[SOLVED] Hibernate “inconsistent memory map” on Framework 13 12th Gen Intel

Framework Laptop 13 Linux
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[SOLVED] Hibernate “inconsistent memory map” on Framework 13 12th Gen Intel

(Full disclaimer: this write up was generated by Claude. However all logs and testing were done by myself on my personal FW13 Gen12. Please let me know if this ruffles any feathers. I just wanted to quickly get this out on the forum so that anyone else having this issue would see it.)

System Info

  • Laptop: Framework Laptop 13 (12th Gen Intel Core i7-1260P)

  • Board: FRANMACP06

  • BIOS: Insyde 03.19 (09/18/2025)

  • OS: Debian 13 (Trixie)

  • Kernel: 6.12.x (tested across multiple point releases)

The Problem

Hibernate resume was failing 100% of the time with the following error in dmesg:

PM: Loading and decompressing image data (1195470 pages)...
Hibernate inconsistent memory map detected!
PM: hibernation: Image mismatch: architecture specific data
PM: Error -1 resuming
PM: hibernation: Failed to load image, recovering.

The system would fall through to a cold boot every time, losing the hibernated session.

Root Cause

The Insyde UEFI firmware on this board provides a slightly different e820 memory map on every cold boot. Specifically, the ACPI data region shifts by a few hundred KB between boots:

# Boot 1:
BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000100000-0x0000000038b81fff] usable
BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000038b82000-0x0000000038b83fff] ACPI data

# Boot 2:
BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000100000-0x0000000038be0fff] usable
BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000038be1000-0x0000000038be4fff] ACPI data

The kernel computes an MD5 hash of the e820 map when it creates the hibernation image, then checks it on resume. If the maps don’t match, it refuses to restore the image to protect against data corruption.

The actual culprit was GRUB. GRUB makes non-deterministic memory allocations from the EFI memory pool before handing off to the kernel. These allocations shift the e820 map enough to fail the kernel’s MD5 check on resume. systemd-boot has a much simpler EFI stub handoff that produces consistent memory maps across boots.

This was confirmed by the fact that PopOS (systemd-boot) and Fedora (also uses the EFI stub more directly) both hibernated and resumed without issues on the exact same hardware and BIOS version. (I ran PopOS 22.04 for years without issue. I ran Fedora for a few months around Oct 2025)

What Didn’t Work

During troubleshooting, I tried all of the following — none of them resolved the issue:

  • Cycling swap (swapoff -a && swapon -a) before hibernating

  • Rebuilding the initramfs (update-initramfs -u)

  • Changing HibernateMode to shutdown instead of platform

  • Disabling early microcode loading in the initramfs

  • Checking for BIOS updates (none available)

  • Checking BIOS ACPI settings (Insyde BIOS has very limited options)

The Fix: Switch from GRUB to systemd-boot

Step 1: Install systemd-boot

sudo apt install systemd-boot
sudo bootctl install

This installs systemd-boot to the ESP alongside GRUB without removing it.

Step 2: Configure kernel-install

Set up automatic kernel management:

sudo tee /etc/kernel/install.conf << 'EOF'
layout=bls
initrd_generator=initramfs-tools
EOF

Set your kernel command line (adjust to match your system):

echo "root=/dev/mapper/framework--lt--vg-root ro quiet resume=/dev/mapper/framework--lt--vg-swap_1" | sudo tee /etc/kernel/cmdline

Add any other kernel parameters you use (e.g., i915.enable_psr=1, nvme.noacpi=1, mem_sleep_default=deep).

Step 3: Register your current kernel

sudo kernel-install add $(uname -r) /boot/vmlinuz-$(uname -r)

Verify the entry was created:

find /boot/efi/loader/entries -name "*.conf"

Step 4: Test

Reboot and confirm systemd-boot picks up the entry. You should see a boot menu with a timeout. Once booted, test a hibernate cycle:

sudo systemctl hibernate

If resume succeeds, you’re good.

Step 5: Remove GRUB

Once you’ve confirmed hibernate works:

sudo apt purge --allow-remove-essential grub-efi-amd64-signed grub-efi-amd64 grub-common grub2-common

The --allow-remove-essential flag is needed because GRUB is marked as an essential package on systems where it was the original bootloader.

Going forward, kernel-install handles everything automatically — when new kernel packages are installed, entries are created on the ESP and old ones are cleaned up.

Additional Notes

  • This issue affects the 12th Gen Intel board with Insyde firmware. It may also affect other Framework models using Insyde UEFI.

  • The e820 shift is a firmware behavior. The ACPI spec says the memory map should not change across S4, but Insyde allocates it dynamically on each boot.

  • The kernel’s e820 MD5 check (introduced in this commit) is working as intended — it’s protecting against potential data corruption. The issue is that GRUB amplifies the firmware’s non-determinism.

  • If you’re using LUKS + LVM like I am, the initramfs handles unlocking — no special configuration is needed for systemd-boot beyond what’s described above.

Hope this helps anyone else hitting this issue!