2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

Raccoon1400 · 2009-02-02 04:00:41

cywhale wrote:

Starting GDM earlier as described here may be an option for some of you, too. It works on the C110 but does not on the thinkpad (no keyboard/mouse/trackpoint in GDM).

I tried that but it didn't work for me, and it disabled auto login
Any other way to load gdm early? I've tried other ideas but always failed.

Zariel · 2009-02-02 07:03:09

vMTc4bw

Trying to get it under 15s, stripping out more of rc.sysinit, this is addictive!

cywhale · 2009-02-02 15:40:24

Zariel wrote:

this is addictive!

Yep, it is. Down to 14 sec. (still on 1Ghz Celeron ULV, does CPU/Ghz matter?) replacing GDM with Slim right now.

Not tried yet:
- Replacing ext3 (noatime, data=writeback) with ext4 (system should remain stable and I'm not sure about ext4/standard-ArchLinux-Grub)
- Monolithic kernel (not sure about how to get all necessary modules and how to find them during kernel config)

@Raccoon1400: Putting GDM into rc.sysinit resulted in strange problems here, too, sorry for that. 99% reboots without problems, sometimes no input devices, sometimes black screen - GDM now has been replaced with Slim starting backgrounded from very first entry in rc.conf/DAEMONS. No problems for ~5 reboots now...

Edit: Right now I'm trying to get some speed editing modules/hooks in mkinitcpio.conf and rc.conf - but boot time rises up to 18 sec. no matter what I am trying. Any help would be greately appreciated. The following configuration files result in 14 sec. boot time.

rc.conf:

MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
...
MODULES=(e100 eepro100 mii slhc ipw2200 ac97_bus snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm-oss snd-page-alloc snd-pcm snd-timer snd snd-ac97-codec snd-intel8x0 snd-intel8x0m soundcore acpi-cpufreq acerhk)

mkinitcpio.conf:

MODULES="ata_generic ata_piix ext3 sd-mod"

#MODULES="serio_raw psmouse button processor battery ac video thermal intel_agp shpchp intelfb uhci_hcd usbcore usbhid ehci_hcd yenta_socket ohci1394 eepro100 e100 iTCO_wdt intel_rng ata_piix pata_acpi ata_generic ide_pci_generic piix sd_mod i2c_i801 snd_intel8x0 snd_intel8x0m jbd ext3"
...
HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata keymap filesystems"

#HOOKS="base udev"

Last edited by cywhale (2009-02-02 19:35:44)

Raccoon1400 · 2009-02-02 21:15:30

cywhale: here's my mkinitcpio:
MODULES="ata_generic ata_piix ext4"
BINARIES=""
FILES=""
HOOKS="base udev autodetect sata"

LeoSolaris · 2009-02-05 03:07:46

Hey DuoLogic,

I have an issue, and I think it may come from what I have done here...

It's fairly simple, hal is busted, along with gparted.

HAL: User mounting stopped working, I have to open the folder as root to mount/unmount my external drives and usb sticks. It's annoying, but workable for the time being. (Yes I tried re-adding myself to storage group)

GParted: anything to do with fat* filesystems is off. I can't make them, resize them, and GParted complains about not being able to read them at all. (These are coming from plugged in but unmounted usb sticks.)

Do I need a module loaded that I don't already?

Duologic · 2009-02-05 08:36:05

For users to use hal they need to have permissions: add them to the group 'storage' perhaps?

Post install of gparted says:
NOTE:
==> The following can be installed for maximum functionality:
==> e2fsprogs for ext2/ext3 partitions
==> dosfstools for fat16/32 partitions
==> jfsutils for jfs partitions
==> ntfsprogs for ntfs partitions
==> reiserfsprogs for reiser partitions
==> reiser4progs for reiser partitions
==> xfsprogs for xfs partitions

LeoSolaris · 2009-02-05 13:32:18

Thanks!

I had thought just adding to the group 'storage' would do it too, but it hasn't.

I grabbed dosfstools, I missed that one.

What in the /usr/(s)bin or /(s)bin files would I need to add to visudo to grant the group 'storage' permission to mount?

So far I have added /bin/mount.

I had thought this was an error caused by the change in booting. Had I known that it wasn't, I would have just made my own topic for this issue.

Edit: Ok, Thank you for the help! I started looking back over everything to figure out what was going wrong, and so far the only thing I have been able to do to make it work right is a little dirty.

I had to add my user name directly to the policy kit. I tried to make it group='storage' but no dice. It works with user='%USER' so, I suppose it is good enough for now.

I get the feeling that this was something minor that I never noticed before. It is fairly rare for me to use my usb sticks, and I am not 100% sure that I've used them since the last hal/dbus/policykit update. I know it worked at one point, I loaded all of my configs for openbox on a usb stick, and moved them back after re-installing Arch.

Last edited by LeoSolaris (2009-02-05 14:25:51)

Duologic · 2009-02-05 14:58:47

to mount stuff as a user I use 'pmount', but I'm not seeing what was realy wrong here, but it is going rather off topic

LeoSolaris · 2009-02-07 22:49:11

Duologic wrote:

to mount stuff as a user I use 'pmount', but I'm not seeing what was realy wrong here, but it is going rather off topic

ya... sorry bout that. I just thought it might have been something in the new boot sequence that changed, or I missed the right module for. I got it mostly fixed. I discovered that for some reason my gksudo was gone. Maybe I forgot the reinstall it.

Anyways, I have been working on a wiki for the 1520 version I have. Apparently the one in there was for a slightly different version. I will have to link to your speeding boot time wiki.

By the way, I figured out what was changing my system time constantly. In the shutdown, I missed the saving clock in Belgian time. (I think that was your time zone.) anyways, I actually found a slight speed up because of it. If you do not have windows at all, you can set the hardware clock, then just take out the parts in startup and shutdown about saving the time to the hardware. It doesn't save much time, but it is a little something.

Peterix · 2009-02-07 23:09:50

Back on topic:
I was unable to get the boot under 12 seconds with all the stuff I wanted because the HDD I used just didn't cut it anymore... Parallel boot is too seek-heavy for spinning disks. I've experimented shortly with Intel sreadahead but it just increased the HDD load and made everything else that ran olong with it two times slower.

So I got that nice Intel MLC SSD and now it's insanely fast. INSANELY! I'm unable to get a bootchart though... probably bootchartd fails because my system boots too fast and it can't pick up anything... or I took something it needs out of the kernel. I need to investigate that.
I'll add timing 'checkpoints' to my init scripts so I can get any data from it... I'll also dismantle the distinction between rc.multi and rc.single and use just rc.sysinit so I don't have to track things all over the place. I can check what's on the kernel line myself

I'm also working on getting ngflushd into shape (it's a nice little daemon for shutting down idle spinning discs).

<3 arch

Duologic · 2009-02-08 11:48:52

LeoSolaris
The clock was a pain here too, took a while before I figured out what was going wrong. :-)
Great that you work on the Inspiron 1520 wiki, I'll be checking it out. I made most of the Inspiron 1525 wiki, so if you need any help, give me a hint.

Peterix
Sounds cool, I would like to try some SSD's too but they are so expensive. I would like to recommend you to go to the wiki for the bootchart stuff, but it seems there isn't any page on it. Hey, I got an idea 8-) start one.

Peterix · 2009-02-08 15:52:14

Ok, here it is:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bootchart

I've solved the bootchart problem by adding it to rc.sysinit. Here's the bootchart for full system boot:
http://www.progarden.cz/bootchart-ssd.png
There's still a lot of room for improvement, especially in the KDE parts (and NVidia drivers) :)

zewsk · 2009-02-09 15:11:32

Hi all,
I just joined after lurking for a while and trying out all the tweaks... I did get a 3 second improvement from 18 to 15 seconds... but then the wheels fell off... every second or third boot I was prompted to do a file system check. Maybe I missed something on shutdown? Anyways, I had to go back to stability. I am a little disappointed though. I have done all the tweaks suggested here and elsewhere on several machines and found very very little improvement. The file system tweaks were most disappointing: no diff. I tried the journal data=writeback on ext3 and got nothing at all. Last night I installed on ext4 expecting great results. Nothing at all, same as ext3. To add insult to injury, I did the journal data=writeback on the ext4 system and the boot time went up to 21 seconds. I know there has to be a reason, but I am at a loss to explain it. Any ideas?

Anyways, the next thing on the agenda here is pretty obvious: how to speed up the desktop load.

Last edited by zewsk (2009-02-09 15:12:58)

Ashren · 2009-02-09 16:20:50

zewsk: I had the exact same problems with my filesystem checks, so much so in fact that I could not boot. Had to use a livecd to reinstall the initscripts, so don't think that tweaking initscripts is without hazards.

LeoSolaris · 2009-02-09 17:06:58

zewsk wrote:

Hi all,
I just joined after lurking for a while and trying out all the tweaks... I did get a 3 second improvement from 18 to 15 seconds... but then the wheels fell off... every second or third boot I was prompted to do a file system check. Maybe I missed something on shutdown? Anyways, I had to go back to stability. I am a little disappointed though. I have done all the tweaks suggested here and elsewhere on several machines and found very very little improvement. The file system tweaks were most disappointing: no diff. I tried the journal data=writeback on ext3 and got nothing at all. Last night I installed on ext4 expecting great results. Nothing at all, same as ext3. To add insult to injury, I did the journal data=writeback on the ext4 system and the boot time went up to 21 seconds. I know there has to be a reason, but I am at a loss to explain it. Any ideas?
Anyways, the next thing on the agenda here is pretty obvious: how to speed up the desktop load.

You could be hitting the limits of your hardware and BIOS. As for the FS-check... I have noticed the checking is a little more than normal as well. It seems to be connected with the journal reporting it's last write time to be in the future. I am still a little hazy on what it happening there.

Duologic · 2009-02-09 18:06:53

Tweaking like this is never without hazards, keep that in mind and don't do this on production machines.

sultanoswing · 2009-02-15 22:26:34

[cross-posted from the Newbie thread as probably more appropriate here - mods, feel free to delete other thread ]

Seeking that extra few seconds saving on boot time, I adjusted a few settings according to the Wiki article, http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Twe … _boot_time.

# /etc/inittab

id:3:initdefault:

rc::sysinit:/etc/rc.sysinit
rs:S1:once:/etc/rc.single
rm:2345:once:/etc/rc.multi
rh:06:once:/etc/rc.shutdown
su:S:once:/sbin/sulogin -p

c1:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 vc/1 linux
c2:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 vc/2 linux
#c3:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 vc/3 linux

ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now

# End of file

As a result of (I think) using the above inittab, I can no longer login to the shell ie. on ctrl-alt-F# to the shell, the login prompt comes up, but on entering username and p/w (including the root), it pauses then the login prompt appears again.

I suspect this is because the login manager has been intentionally removed from the inittab file, but how to restore it? I'm gonna check out my .xinitrc etc.

Thanks!

Duologic · 2009-02-16 06:23:00

I login into a bash with agetty and I got 'xinit &' in my ~/.bash_profile so it becomes a cheep login manager. :-)
The code of the following inittab runs X with xdm on boot, but once logged in, you'll have the overhead of the login manager as you do not necessarily need it when you are using the pc.
In normal circumstances, X will show up on the first free vc or tty, according to this inittab it should be vc/3.

# /etc/inittab

#id:3:initdefault:
id:5:initdefault:

rc::sysinit:/etc/rc.sysinit
rs:S1:once:/etc/rc.single
rm:2345:once:/etc/rc.multi
rh:06:once:/etc/rc.shutdown
su:S:once:/sbin/sulogin -p

c1:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 vc/1 linux
c2:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 vc/2 linux
#c3:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 vc/3 linux

ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now

# Example lines for starting a login manager
x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/xdm -nodaemon
#x:5:respawn:/usr/sbin/gdm -nodaemon
#x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/kdm -nodaemon
#x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/slim >& /dev/null

sultanoswing · 2009-02-16 07:56:06

Thanks, I'll give it a go...the issue I have is wanting to install nvidia's standard drivers from the shell (it's easier when switching between custom kernels), so need to be able to login to the shell to do so.

It also makes repairing screw ups easier

Duologic · 2009-02-16 08:32:38

I don't understand your issue fully, but 'not running X' should be more fail-safe than running X. (on any kernel)

sultanoswing · 2009-02-16 10:01:51

Duologic wrote:

I don't understand your issue fully, but 'not running X' should be more fail-safe than running X. (on any kernel)

Not to take this great thread off topic, but....

The issue was that I couldn't get back to or boot into a shell in order to manually repair text files or manually install the Nvidia drivers without an xserver running (useful when running parallel kernels). My usual procedure had been to ctrl-alt-F6 to the shell, then login to the shell.

With the 'faster boot' changes to inittab (and rc.sysinit) I could ctrl-alt-F6 to the shell login prompt, but entering username and password just cycled back to the login prompt without logging in. Very annoying.

Trying the above posted inittab resulted in a boot hang - 'unable to load / process rc.sysint' or some such - probably because I didn't have xdm installed . In retrospect I didn't get around to making sure every instance of startx was undone.

I got things up and running again by reverting back to the completely stock inittab and rc.sysinit files. Will try to get back on this horse once I get my newly compiled kernel installed again.

Last edited by sultanoswing (2009-02-16 10:20:38)

Duologic · 2009-02-16 11:48:21

Tweaking inittab will not speed up too much.
Not tweaked inittab would look like: 12.6s = 13s (on the bootchart)
Tweaked inititab would result in: 12.4s = 12s
No accurate numbers, just an example to show you the difference.

Hide · 2009-02-20 16:11:40

Yep, works flawlessly here, too. I just tweaked hostname and keymap and commented out unneeded lines in /etc/rc.conf. I've had bad experience with fiddling with HOOKS, so I'll skip this time

Thank you a lot

broch · 2009-02-20 17:33:11

zewsk wrote:

Hi all,
I just joined after lurking for a while and trying out all the tweaks... I did get a 3 second improvement from 18 to 15 seconds... but then the wheels fell off... every second or third boot I was prompted to do a file system check. Maybe I missed something on shutdown? Anyways, I had to go back to stability. I am a little disappointed though. I have done all the tweaks suggested here and elsewhere on several machines and found very very little improvement. The file system tweaks were most disappointing: no diff. I tried the journal data=writeback on ext3 and got nothing at all. Last night I installed on ext4 expecting great results. Nothing at all, same as ext3. To add insult to injury, I did the journal data=writeback on the ext4 system and the boot time went up to 21 seconds. I know there has to be a reason, but I am at a loss to explain it. Any ideas?
Anyways, the next thing on the agenda here is pretty obvious: how to speed up the desktop load.

1) simply tweak fsck intervals (e.g. 1 per 100 "boot ups"), you can also turn this off completely
2) tune fs format flags
3) tune elevator (CFQ is best middle of the road, but depending on your fs and disk usage you will get better resunlts with different elevator, this is easy to test actually)
4) tune your disk parameters
5) skip/get rid of initrd (re-compile kernel)
6) ad 2 and ad 3 will help with general system performance rather than with boot time

your complaints indicate that you do not understand fully what are you tweaking: fs flags that you mentioned will not help with boot time (as in the case of ad 2 and ad 3 will help with general system performance with exception of fsck check)

Of course there are some tricks that allow to boot system in negative time (so system will boot before you press power button), but this is expremerly dangerosus.

Hide · 2009-02-22 07:36:37

I'm interested in one thing here (and it's a bit OT, sorry ). The part of the boot process, after the grub, but before the rc.sysinit stuff - does its speed depend on the system adjustments or the computer itself (cpu and memory speed, etc)?

Arch Linux

#76 2009-02-02 04:00:41

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#77 2009-02-02 07:03:09

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#78 2009-02-02 15:40:24

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#79 2009-02-02 21:15:30

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#80 2009-02-05 03:07:46

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#81 2009-02-05 08:36:05

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#82 2009-02-05 13:32:18

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#83 2009-02-05 14:58:47

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#84 2009-02-07 22:49:11

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#85 2009-02-07 23:09:50

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#86 2009-02-08 11:48:52

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#87 2009-02-08 15:52:14

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#88 2009-02-09 15:11:32

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#89 2009-02-09 16:20:50

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#90 2009-02-09 17:06:58

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#91 2009-02-09 18:06:53

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#92 2009-02-15 22:26:34

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#93 2009-02-16 06:23:00

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#94 2009-02-16 07:56:06

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#95 2009-02-16 08:32:38

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#96 2009-02-16 10:01:51

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#97 2009-02-16 11:48:21

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#98 2009-02-20 16:11:40

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#99 2009-02-20 17:33:11

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

#100 2009-02-22 07:36:37

Re: 2 days of tweaking for a faster boot time

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