booting faster, is it possible?

Shemeta · 2004-02-23 02:32:00

Hi Archers,

is there a way to boot my comp faster? is there something i can do about waiting so long for the Bios check? it takes like half of the booting time. also updating the shared libraries is a slow process too.

any advice is welcome,

Shemeta

dp · 2004-02-23 03:06:53

same here ... not so the bios check, but especially the decompressing of the kernel and the shared libs --- the decompressing is maybe because i have /boot not <1024 sectors, but cannot solve this any more without reinstalling the whole disk

any ideas how to boot faster? what about starting the daemons parallel? is this possible?

rasat · 2004-02-23 04:14:14

Shemeta wrote:

is there a way to boot my comp faster?

With customized kernel for your hardwares only, and by editing the /etc/rc.sysinit.

<b>Hint:</b>
If you edit rc.sysinit, add these lines at the end of /rc.local to pause before login.... to get time making notes if any error.

echo "Press any key to continue...."
read KEY

sarah31 · 2004-02-23 06:09:52

eh? just how long is it taking to boot?

when i was using arch it would take about 40 second from power on to login. that was with no changes in init scripts and with only three services starting up besides the default ones in rc.conf.

my processor i even pretty lowly compared to the ones posted in the "lets compare sizes" thread.

Shemeta · 2004-02-23 06:25:40

what kind of login? it takes about 1 min for me from power on to GDM. i also have PCMCIA card. it would be much faster without the BIOS check, but i guess this is impossible. :shock:

well if someone has any other suggestions, you are welcome.

BTW, my laptop is P-III M 1GHz. 256MHz RAM, Ati Radeon Mobility. if that matters.

Shemeta

sarah31 · 2004-02-23 06:28:40

well not using gdm/kdm and loginning int to level 5 might help.

rasat · 2004-02-23 08:57:27

This below link is not for booting but after login:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=2223

andy · 2004-02-23 10:15:42

About the BIOS check : you are talking about the checks that the BIOS itslef performs ? well, there you have to consult your BIOS documentation. But most BIOS's have some sort of "fast booting", "quick POST", "skip memory test", "fast memory test" ot whatnot. But it's quite different from BIOS to BIOS.

Other than that, Arch is the fastest booting Linux distro I know.

Bobonov · 2004-02-23 10:25:47

Another think to speed up bios is to set directly the hd instead to auto (that means tha the bios check each time all 4 ide channel for hd)
Set also the boot directly do ide1/c or where is you boot unit.

jlowell · 2004-02-23 20:17:17

Shemeta,

Your comments about booting time surprize me. I just timed my boot from start to login prompt and come in somewhere in the neighborhood of 16-17 seconds and that includes a 6 second count down for grub and the exporting of two NFS file systems. Admittedly, I'm not going right into run level 5, but this measurement might be helpful to you in gauging just how much time its taking you to get your GUI into operation. While I can't be sure in advance precisely how much you'd benefit by it, Sarah's suggestion might be one you'd want to explore more fully.

jlowell

beniro · 2004-02-23 20:24:43

http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/l … BootFaster

I think this would be applicable to Arch Linux as well. I'm not much of a Linux expert yet, so I only get a general idea as to what this article means...

Would applying this to Arch be possible?

I even think I mentioned this around here some months back.

Shemeta · 2004-02-23 22:44:01

jlowell wrote:

Shemeta,
Your comments about booting time surprize me. I just timed my boot from start to login prompt and come in somewhere in the neighborhood of 16-17 seconds and that includes a 6 second count down for grub and the exporting of two NFS file systems. Admittedly, I'm not going right into run level 5, but this measurement might be helpful to you in gauging just how much time its taking you to get your GUI into operation. While I can't be sure in advance precisely how much you'd benefit by it, Sarah's suggestion might be one you'd want to explore more fully.
jlowell

jlowell,

it takes me about that time only for the bios check! the ........ (dots) after loading Linux go till the other side of my screen. so that surprises me how quick your system loads. the loading of the GUI doesn't take so long though.

is there a speed difference between Lilo & Grub?

Regards Shemeta

dp · 2004-02-24 00:00:10

out of curiosity, i rebooted to stop the times for booting:

using kernel 2.6.3 with lilo and having /boot >1024sektors on drive (hda: windose10GB hdb: boot50MB hdc ...)

DAEMONS=(syslogd klogd pcmcia crond network cups fam proftpd ntpd httpd sshd)

times from stopwatch:

bioscheck: 8s

lilo (in settings changable): 10s

loading linux .... : 36s

kernel things : 5s

init-stuff: 35s (shared libs 16s)

login (init3) after 1'34s (+59/100s)

jlowell · 2004-02-24 00:58:44

Shemeta,

I do a very minimal thing here and on purpose. The box on which I reported the 16 second boot time is one with two IDE hard drives, one I use as a kind of ancillary to my principal sytem and the second for back-up storage. The principal system has three drives, all SCSIs and a SCSI CD-RW. Arch boots much more slowly on that one, the SCSI detection alone takes at least ten seconds before it displays the drives and the writer and moves on.

I hestitate to jump into your problem with very much more than I have already because I've never had a laptop - never have had a need for that kind of mobility - and lack experience with them altogether. Very clearly, slow is a relative term here and I have nothing with which to compare your boot speeds. Does it sound slow to me? Yes it does. But I think we need people with laptop experience to speak to your situation. I think you ran Slackware on that system before Arch, did you not? What was happening to your boot time with Slack, specifically the BIOS check portion?

jlowell

Shemeta · 2004-02-24 01:07:05

Hey jlowell,

thanks for the response. i don't know what else to say except that compared to Slackware, AL boots much faster, but the Bios check takes about the same time.
if there is anyone with laptop experience, i would like to hear her/his oppinion!

Regards Shemeta

dp · 2004-02-24 01:10:45

just to extend: these times are measured on a laptop with a ide-harddrive a cdrw and a scanner and printer on usb

on slack, i had all very similar except that updating shared links didnt take more than 5s

Shemeta,

do you have similar times like me? do you have your /boot section under 1024sectors or above? (i suspect that "Loading linux ...." takes long because of this)

jlowell · 2004-02-24 01:16:21

Shemeta,

Well, with that kind of a report I'm much less concerned about there being a kind of pathology present. Perhaps some of the tricks that have already been suggested or some that will be can be of help. Good luck!

Regards.

jlowell

Shemeta · 2004-02-24 01:42:26

dp,

how can i find out what is my /boot section?

yes, ''Loading Linux" takes maybe about 15 sec or more. but the rest of the process is not so long. i boot in about 1min 10sec with PCMCIA & GDM.

Shemeta

dp · 2004-02-24 01:54:17

Shemeta wrote:

how can i find out what is my /boot section?

do you have a separate partition for /boot ? (more /etc/fstab)

if so, with fdisk you can check if this partition is under 1024sektors or not

(fdisk /dev/hda -- then p for showing of partition-table -- then q to quit)

malakas · 2004-02-24 07:02:36

Well i dont know if that helps but after i strip down a lot of kernel features my boot time from the moment i push return at lilo till the INIT script was from 34 sec to 7.6 sec on a P3 733.I believe after init it is the hardware that make a different.

dp · 2004-02-24 10:29:32

muntyan wrote:

put
compact
to lilo.conf

:shock:

Loading Linux
Bios Check - Sucessfull
...

in less than 1s!!!! :shock: 8)

thanx a lot, you saved me each boot 35s!!!!

(always ready to learn such very usefull things -- use lilo since 21.4.4, never came to the idea to include "compact" to the settings :oops: )

Shemeta · 2004-02-24 15:34:01

Hey muntyan,

thanks for the tip. now i am really happy with my system & it boots supa fast!

take care, Shemeta

Arch Linux

#1 2004-02-23 02:32:00

booting faster, is it possible?

#2 2004-02-23 03:06:53

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#3 2004-02-23 04:14:14

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#4 2004-02-23 06:09:52

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#5 2004-02-23 06:25:40

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#6 2004-02-23 06:28:40

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#7 2004-02-23 08:57:27

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#8 2004-02-23 10:15:42

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#9 2004-02-23 10:25:47

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#10 2004-02-23 20:17:17

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#11 2004-02-23 20:24:43

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#12 2004-02-23 22:44:01

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#13 2004-02-24 00:00:10

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#14 2004-02-24 00:58:44

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#15 2004-02-24 01:07:05

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#16 2004-02-24 01:10:45

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#17 2004-02-24 01:16:21

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#18 2004-02-24 01:42:26

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#19 2004-02-24 01:54:17

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#20 2004-02-24 07:02:36

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#21 2004-02-24 10:29:32

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

#22 2004-02-24 15:34:01

Re: booting faster, is it possible?

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