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#1 2009-04-08 18:31:55

brisbin33
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From: boston, ma
Registered: 2008-07-24
Posts: 1,796
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Slow Grub on EEE PC 900

So i've got an eee pc 900 with a 16G SSD and rev 0804 BIOS (maybe 0802 can't remember exactly right now)

grub takes forever.  a good 10 seconds to grub 1.5... then 10 more to the grub menu.  that new fast-init program is amazing and can take me ~3 seconds from grub selection to login (omg!).  but it's useless when it's 20 seconds to just the grub menu.

i've read a few articles saying this can be fixed with a BIOS upgrade and a few others saying a replacement SSD is required.

my questions:

the link in our wiki contains a BIOS 0906 file called 900-ASUS-0906.zip; the wiki says you MUST name the file 701.RAM; was that sentence 701 specific, and i actually MUST name the file 900.RAM or is it an asus BIOS bug and it should still be 701.RAM no matter the model?  if i can get some clarification on the upgrade process i'll try that first.

edit: after some googling i've found the file MUST be called xxx.rom where xxx is your model number.  i've added this to the wiki.  i am usure if 900A or 900H users would be 900.rom or 900A.rom, maybe some can clarify that for the wiki.  i've started the process but it seems hung at `Reading file "900.ROM"`.  i'm going to let it sit a while as now i'm 99% sure i've got a good ROM file on the flash drive *and* i've named it correctly.

edit2: bios update just hangs on reading file... any ideas?  moving on to next steps.

would putting /boot on a MicroSD card be doable? would it help?

are there any special partition settings (bootflag, etc) i could try to speed this up?

any comments would be helpful.  thanks.

Last edited by brisbin33 (2009-04-09 00:13:45)

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#2 2009-04-09 04:15:18

josomebody
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Registered: 2008-06-20
Posts: 190

Re: Slow Grub on EEE PC 900

Is (or was) quickboot enabled in your bios?


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#3 2009-04-09 13:34:59

brisbin33
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From: boston, ma
Registered: 2008-07-24
Posts: 1,796
Website

Re: Slow Grub on EEE PC 900

yes enabled.

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#4 2009-04-10 01:03:07

josomebody
Member
Registered: 2008-06-20
Posts: 190

Re: Slow Grub on EEE PC 900

I've got the exact same machine, two of them in my house actually. Got one last October, one last month, never updated the bios on either of them, and never had this problem.

Have you tried reinstalling grub? It might have gotten broken somehow.  How is your drive partitioned? And how much have you fooled with the bios boot settings?


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#5 2009-04-10 22:32:18

brisbin33
Member
From: boston, ma
Registered: 2008-07-24
Posts: 1,796
Website

Re: Slow Grub on EEE PC 900

Update: i flashed my BIOS to rev 1006 just now*.  no change in Grub speed.

Times:
11 seconds until Grub 1.5...
12more seconds until the menu.

BIOS:
Quick Boot enabled, Quiet Boot enabled. 
SSD is the first Boot Device
SSD is the IDE Device (is that right? it was the default)

Drives:
/boot is ext2 with boot flag enabled
/ is ext2

Grub:
reinstalled grub.  no change.

boo freakin hiss.  i don't shut it down all that often, but so annoying that i'd have a <4 second boot if grub didn't take 23 seconds to load.

*PS: format to fat16 and name it 900.ROM to flash the bios correctly.

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#6 2009-04-10 22:47:09

rsambuca
Member
From: Calgary, Canada
Registered: 2008-07-21
Posts: 143

Re: Slow Grub on EEE PC 900

Do you have the 900 with 20GB (in the form of 4GB + 16GB drives), or the plain 16GB drive only?  Apparently the 16GB SSD drives used are much much slower than the 4GB drives.

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#7 2009-04-10 23:19:27

brisbin33
Member
From: boston, ma
Registered: 2008-07-24
Posts: 1,796
Website

Re: Slow Grub on EEE PC 900

yeah, i have the single 16GB drive.  would it be easy to buy/install an additional 4GB drive? gain some space and speed up this boot?

scratch that; i think i'll deal with it for now; upgrade to larger/faster drive down the line some time...  i could use another gig of RAM too... oh boy, here we go...

Last edited by brisbin33 (2009-04-10 23:24:59)

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#8 2009-04-11 05:21:23

rsambuca
Member
From: Calgary, Canada
Registered: 2008-07-21
Posts: 143

Re: Slow Grub on EEE PC 900

Unfortunately, the 900 models with the single 16GB drives are notoriously slow.  I am afraid you are stuck with it unless you want to spend a few hundred bucks, which obviously isn't worth it for these machines.

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#9 2009-05-13 13:03:21

brisbin33
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From: boston, ma
Registered: 2008-07-24
Posts: 1,796
Website

Re: Slow Grub on EEE PC 900

i'm not sure coaihim; it was definitely my shitty 16GB drive.  i got a new 32GB SSD for ~$100 and now grub has no delays.  i should've put two and two together when the arch install image on my thumb drive booted grub like instantly during the install.

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