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Automatically Hibernate After Extended Sleep

Semantics

From man 5 systemd-sleep.conf:

suspend: a low-power state where execution of the OS is paused, and complete power loss might result in lost data, and which is fast to enter and exit. This corresponds to suspend, standby, or freeze states as understood by the kernel.
hibernate: a low-power state where execution of the OS is paused, and complete power loss does not result in lost data, and which might be slow to enter and exit. This corresponds to the hibernation as understood by the kernel.
hybrid-sleep: a low-power state where execution of the OS is paused, which might be slow to enter, and on complete power loss does not result in lost data but might be slower to exit in that case. This mode is called suspend-to-both by the kernel.
suspend-then-hibernate: A low power state where the system is initially suspended (the state is stored in RAM). If not interrupted within the delay specified by HibernateDelaySec=, the system will be woken using an RTC alarm and hibernated (the state is then stored on disk).

To modify the amount of time in suspend before the system hibernates

First, create the /etc/systemd/sleep.conf.d directory:

# mkdir -p /etc/systemd/sleep.conf.d

Then, in /etc/systemd/sleep.conf.d/hibernate-timeout.conf, place the following, substituting 3600 for the amount of time (in seconds) before a hibernation should occur after sleep:

[Sleep]
HibernateDelaySec=3600

To automatically hibernate after suspending for a while

Normally, when the lid of your laptop is closed, the “suspend” action is run. This is equivalent to running systemctl suspend. In this mode, the system will remain suspended, and will not hibernate after a certain amount of time.

We’ll tell the system to use the equivalent of systemctl suspend-then-hibernate during certain situations (such as closing the lid).

First, create the /etc/systemd/logind.conf.d directory:

# mkdir -p /etc/systemd/logind.conf.d

Then, in /etc/systemd/logind.conf.d/auto-hibernate.conf, place the following:

[Login]
HandleSuspendKey=suspend-then-hibernate
HandleLidSwitch=suspend-then-hibernate
HandleLidSwitchExternalPower=suspend-then-hibernate

Finally, for the changes to take effect, either restart your computer or restart the logind service.

NOTE: Restarting the logind service will log you out of any graphical sessions you may be logged in to.

# systemctl restart systemd-logind.service

Additional Notes

If you’re running Ubuntu or Fedora, you may also need to enable hibernate for this to work properly.

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