How To Enable Hibernate In Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

It seems that Canonical always finds a way to annoy users after the release of each new Ubuntu operating system version. And this time around they have done it again by excluded the Hibernate option from the Session Menu in Ubuntu 12.04. Nonetheless, the Hibernate option is easier to enable than you might think, even if it requires some tweaking with a system file. If you would like to re-enable the Hibernate option in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin, then follow the instructions given below.

In the first step enter the following command in a Terminal window.

sudo gedit /var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/hibernate.pkla

This will open the hibernate.pkla file. Copy and paste the following text in the file and hit save.

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

Once done, restart your system for the changes to take effect.

hibernate file

This will enable the Hibernate option. You can see the comparison given in the below screenshots, The left-hand side image displays the default session menu, whereas, the left-hand side image shows the session menu after editing the hibernate.pkla file.

Enable Hibernate In Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

While I will admit that it isn’t all that hard to enable the Hibernate option by using the above mentioned method, I must add that such tweaking is the same reason why many people do not use Ubuntu and other Linux distributions or remain reluctant to switch from other operating systems (such as Windows) to Linux. Why such a minor option is not enabled by default or enabling it requires file tweaking is beyond my understanding. What’s worse is that Canonical will probably not learn any lessons from users complaints regarding such common annoyances.