Long Delay During Boot

fukawi2 · 2008-11-03 03:39:24

I think this fits in the Kernel & Hardware Issues section...

Loaded my brand new HP DV7 laptop with Linux over the weekend (during the downtime!) and mostly works very well. A few bugs to irons out...

One of the most annoying ones at the moment is that during boot, it takes a long time to load the 'boot' screen after grub - the screen where the Arch Logo's appear and then all the kernel bootup messages. And when I say long, I mean like 10 - 12 seconds! It just sits on a blank screen like it's trying to download those Arch logos over a 14.4 modem or something

I have my framebuffer set to 792. It behaved like this both on the Install image (from USB key) and the finished installation.

What's it actually doing there? Is there any way to speed it up?

Thanks all

Onwards · 2008-11-03 04:28:53

As certain brands of laptops are known to have badly written acpi-tables for linux (though your version may be well- supported even), you may try passing acpi=off to your kernel cmd-line. Lets' see what it does, it may narrow down our problem...

PS. In 2.6.27, they 've also removed that message that says "Booting..." or such just after lilo or grub. So we don't know as to when does it get to the actual execution of the kernel [i.e It spends a lot of time loading it]. I know I sound strange
PS2. I guess the "Booting..." message is from the bootloader, not the kernel (as dmesg doesn't show it).

Last edited by Onwards (2008-11-03 04:51:13)

tavianator · 2008-11-03 04:39:08

Try removing the vga= argument, and seeing where it stalls. Or, check the first bit of dmesg for any errors.

On my computer, there was a pause while the kernel attempted to get control of EHCI (USB 2.0) from the BIOS, but I guess my BIOS is crappy, so it would wait 5 seconds for nothing twice at every boot. So, I hacked the kernel and removed the wait. If you have the same problem, I can post the patch.

fukawi2 · 2008-11-03 04:57:30

Onwards wrote:

As certain brands of laptops are known to have badly written acpi-tables for linux (though your version may be well- supported even), you may try passing acpi=off to your kernel cmd-line. Lets' see what it does, it may narrow down our problem...

Well disabling acpi reduces the wait down to about 2 - 3 seconds. IOW, an acceptable time as far as I'm concerned.

However, now I only have one Arch Logo (ie, only one of my CPU Cores is being detected). Running 'top' confirms that Arch isn't seeing both cores

Onwards · 2008-11-03 05:24:35

Please try out acpi=noirq. I don't know if it would prevent it from seeing both of your cores.
It's actually not good that your lappy has got problems with acpi, may be you should replace it with the one that's fully supported (If you could).

fukawi2 · 2008-11-03 05:38:22

Back to how it was before - 12 seconds to load the boot process, and I have 2 cores recognized.

Onwards · 2008-11-03 06:33:57

Please give these a try (separately, one by one):
clocksource=hpet
clocksource=tsc
pci=noacpi
enable_timer_pin_1
disable_timer_pin_1

Last edited by Onwards (2008-11-03 06:34:34)

fukawi2 · 2008-11-04 01:49:48

clocksource=hpet = 4 seconds EDIT: I tried to boot with this one after all the other tests, and now it take 18 seconds
clocksource=tsc = 12 seconds
pci=noacpi = 12 seconds
enable_timer_pin_1 = 12 seconds
disable_timer_pin_1 = Boot stopped before Arch Logo were displayed. No response after 60 seconds.

Last edited by fukawi2 (2008-11-04 01:51:43)

fukawi2 · 2008-11-04 23:23:00

Can this be of any benefit to diagnosing the problem?
http://picpaste.com/bootchart.png

Onwards · 2008-11-05 08:57:48

SORRY for being out of sight for such a long time (I mean two days seem like a whole decade, especially when on is stuck in such a nasty problem ).

OK abt. your problem. My HUMBLE analysis says that you have problems with ACPI (as only acpi=off addresses your issues). So I would say that you should investigate and work with custom ACPI tables for your laptop. Sorry this is all I could muster, I am no kernel guru. Somebody who has studied the source for linux-ACPI could better enlighten us here on

fukawi2 · 2008-11-05 11:00:45

No worries - thanks for your help so far At least I can shorten my boot somehow...

Arch Linux

#1 2008-11-03 03:39:24

Long Delay During Boot

#2 2008-11-03 04:28:53

Re: Long Delay During Boot

#3 2008-11-03 04:39:08

Re: Long Delay During Boot

#4 2008-11-03 04:57:30

Re: Long Delay During Boot

#5 2008-11-03 05:24:35

Re: Long Delay During Boot

#6 2008-11-03 05:38:22

Re: Long Delay During Boot

#7 2008-11-03 06:33:57

Re: Long Delay During Boot

#8 2008-11-04 01:49:48

Re: Long Delay During Boot

#9 2008-11-04 23:23:00

Re: Long Delay During Boot

#10 2008-11-05 08:57:48

Re: Long Delay During Boot

#11 2008-11-05 11:00:45

Re: Long Delay During Boot

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