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I have an external SSD in an enclosure and I'm thinking of moving a Linux installation on it, so that I could conveniently share the same setup across multiple PCs. But with Linux's suspend feature I'm wondering if it would be possible to also share the RAM state across PCs, too - when finishing work on a PC, suspend Linux to the drive, plug the drive into another PC (with different hardware configuration), and resume from the hibernation, effectively retaining the state (running processes etc) as it was on the earlier PC.
Has anyone tried this, can it work, or are there any known or likely issues associated with the idea?
Wiener Boat
Posted 2017-02-18T21:14:49.087
Reputation: 111
3Pretty sure it won't work. I'm not sure it'd even work even if the hardware was identical in each one. Memory mapping and other bits would get confused I'd suspect, not to mention you'll have the wrong kernel modules loaded (and as you're not in the boot process you won't easily be able to load more).
Please, someone prove me wrong, as that'd be awesome! – djsmiley2k TMW – 2017-02-18T21:16:31.163
@djsmiley2k Thanks, this is honestly what I'm suspecting too. Linux probably isn't reloading kernel modules or doing any other boot routines when resuming from hibernation so this is really a long shot. Would have been cool though :) - I'll see if I can't test it with a Linux pendrive and post results back – Wiener Boat – 2017-02-18T21:22:57.237
3I can't see this working at all without identical hardware. A resume from hibernation is nothing like a normal boot. Hibernation saves the contents of RAM which is restored during resume. The kernel would expect to take over where it was before hibernation. Most of the kernel wouldn't even be aware that anything had happened. It would find everything related to drivers and hardware wrong and could not cope. It would do the only thing it could and crash. – LMiller7 – 2017-02-18T21:42:29.413