Standby‑resume issue on MacBook Retina 2017 with Zorin OS

After installing Zorin OS on a 2017 MacBook Retina, the system does not resume correctly from standby: the keyboard becomes unresponsive, making it impossible to type the password and log in.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Boot the MacBook with Zorin OS installed.
  2. Put the computer to sleep (⌘ + Shift + Power or close the lid).
  3. Wake the computer (open the lid or press a key).
  4. The login screen appears, but the keyboard does not accept any input; typing produces no characters.

Expected behavior: the keyboard should work immediately after wake‑up, allowing password entry.

System information:

  • Model: MacBook Retina 2017 (13‑inch)
  • CPU: Intel Core i5‑8259U
  • RAM: 8 GB
  • Zorin OS: 16.04 (Desktop) – kernel 5.15.0‑45‑generic
  • Graphics driver: Apple‑Intel‑HD‑Graphics‑6000 (hybrid mode)

Troubleshooting attempts:

  • Restarted systemd-logind (sudo systemctl restart systemd-logind) – no effect.
  • Updated the kernel (sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade) – issue persists.
  • Tested with an older kernel (5.13) – same behavior.

Request: If anyone has encountered this bug or knows a workaround (e.g., driver patch, power‑management tweak, script to re‑enable the keyboard), I would greatly appreciate your help.

Try to go manually into suspend by using the button in start menu. If it helps disable the automatic suspend and change the setting for lidclosing.

Hello @Fabrizio351,
I have a similar laptop (MacBookPro14,1) and I unfortunately could not get sleep to work properly under linux. Basically, I could get it go to sleep but then it would not resume properly, it would take forever to come back, things would be broken.
The issue seems to be related to the Apple's NVMe controller and the fact that it is all proprietary. This is a know problem for these Macbooks under linux.
You can try this workaround but this did not help me: GitHub - Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux: State of Linux on the MacBook Pro 2016 & 2017
The best option seems to be to disable sleep when closing the lid: Make Ubuntu Not Go in Suspend When Laptop Lid is Closed
I have written a small script using acpi (acpid - ArchWiki) which turn off network, switch gnome to power save mode and pause running applications when I close the lid. It's not exactly like sleep mode but it does reduce energy consumption. Happy to share with you if you are interested.
I hope this helps.

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