e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

flamelab · 2011-04-09 11:23:03

I've been using the e4rat preloading for some days now and it is EXCELLENT.

toad · 2011-04-09 12:27:41

Just heard that version 0.2 has been released with different paths et al.

EDIT:

adjusted the wiki and flagged 0.15 out of date

Last edited by toad (2011-04-09 13:09:19)

graysky · 2011-04-09 13:55:11

I updated... what do you mean different paths et al?

toad · 2011-04-09 13:59:42

Wow, that was quick

What used to be /usr/sbin/e4rat is now /sbin/e4rat. Could you put something to that effect in the intall.readme or whatever it is called? Like:

The paths to all e4rat binaries have changed from /usr/sbin/e4rat to /sbin/e4rat. Please remember to change your grub kernel line to reflect this change.

Otherwise we'll get a ton of posts saying they cannot boot any more.

Last edited by toad (2011-04-09 14:03:04)

graysky · 2011-04-09 14:16:20

Ah, done... assume your hit the wiki?

Last edited by graysky (2011-04-09 14:25:50)

Teho · 2011-04-09 14:21:33

It cloud be added that this has no effect on SSD performance or might even in some cases decrease it. For me, it did nothing.

http://computersplace.net/diy/e4rat-on- … eless.html
http://lifehacker.com/#!5790311/e4rat-c … e-commands

graysky · 2011-04-09 14:27:26

@teho - agree since ssd do not suffer from seek time.

toad · 2011-04-09 14:29:19

@ Graysky

Great. Wiki done as well. Hm, might spell the SSD thing out a little more as well.

fsss · 2011-04-09 19:21:59

Wow! It really makes a difference. I didn't compare boot time using any tools so far, but I measured it manually using stopwatch Before it was more than 70 seconds and now less than 40 seconds with additional applications like opera and pidgin. I think that it reduced the most time needed to run X and load DE. KDE is loading super fast.

hauzer · 2011-04-09 22:34:29

I'm using a different kernel, namely ck-k7, maybe that was the problem? I will test e4rat in an Arch VBox with ext4 partitions and the default kernel to see what will happen.

graysky · 2011-04-09 23:09:44

hauzer wrote:

I'm using a different kernel, namely ck-k7, maybe that was the problem? I will test e4rat in an Arch VBox with ext4 partitions and the default kernel to see what will happen.

What?

sirmacik · 2011-04-09 23:54:21

It works GREAT!!! Thanks for sharing and maintaining this package. (:

Haptic · 2011-04-10 00:00:50

Not too big of a difference here since I don't run too many things, but I can definitely tell its faster by a few seconds on boot. I can't say the same for opening programs though.

lagagnon · 2011-04-10 00:49:40

What a fantastic and interesting system application. Just tried it on my Athlon II X2 240 system, boot times are from cold boot button on press to completion of loading all apps in my .xinitrc, including a Slim login page, wmii, chromium-dev, two urxvt terminals, conky, xscreensaver.

Without e4rat = 40 seconds
With e4rat = 30 seconds

Thanks to the developers and to Toad for packaging and the wiki entry!

Haptic · 2011-04-10 02:18:42

eDio wrote:

e4rat tries to read startup.log from /var golder. But I have /var on separate partition and it is not available on start. Are there any workarounds?

I just copied the log file somewhere in /root and changed the path in /etc/e4rat.conf. It worked fine.

Haptic wrote:

Not too big of a difference here since I don't run too many things, but I can definitely tell its faster by a few seconds on boot. I can't say the same for opening programs though.

That was all placebo. It wasn't actually working when I posted this lol. Now that I've got it working, I can't really tell about the boot speed. It pauses a little while on udev, but flies through the rest. With programs, I can't be too sure either. Maybe its a little faster, but not noticeably. I guess everything was already pretty snappy (besides firefox which still seems a bit slow with cold starts), I'm not sure why I even bothered (no I don't have a SSD).

ChoK · 2011-04-12 22:54:23

I retried e4rat today, I couldn't use it before because my /usr and my root partition were different.
But even though e4rat binaries were moved from /usr/sbin to /sbin it still need shared libraries in /usr

ldd /sbin/e4rat-collect                                                                                                 
        linux-vdso.so.1 =>  (0x00007fff7e7ff000)                                                                                       
        libboost_system.so.1.46.0 => /usr/lib/libboost_system.so.1.46.0 (0x00007fc8782c6000)                                           
        libboost_filesystem.so.1.46.0 => /usr/lib/libboost_filesystem.so.1.46.0 (0x00007fc8780a4000)                                   
        libboost_regex.so.1.46.0 => /usr/lib/libboost_regex.so.1.46.0 (0x00007fc877d90000)                                             
        libext2fs.so.2 => //lib/libext2fs.so.2 (0x00007fc877b61000)                                                                    
        libblkid.so.1 => //lib/libblkid.so.1 (0x00007fc87793e000)                                                                      
        libaudit.so.1 => /usr/lib/libaudit.so.1 (0x00007fc877727000)                                                                   
        libauparse.so.0 => /usr/lib/libauparse.so.0 (0x00007fc877519000)                                                               
        libpthread.so.0 => //lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007fc8772fc000)                                                                  
        libe4rat-core.so.0 => //lib/libe4rat-core.so.0 (0x00007fc8770b4000)                                                            
        libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007fc876daa000)                                                                 
        libm.so.6 => //lib/libm.so.6 (0x00007fc876b27000)                                                                              
        libgcc_s.so.1 => /usr/lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007fc876911000)                                                                   
        libc.so.6 => //lib/libc.so.6 (0x00007fc8765b0000)                                                                              
        librt.so.1 => //lib/librt.so.1 (0x00007fc8763a8000)                                                                            
        libicuuc.so.46 => /usr/lib/libicuuc.so.46 (0x00007fc87605d000)                                                                 
        libicui18n.so.46 => /usr/lib/libicui18n.so.46 (0x00007fc875c9a000)                                                             
        libicudata.so.46 => /usr/lib/libicudata.so.46 (0x00007fc874c1c000)                                                             
        libcom_err.so.2 => //lib/libcom_err.so.2 (0x00007fc874a19000)                                                                  
        libuuid.so.1 => //lib/libuuid.so.1 (0x00007fc874815000)                                                                        
        /lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fc8784c9000)                                                                                 
        libdl.so.2 => //lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00007fc874611000)

hauzer · 2011-04-13 02:07:19

graysky wrote:

hauzer wrote:
I'm using a different kernel, namely ck-k7, maybe that was the problem? I will test e4rat in an Arch VBox with ext4 partitions and the default kernel to see what will happen.
What?

Never mind, I'm a noob.

toad · 2011-04-13 06:16:03

@ Chok

Is that bad? Should anything be done about it?

Some *buntu users gave e4rat a try and reported that it actually slowed their machine down! Looks like ureadahead and *buntu have done some things right. Anybody here who has tried it?

ChoK · 2011-04-13 11:23:25

According to the FHS standard everything needed at boot should be in / not /usr, I'll file a bug report but it seems they do not have a bug tracker, just a mail according to http://e4rat.sourceforge.net/

About ubuntu and readahead : http://e4rat.sourceforge.net/wiki/index … ureadahead

edit: bug report done

Last edited by ChoK (2011-04-13 11:39:30)

toad · 2011-04-13 14:55:27

Thanks, ChoK.

I put in a request for profiles. I for one use my laptop both as a desktop stand-in (full blown KDE with FF, Thunderbird, Dropbox, Skype et al) and on the road as a lightweight machine with lxde for quick and dirty stuff.

Any other grand ideas out there?

triplesquarednine · 2011-04-13 17:39:56

toad wrote:

Leonid.I wrote:
So... I spend ~20 sec to boot on a P4 machine with
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng irqbalance dbus microcode alsa iptables fcrond network sshd postfix ntpd cups smartd)
and even less on a core2duo. What is the point? Isn't it easier to have /usr on reiserfs?
Sorry, but this is beside the point.
This machine booted into X and firefox in 15 seconds what used to take 45 seconds. The interesting thing is optimising CPU and hard disk access.

I would have to see this to believe it. I have tested e4rat, it is setup and working properly... Yes, it does shave off a little boot time, but definitely NOT 30 seconds, or even close to that. I think that SystemD has a much bigger impact on bootup speed, than this utility. (I have a fast machine, i boot straight into X). I haven't setup SystemD yet, but i've seen it in action on my friend's Archbox - he did the comparison of "init vs. systemd" - it was quite impressive.

is anyone using e4rat with Systemd??? ( i might have swing at that )

anyway, an increase in boot time speed is always nice.

thanks for the info Toad.

jordan

toad · 2011-04-13 17:43:40

@ triplesquarednine

I fully understand, I couldn't believe my eyes, either. But check the bootchart on the project page - he booted into gnome which apparently utilises the CPU somewhat better than KDE or what have you.

triplesquarednine · 2011-04-13 18:36:54

toad wrote:

@ triplesquarednine
I fully understand, I couldn't believe my eyes, either. But check the bootchart on the project page - he booted into gnome which apparently utilises the CPU somewhat better than KDE or what have you.

Cool, i'll take a look at that.. I too am running gnome (2.32). Like i said i definitely noticed a speed increase, just not major, maybe 6-8 seconds less on boot time. hmmm... maybe i will disable e4rat (temperarily), tweak my boot up a little bit, then apply e4rat again, see if i can get it go a bit faster.

how about Systemd, toad? I know your not using it, but maybe someone else who have spoken with it using it with e4rat?

jordan

Stunts · 2011-04-13 22:27:07

I have tired this and I must say I am impressed. On my laptop with Gnome 2.32, all measures made with a stopwatch, so there might be a +/- 1 sec error:
Metrics: Grub-GDM; GDM-Fully loaded desktop; Total
Plain init: 29''; 31''; 60''
Readahead-fedora: 27''; 15''; 42''
Readahead-fedora + preload: 28''; 15''; 43''
e4rat: 20''; 10''; 30''

In total it shaved 13'' of my boot time, since I was using readahead + preload originally.
This was very nice!

toad · 2011-04-14 06:50:59

@ triplesquarednine

No news on systemd - I cannot remember whether anybody in this thread has tried it. Other than that there is no further info out there.

@ Stunts

Wow, and halved your normal boot time - cool Interesting that your readahead is quicker than readahead + preload. Wonder why that might be.

Arch Linux

#76 2011-04-09 11:23:03

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#77 2011-04-09 12:27:41

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#78 2011-04-09 13:55:11

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#79 2011-04-09 13:59:42

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#80 2011-04-09 14:16:20

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#81 2011-04-09 14:21:33

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#82 2011-04-09 14:27:26

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#83 2011-04-09 14:29:19

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#84 2011-04-09 19:21:59

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#85 2011-04-09 22:34:29

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#86 2011-04-09 23:09:44

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#87 2011-04-09 23:54:21

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#88 2011-04-10 00:00:50

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#89 2011-04-10 00:49:40

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#90 2011-04-10 02:18:42

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#91 2011-04-12 22:54:23

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#92 2011-04-13 02:07:19

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#93 2011-04-13 06:16:03

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#94 2011-04-13 11:23:25

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#95 2011-04-13 14:55:27

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#96 2011-04-13 17:39:56

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#97 2011-04-13 17:43:40

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#98 2011-04-13 18:36:54

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#99 2011-04-13 22:27:07

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

#100 2011-04-14 06:50:59

Re: e4rat - reduce boot time (into X) by some 50% for ext4

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