You have the systemd haters to thank for this one. They have wasted so much time talking shiz about a system they did not want to understand and downvoting folks posting about stuff they use. Next time you find something else useful in systemd and wonder "How come nobody told me?", know that we tried and got drowned out by the cool kids.
this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2025
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I understand the concerns about blobbification of all these system into a technical monolith that you have to swallow whole or not at all, that you can't really break down into it's individual components. So if the thing you need isn't in there, you have to chuck the entire systemd thing and switch back to SysV
However, I quite like systemd so far.... except for having dozens of processes, that's not super chill to have so much stuff I don't use running but OK, convenient.
At least it's not like Wayland, that we have been forced into while it was barely working, and still today it's only kinda working with lot lot lots of non-working stuff and mega jank stuff while now X11 is rotting and dying. So we're stuck with half-dead half-lobotomized graphics system.. I hope they eventually get their shit together and I wish they would have made wayland working before killing X11.
And Linux has quite some pragmatic people as well, first of all Linus Torvalds himself, who has kind of a down-to-earth approach towards ideology.
I've not yet talked to a SystemD hater in real life, that seems to be more predominant between random people on the internet. And I myself prefer writing SystemD unit files over what I had to do before that was a thing.
Most people also don't talk about init systems in real life.
I have, though, I was asked my opinion on systemd during a job interview. The interviewer didn't give much of their own opinion but it was obvious.
Lol. I suppose it's a promising way to learn how someone thinks and reacts, see if they're focused on solving issues or focused on drama... And how deep they are into Linux lore. And whether they understand it or parrot someone else's talking points.
Idk. I rarely have long nerd discussions, but once I'm done with the latest Star Trek show, I occasionally ask people about their stance on SystemD, some instant messenger or whether we should stick to C99. And either we skip that, or maybe I'll hear some interesting, unique perspective shaped by what they do.
Yeah, I interviewed for a job that required a lot of Systemd work. I crushed the practicum super hard and my genius new boss teached numa pessimization for DB load (bit if a click bait start but she hashed it out perfectly and it will come up again) before I declined on rates.
It's not that it's hard work. It's that Systemd is a bad tool; and we deserve the day of crying wreckage it will gleefully cause one day.
They have wasted so much time talking shiz about a system they did not want to understand
You write "engineers with decades of skill pointing out obvious and blatant fundamental problems with the design and scope that first-year comp sci students would be corrected for" weird. It may require experience to spot the difference, though.
Ah. There you are, old friend. I've been expecting you.
please, forgive me
You, and only you, may be forgiven. For I am feeling merciful at this time and you asked so nicely bimbimboy.
❤️
At least the Arch Wiki is always there for us...
and it's outlasted so many others as well.
Is systemctl suspend different than closing the lid or clicking "sleep" on your DE's power menu?
No, it's not different, I just use Arch and have no power menu anymore, nor did I usually close my laptop lid while I was still planning to use it. I usually just powered it down fully because it used to start very fast, but I think the laptop bios battery is dying or something, because it turns on much slower now than it did before. So finding the actual command that triggers the suspend state was so epic, because I can script and bind it now.
I just use Arch
You have only yourself to blame then. You’ve chosen a distribution which expects users to learn how the system works and it’s on you to figure out how to suspend the system.
I think the laptop bios battery is dying
This is unlikely. If the battery was dying, you’d be loosing BIOS/UEFI settings including time. Once the computer starts up, the battery is unused.
"I take full responsibility for my Arch install" is one of my favourite lines from a linux youtuber.
This quote has been yoinked. I need it on a shirt tbh.
Yes, that's why I chose the distro I chose, and why this was not a serious post were I was actually upset, I enjoy learning and reading, I just wanted to make a post about suspend bc it has made me happy. I am also aware the bios battery does nothing once it's booted, once it's booted the performance is the same as it has always been. So I assumed the cmos battery is dying, but not dead enough to lose settings yet.
I am also aware the bios battery does nothing once it’s booted
The CMOS battery does nothing from the moment computer is turned on. If you’re saying booting takes longer, that’s not battery’s fault.
So I assumed the cmos battery is dying, but not dead enough to lose settings yet.
That’s not how CMOS battery work. It’s even good enough or you’re loosing the clock.
The CMOS battery only maintains the data in the bios’ volatile memory and runs the RTC when the system has no power, it is completely out of the picture when data is being read from said volatile memory.
You may find another systemd command helpful: systemd-analyze. It has different subcommands you can use to figure out what exactly is slowing down your boot times.
Thx, I'll check it out
Sweet, that's awesome. 🥳
Rtfm happy ending
But it supossed to work when u closing ur lid of laptop
Who closes their laptop?
Edit for clarity: /j
People who carry it around and don't just use it as a desktop replacement... With an open lid it doesn't quite fit into my bag pack.
Sounds like a small backpack
Yeah, people stare if I hop on the commuter train with the the large one that fits camping gear and supplies for 2 weeks. And I don't own anything in between.
Or people who uses it as a mini server and SSH into it while lid is closed 😎
In fact my laptop is barely ever opened when I use it lmao
Or use any of the UI options to sleep your computer, isn't it?
Well I suppose maybe he is using i3 :)
Niri actually ^_^
Unless you turn that off manually, I should know, it's the first configuration I change on every new installation on a laptop.
Mistaking precisely documented Wiki for silence... Do you Mark All As Read your email each day, too? ;)
Yes
systemctl mark-all-as-read
Welcome to Linux
I mean, in the Linux terminal you can literally do anything a computer can do. You can play with your PC speaker with beep, dim your screen with brightnessctl, etc. Why would you assume there wasn't a command for suspending? :P
You can also use rtcwake and program the PC to come back from suspension automatically at a certain time.. I used to set up my small laptop with music to wake up with it as a morning alarm.
I didn't assume anything, I simply just didn't even think about power states when using the laptop.
#blessed by a chance to learn something on the aw 🙏
You can echo 'mem' > /sys/power/state as root to suspend. Or echo sleep into the file for hibernate.
Wait, holup. Is this legit or one of those "break your PC" joke things?
All legit. At the end of the day, both the commands that go through systemd and the direct cat something >/proc/... or cat something >/sys/... are all doing the same thing - telling the kernel to do some procedure.
There's some settings stuff in /proc and /sys that you don't want to tweak without knowing the effects, as they could break things in hard to fix ways, but for stuff like beeping or changing sleep states, the worst you'll do is lock up your computer and need to reboot. And even that is rare unless the hardware really doesn't like a particular sleep state.
Skill issue
Me too...
I hadn't known about it either (before I started using it), so I feel that.