
  • @AlexChamberlain - Last time the Pi went to sleep I carefully examined the LEDs, they were ALL off including the power LED. I ONLY moved the mouse (didn't touch the power) and about 10 seconds later it started booting. This is very repeatable. – at. Aug 07 '12 at 08:15
  • Please see the [schematic](http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Raspberry-Pi-Schematics-R1.0.pdf)[PDF]. On page 4, you can see that the Power LED is connected via a resister to +3V3. On page 1, you can see +3V3 is generated directly from +5V, which directly comes from the power supply. I cannot see anyway in which your symtoms could occur. What power supply are you using? – Alex Chamberlain Aug 07 '12 at 08:22
  • I don't know exactly how to read the schematic. I can only say that I'm not imagining this behavior :). Today again I came to my office, all LEDs were off (including power). I move the mouse and 10 seconds later the computer is booting up instead of leaving me in the same desktop I left the computer in last night. I'm using this power adapter: http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-SKN5004A-ECOMOTO-MOTOROLA-devices/dp/B003W125RA?tag=duckduckgo-d-20 . Is it possible the motorola is conserving power by powering off if it detects only little current? – at. Aug 07 '12 at 18:37
  • was just thinking if the power adapter is the issue, then why does the computer start up just upon moving the USB mouse? – at. Aug 07 '12 at 18:41
  • The link you supplied is just the cable, not the power supply? What are you plugging it into? – Alex Chamberlain Aug 08 '12 at 10:26
  • Sorry @AlexChamberlain, I meant to send you this link. This is what I bought, it includes the cable from that other link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EYSKM8/ref=oh_details_o04_s01_i00 . I plug it into a power strip. – at. Aug 08 '12 at 17:05
  • Just updated the question with a couple interesting observations. – at. Aug 08 '12 at 18:13
  • A key test would be to measure the supply voltage when the board is in this alleged "sleep" mode. Since this doesn't seem to be an intended mode of operation, it's likely that the recovery implicitly involves a reset. – Chris Stratton Aug 08 '12 at 19:06

2 Answers2

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This could definitely be a hardware issue so I recommend continuing the current line of troubleshooting recommended in the comments. However, I wanted to suggest a possible answer that I found. It looks like this might be a known kernel bug. Here is one of the original reports back from kernel version 3.0.0-1:

http://web.archiveorange.com/archive/v/qwAvJanP37ukqDD9rBH3

This was reported on a different system (Ideapad S10-3) but the symptoms look very similar. According to the most recent correspondence concerning this bug (http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1136253/focus=1185250 - May 6, 2012), it is still present, even in the latest kernel, 3.4 (and Raspberry Pi Debian uses 3.1.9). If this is the solution, it's odd that we haven't seen more reports. However, it isn't unheard of for a bug to only appear in certain system configurations.

Joshua Whitley
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It turned out to be the power adapter surprisingly. I was using a Motorola plug to micro-USB, it was rated well above the wattage requirements. But as soon as I switched to another power to micro-USB adapter the shutting down issue went completely away.

at.
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