Arch Linux

granjerox

Member

From: karlsruhe, Germany

Registered: 2008-05-19

Posts: 4

System speedup questions

First of all, hello to all the community, i'm a new user in Arch linux but no so new in linux. I've being using
ubuntu linux since 4 yerars or so. I've changed to Arch linux because its speed and because I wanted to
learn more about linux and I thought Arch linux is a good distro for it.

In my search to learn I started compiling packages from sources and recently I dare to compile a customized
kernel. I used the makepkg methode and I achieved to do it with allmost all the modules I think my Inspiron
6400 Core Duo T2400 needs. The problem is that I havent seen a boot speed improvement, and here come
the question, what else should I do?

BTW.: Yes tried to follow the wiki pages (mkinitcpio, udev, ....)

This are my configuration files :

rc.conf

#
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
#

LOCALE="es_ES.utf8"
HARDWARECLOCK="localtime"
TIMEZONE="Europa/Madrid"
KEYMAP="es"
CONSOLEFONT="lat2-16.psfu.gz"
CONSOLEMAP="es.map.gz"
USECOLOR="yes"


MOD_AUTOLOAD="no"

MOD_BLACKLIST=(pcspkr)
MODULES=(!iwl3945 fglrx usbhid i2c_i801 rtc_core video rtc_cmos )
USELVM="no"

HOSTNAME="myhost"
eth0="eth0 172.20.239.172 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 172.20.239.255"
INTERFACES=(eth0)
gateway="default gw 172.20.239.1"
ROUTES=(gateway)
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network @netfs crond @gdm @dbus @preload)


# End of file

mkinitcpio.conf

MODULES=""
BINARIES=""
FILES=""
HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata"

output of lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by
fuse                   42524  6 
joydev                 10048  0 
serio_raw               5508  0 
sr_mod                 15300  0 
psmouse                36880  0 
cdrom                  33952  1 sr_mod
sg                     27188  0 
dcdbas                  7200  0 
fan                     3456  0 
button                  6416  0 
battery                10372  0 
ac                      4484  0 
video                  16656  0 
output                  3200  1 video
evdev                   9472  0 
i2c_i801                9232  0 
i2c_core               19348  1 i2c_i801
usbhid                 42944  0 
ff_memless              5128  1 usbhid
fglrx                1546636  23 
rtc_cmos                9120  0 
rtc_core               15516  1 rtc_cmos
rtc_lib                 2944  1 rtc_core
sd_mod                 23320  7 
ata_piix               17668  6

output lshwd

00:00.0 Class 0600: Intel Corp.|Mobile Memory Controller Hub (intel-agp)
00:01.0 Class 0604: Intel Corp.|Mobile PCI Express Graphics Port (unknown)
00:1b.0 Class 0403: Intel Corp.|I/O Controller Hub High Definition Audio (snd-hda-intel)
00:1c.0 Class 0604: Intel Corp.|I/O Controller Hub PCI Express Port 1 (unknown)
00:1c.3 Class 0604: Intel Corp.|I/O Controller Hub PCI Express Port 4 (unknown)
00:1d.0 Class 0c03: Intel Corp.|I/O Controller Hub UHCI USB #1 (unknown)
00:1d.1 Class 0c03: Intel Corp.|I/O Controller Hub UHCI USB #2 (unknown)
00:1d.2 Class 0c03: Intel Corp.|I/O Controller Hub UHCI USB #3 (unknown)
00:1d.3 Class 0c03: Intel Corp.|I/O Controller Hub UHCI USB #4 (unknown)
00:1d.7 Class 0c03: Intel Corp.|I/O Controller Hub EHCI USB (unknown)
00:1e.0 Class 0604: Intel Corp.|82801 Hub Interface to PCI Bridge (hw_random)
00:1f.0 Class 0601: Intel Corp.|Mobile I/O Controller Hub LPC (i8xx_tco)
00:1f.2 Class 0101: Intel Corp.|Mobile I/O Controller Hub SATA cc=IDE (ata_piix)
00:1f.3 Class 0c05: Intel Corp.|I/O Controller Hub SMBus (i2c-i801)
01:00.0 Class 0300: ATI Technologies Inc|Radeon Mobility X1400 (vesa)
03:00.0 Class 0200: Broadcom Corp.|BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (b44)
0b:00.0 Class 0280: Intel Corporation|PRO/Wireless 3945ABG (ipw3945)

Bootchart of my boot. It takes the same time as the default boot with stock kernel :

http://www.flickcabin.com/sessions/da39 … _13:35.png

I've tried to remove the autodetect from hooks but after it the image doesn't boot .....

Any suggestions ?

Thank you in advance

GRANJEROX

sniffles

Member

Registered: 2008-01-23

Posts: 275

Re: System speedup questions

Well I have a possible suggestion but it might not be the kind you want/would like: give up on the idea that running a custom kernel and building everything from source will improve your boot speeds or general system responsiveness, perhaps I should say "especially when using Arch Linux".

As an X-Gentoo user I can tell you that notable speed advantages of a source-based distribution are a myth. FWIW I doubt Arch shipping i686 rather than i484 packages actually makes *too much* of a difference.

When I installed Arch Linux (comming from Debian) I was quite stunned by the rapidness of the boot sequence, but I "blame" the init system.

P.S.: We (you and me) seem to be running Arch Linux on nearly the same hardware (nearly the same laptop) HUHU!

Last edited by sniffles (2008-05-25 14:02:07)

_Marco_

Member

Registered: 2008-04-21

Posts: 242

Re: System speedup questions

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=48957&p=1
this is something that could improve the performance of your system (it is a very recent project as you can see)
(I didn't tested it on my computer)