freebsd stable - Mar 2021 - Suspend/resume (to/from RAM), kern.vty, and x11/nvidia-driver

I have a couple of Dell laptops -- an older (Precision M4800) and
a newer (Precision 7520) on which I've been tracking FreeBSD
stable/12, head, and (lately) stable/13 (with a daily cadence).  I
also update installed ports on each every day.  Each uses
x11/nvidia-driver for graphics.

Each runs FreeBSD itself ... well.  And I recently found out that the
mouse/touchpad on the 7520 now works under head and stable/13 (by
loading the iichid.ko kernel module, as the device communicates over
I2C).  (I tried the sysutils/iichid port under stable/12, but have not
been able to get the mouse to work yet under stable/12.)

And suspend/resume works... under stable/12, where I have been using
kern.vty="sc" (in /boot/loader.conf).  (I recall having tried letting
kern.vty default to "vt" -- that seems to cause resume to fail: the
screen never lights up again, nor can I ssh into the laptop.  Yes, I
configured the laptops to be able to ssh into them for various reasons
-- such as testing suspend/resume.)

In order to test some recent (vbe-related) loader changes, however, I
needed to change kern.vty back to the default value of "vt" -- and
that
appears to cause resume to fail (still).

How may I help figure out what's wrong?  The newer (7520) laptop, in
particular, is idle most of the day, so experimenting with it should be
OK.

Thanks!

Peace,
david
-- 
David H. Wolfskill                              david at catwhisker.org
It is supremely disingenuous to claim a lack of jurisdiction, then     
proceed to participate in a decision on the same matter.

See https://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for my public key.
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David Wolfskill <david at catwhisker.org> writes:
> I have a couple of Dell laptops -- an older (Precision M4800) and
> a newer (Precision 7520) on which I've been tracking FreeBSD
> stable/12, head, and (lately) stable/13 (with a daily cadence).  I
> also update installed ports on each every day.  Each uses
> x11/nvidia-driver for graphics.
>
> Each runs FreeBSD itself ... well.  And I recently found out that the
> mouse/touchpad on the 7520 now works under head and stable/13 (by
> loading the iichid.ko kernel module, as the device communicates over
> I2C).  (I tried the sysutils/iichid port under stable/12, but have not
> been able to get the mouse to work yet under stable/12.)
>
> And suspend/resume works... under stable/12, where I have been using
> kern.vty="sc" (in /boot/loader.conf).  (I recall having tried
letting
> kern.vty default to "vt" -- that seems to cause resume to fail:
the
> screen never lights up again, nor can I ssh into the laptop.  Yes, I
> configured the laptops to be able to ssh into them for various reasons
> -- such as testing suspend/resume.)
>
> In order to test some recent (vbe-related) loader changes, however, I
> needed to change kern.vty back to the default value of "vt" --
and that
> appears to cause resume to fail (still).
>
> How may I help figure out what's wrong?  The newer (7520) laptop, in
> particular, is idle most of the day, so experimenting with it should be
> OK.
I recently stumbled over this post that provides an explanation:

https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/what-to-backup.63727/#post-372549

That post says that "options VESA" is the problem, and that vt will
not
work!  I have a desktop with nvidia that used to suspend/resume just
fine with stable/9 (maybe also stable/10), but then failed to resume
properly.  I have not yet tried the suggestions in that post, though.

Bengt