[8.04] Boot times

The boot time straight after installation was 1 min 25 sec. After tweaking I got it down to 55 seconds, which is still not impressive..
What I have changed:

- change filesystem from ext3 to ext2 (BTW I didn't have a .journal file on my machine, is that normal?)
- change relatime into noatime (/etc/fstab)
- added elevator=noop to /boot/grub/menu.lst
- installed preloader
- added the tmpfs entries to /etc/fstab
- auto login

My next step would be to compile a kernel.
What else can I change?

For more info:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/perlow/?p=9190
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linu ... evert.html
http://www.array.org/ubuntu/

 

What does elevator=noop in menu.lst (I use it myself but am still curious) and preloader do?

 

Do you have some further information about preloader? Especially how to acquire and configure it.

 

The short answer: sudo apt-get install preload

There is not a lot of info on the application, but you'll find some more if you google "preload ubuntu".

I've found this post with more suggestions: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=189192 .

 

Preload sounds like something that would actually slow down bootup in order to gain speed advantages later.

 

Hi 2manydjs,

Have a look see in this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=89491
It's pretty detailed and by disabling most of the services you don't need, the boot up will be much faster.
Hope this helps.

cheers

 

I have compiled my first kernel yesterday. The boot time was decreased only minimally.. The load screen is quite a bit faster and the progress bar loads without a hiccup. The few seconds saves here are however mostly offset by the "starting up.." prompt after GRUB which takes longer than with the default kernel. I have no idea why this is. The progress bar is finished at about 25 seconds after which it's waiting until Gnome is fully loaded.. All in all my boot time is down to 49 seconds.

I will look at the suggestions given in Baseline's link. Hopefully it will speed up Gnome startup time.

--

Btw I've tested booting with and without preload, it didn't seem to have any influence on the boot time.

 

This is great news 2manydjs,

Tks for all the effort your putting in to this. I never seem to be able to have enough time to do a compile myself.
Regarding your login times, did you disable the kernel debug parameters?
And tks again, this is exactly the kind of effort that really brings tremendous benefits to the community.

btw. Forgot an obvious one, disable the freaking tracker indexing... How to: disable tracker by session applet (Preferences -> Session)

cheers

 

For anyone interested in compiling their own kernel:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=311158

To anyone interested in compiling a vanilla kernel and know what all the options are, see this link as it is by far the best I've encountered (even for newbies):
Warning... Kind of on the heavy side, lots of pages to wade trough...
http://howto.wikia.com/wiki/Howto_configure_the_Linux_kernel

cheers

 

To enable processor concurrency on the boot process:

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/init.d/rc

Look for CONCURRENCY=none and change it to:
CONCURRENCY=shell

There's a tool called "bootchart" (sudo apt-get install bootchart) that allows us to see whats really happening with the boot time. After installing it and reboot, the log is written in a png file located in /var/log/bootchart

 

Ok guys,

I did some preliminary compiles using old config, not a vanilla kernel and I'm getting about 15 seconds decrease in boot times.
The time I have for this kind of stuff is limited but I'll do some more testing and will post the results here. With any luck I will be able to provide a redistributable .deb.

cheers

 

Thanks diogosousa.

Baseline what's your total boot time?

 

I got it down on the first pass to about 40 seconds.
If I have time to do a vanilla compile I'm pretty sure I can decrease this even further, nowadays I just haven't got the time I used to have in my youth .

cheers

 

Well, i've managed to boot in 34 seconds! It's getting better.
Checkout the bootchart log in attach. It would be nice to see more of this logs for comparison. I'm still trying to figure out that log.
We're still 15 seconds away from stock linpus :s

 

34 seconds! Pretty impressive! My goal is to eventually get it under 30 seconds.

I have set gnome to auto login. When I time the boot I stop the time at the moment I have to type the password for the "keychain"-thing (or what ever that is) at the desktop.
Does your 34 seconds include logging in?

 

I also have set autologin. I've tried to follow some guides to disable keychain asking for password (without success). Ithink it's time to digg in the kernel and lose some weight. Anyone up to it?

It would be nice to see the bootchart for the stock Linpus for comparison. Still can't quite understand all the information in the log...

 

here's mine a1 with some tweaking

 

To get an extra 2-3 seconds i've found this tweak (from "Tweaking Ubuntu Ultimate"):

"This tweak will optimize the hard disk for the loading of drivers etc. for the next boot, similar to that of the windows world bootvis tool. Please note: if you upgrade your kernel / restricted drivers you will have to preform this tweak again to get it back up to par.

Hit the escape hey when booting to get to the grub menu. Select your default boot kernel and hit the "e" key Go down 1 should be you kernel options hit the "e" key again, at the end of the line type "profile" & press enter. Hit the "b" key to boot with the options set. Will be slow the first time, however the boot after that will be speed you can really feel."

This tweak improves the boot speed of Grub, by a few seconds (2-3s)

I've narrowed it down to 26 seconds. 8 seconds faster than my last report, I added "elevator=noop" to the kernel options in /boot/grub/menu.lst and did the tweak above.

 

That's very impressive. Can you be specific about what you have tweaked?