How to Enable Hibernate on Linux Ubuntu

On some laptops, after installing Linux Ubuntu (12.04 LTS in my case), hibernate is disabled. Looks like it’s because such devices aren’t officially supported.

It’s still convenient when closing the lid puts the laptop to sleep instead of shutting it down.

You can bring it back in 3 steps:

1. Check that hibernate works correctly. Run this in the console:

sudo pm-hibernate

Wait for the device to go to sleep. Then wake it up to make sure hibernate works correctly.

If it’s all OK - move on.

1. Create the file /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/com.ubuntu.enable-hibernate.pkla with the following content:

[Re-enable hibernate by default]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.upower.hibernate
ResultActive=yes

1. Just in case, update grub:

sudo update-grub

After a reboot, hibernate will be available. In my case I didn’t end up needing it.