Fastboot Initscript Patches

punkrockguy318 · 2004-12-06 22:03:45

Hey!

I just make a couple little modifications to the Arch Linux initscripts... Basically, it will start up your computer more similar to a Windows system: It will start up what's neccessery ; bring up the login; then start up daemons. This is how I did it:

When FASTBOOT is enabled in rc.conf, the daemons will be all run in the background, so you can login much quicker. The downside is that there will be a little lag during the inital startup (much similar to Windows systems). But for people who reboot there computer often, this is a useful option. I really hate waiting for the hotplug and sshd daemons to start up before I can log in.

My old solution was to use a desktop manager, and put that as my first daemon, so I could log into my desktop while daemons are still running, but I'm not happy with any of the login managers currently available. These patches are a solution for this.

Now these patches don't bloat the initscripts, nor force you to boot this way. The default is FASTBOOT="no", so you don't have to conform to someone else's preferences.

To apply this patch, go into the src directory of initscripts and do:

patch -p1 < fastboot.patch

I'll post the link to the patch in a minute! I'm testing out my server, it's been giving me problems lately... Enjoy everyone!

dp · 2004-12-06 22:08:21

if all tests are ok and people like it (i run my own initscripts that do similar thing), then you can maybe try to convince God (did i said God? i mean Judd ;-) funny, that these 2 names rhyme) to addapt your solution

punkrockguy318 · 2004-12-06 22:10:50

Here's the link:

http://lukaswayne.freelinuxhost.com/fastboot.patch

punkrockguy318 · 2004-12-06 22:13:57

Please test and tell me what you think!

punkrockguy318 · 2004-12-06 22:18:57

dp wrote:

if all tests are ok and people like it (i run my own initscripts that do similar thing), then you can maybe try to convince God (did i said God? i mean Judd ;-) funny, that these 2 names rhyme) to addapt your solution

Heh, yeah. I submitted a feature request. The only thing I'm wondering about is the logging. For my logging, I'm outputting all of the daemon messages and errors to /var/log/init.daemon. This file is replaced every startup. I'm not sure what the Arch way of doing this is, or the proper way. Any suggestions?

phrakture · 2004-12-06 22:34:31

i would also suggest backgrounding the shared library update on boot too... throw it in the same patch... and if you're feeling sassy you can add a parameter for the sleep time between ifconfig $IFACE up and dhcpcd $IFACE in the network boot script

phrakture · 2004-12-06 22:35:14

and profile it with this: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=8485
its a great little utility I found

aCoder · 2004-12-06 22:39:16

I just booted from a cold system to a desktop in <30 seconds. Thanks punkrockguy. Also, I didn't notice any problems with it at all. I simply fail to see a downside to this... Such a simple thing...

phrakture · 2004-12-06 22:43:09

aCoder wrote:

I simply fail to see a downside to this... Such a simple thing...

well, it does background all boot daemons... while the script portion itself is backgrounded, the daemons are not - meaning that inorder execution is still there. however it's possible that the foreground can get to some points expecting the background to be complete... I don't know for sure but i would stress test it to be sure (many different boot order configurations)... perhaps it may screw up gdm/kdm/xdm or something... though these can always be placed first in the daemons array to guarentee speedy delivery

aCoder · 2004-12-06 22:51:37

GDM works fine for me. However, I put it in inittab rather than the daemons array.

kakabaratruskia · 2004-12-06 23:04:54

I've just tested it, and it works fine, but I can't find the file /var/log/init.daemon

punkrockguy318 · 2004-12-06 23:31:09

phrakture wrote:

i would also suggest backgrounding the shared library update on boot too... throw it in the same patch... and if you're feeling sassy you can add a parameter for the sleep time between ifconfig $IFACE up and dhcpcd $IFACE in the network boot script

Hmm, the shared library is a good idea! Bash really isn't my specialty, but I'll give it a try. I'll submit a second patch later!

punkrockguy318 · 2004-12-07 00:03:27

kakabaratruskia wrote:

I've just tested it, and it works fine, but I can't find the file /var/log/init.daemon

Oh, I now know why... I can fix it: but before I do: Is this a good way to log the daemon messages? What would be the standard arch way to do it? Would minilog already log this information? Should I use minilog somehow? I'm clueless on this part, I need some help. What do you think?

z4ziggy · 2004-12-07 00:13:19

phrakture wrote:

i would also suggest backgrounding the shared library update on boot too...

add that and u've got yourself a winner

dp · 2004-12-07 01:04:22

phrakture wrote:

i would also suggest backgrounding the shared library update on boot too...

excellent idea! 8) ... booting on battery, it takes me over 40s to update the shared links :evil:

punkrockguy318 · 2004-12-07 02:23:15

fastboot v2 out.. changes:

logger works... sort of...
shared library links now runs at end in background
new PKGBUILD available

Patch:
http://lukaswayne.freelinuxhost.com/fastboot-2.patch
PKGBUILD:
http://lukaswayne.freelinuxhost.com/PKGBUILD

Note: To use the PKGBUILD, put the PKGBUILD in $ABSROOT/base/initscripts/ with the patch, and then makepkg.

I've tested these on my machine, seems to work fine, except for logs have errors in them.. See for yourself...

TODO in next version:
Fix logs

Please test with different configs and let me know how it works on your machine!

... Maybe Judd will like it

punkrockguy318 · 2004-12-07 02:24:58

This version boots so much faster... It's amazing.. Just a little lag when logging in...

kakabaratruskia · 2004-12-07 03:09:29

There is a parenthesis missing on the PKGBUILD (the last one).

aCoder · 2004-12-07 03:30:29

The new ones aren't a whole lot faster when I use gdm. The login appears faster, but it sits at the text login for a while, probably during linking, then starts gdm. It does, however, make for a 'quiter' boot.

tpowa · 2004-12-08 12:24:49

only a thought what would happen if your home is not local but on a network drive, does this still work then?

Pajaro · 2004-12-08 13:20:54

only if you log in after the network is mounted. But you can split your daemons in FOREGROUND and BACKGROUND daemons adding an entry for FOREGROUND_DAEMONS in rc.conf and modifying your rc.multi like this:

if [ "$FASTBOOT" = "yes" -o "$FASTBOOT" = "YES" ]; then
+    for daemon in "${FOREGROUND_DAEMONS[@]}"; do
+        if [[ `echo $daemon | grep '^[^!]' | wc -l` -eq 1 ]]; then
+            /etc/rc.d/$daemon start
+        fi
+    done
    {
    for daemon in "${DAEMONS[@]}"; do
        if [[ `echo $daemon | grep '^[^!]' | wc -l` -eq 1 ]]; then
            /etc/rc.d/$daemon start
        fi
    done
    } &> /var/log/init.daemon&
else
    for daemon in "${DAEMONS[@]}"; do
        if [[ `echo $daemon | grep '^[^!]' | wc -l` -eq 1 ]]; then
            /etc/rc.d/$daemon start
        fi
    done
fi

Legout · 2004-12-08 17:19:39

hi!!

Thank you for this Patch. Arch boots very fast now. My friends will be suprided! Another good reason to use Arch Linux!!

phrakture · 2004-12-08 17:34:48

tpowa wrote:

only a thought what would happen if your home is not local but on a network drive, does this still work then?

the timing may be an issue... but I would just put the network daemon first in the list... on my machine that should work just fine

tpowa · 2004-12-08 17:37:29

i tested the patch but if you use kdm and it's started last you don't see a difference, if you put kdm first it takes a long time to load

dp · 2004-12-09 00:40:24

tpowa wrote:

i tested the patch but if you use kdm and it's started last you don't see a difference, if you put kdm first it takes a long time to load

that's because kdm needs resources to start (X + kdeinit) and this is

a) slow, if in background things are done (daemons)

b) slow, if it has to wait a lot of background-loading daemons to start first

... a way to improve this is to preload X and kdeinit stuff to ram while starting the first daemons in the background ... then run kdm in the middle and then the rest of the daemons in background

i tried it, but it is not possible without making a big mess out of the initscripts ... and you gain not more than ~6s

Arch Linux

#1 2004-12-06 22:03:45

Fastboot Initscript Patches

#2 2004-12-06 22:08:21

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#3 2004-12-06 22:10:50

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#4 2004-12-06 22:13:57

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#5 2004-12-06 22:18:57

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#6 2004-12-06 22:34:31

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#7 2004-12-06 22:35:14

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#8 2004-12-06 22:39:16

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#9 2004-12-06 22:43:09

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#10 2004-12-06 22:51:37

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#11 2004-12-06 23:04:54

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#12 2004-12-06 23:31:09

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#13 2004-12-07 00:03:27

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#14 2004-12-07 00:13:19

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#15 2004-12-07 01:04:22

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#16 2004-12-07 02:23:15

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#17 2004-12-07 02:24:58

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#18 2004-12-07 03:09:29

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#19 2004-12-07 03:30:29

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#20 2004-12-08 12:24:49

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#21 2004-12-08 13:20:54

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#22 2004-12-08 17:19:39

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#23 2004-12-08 17:34:48

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#24 2004-12-08 17:37:29

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

#25 2004-12-09 00:40:24

Re: Fastboot Initscript Patches

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