Speed up boot!

LucaSpiller · Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2004 3:04 pm Post subject:

I have got my boot time down to around 20 secs now (before it was so short because I had basically no services) but X still seems to take a while to startup - and now it takes about 10 secs to start kdm.

I sort of screwed up my machine while trying to speed up "Calculating service dependencies" - this is the longest part of the init process - and had to reboot into Mandrake. I noticed that X starts about 10 - 15 secs before the runlevel has finished so looked into this.

Mandrake starts /etc/init.d/dm which contains the following:

seppe · Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 10:29 pm Post subject:

My system boots up in less than 8 seconds thanks to Software Suspend 2. I can't suspend from X, but I can from the console. So I made 2 tiny scripts that do this:
1. Exit X
2. Hibernate (suspend)
3. Restart X on resume

Here's how:

First, find a kernel that has Software Suspend 2 in (nitro-sources provides a Software Suspend 2 addon patch) or roll your own.

Then extract the suspend script from http://softwaresuspend.berlios.de in /etc/hibernate

/etc/hibernate/suspend.sh contains:

ryceck · Apprentice Joined: 13 Jan 2004 Posts: 195

seppe · Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 10:42 pm Post subject:

ribx · Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 10:24 am Post subject:

i have got suspend working on my laptop with the X server. i dont use the ati-drivers from atii use the one coming with xorg (driver "ati" in xorg.conf). it works like a charm.

i boot up from pushing the on/off button to firefox in about 20 secs (differs a bit)

maybe your problem is linked with the acpi support of the kernel. did you include all acpi stuff static? i do so.

my laptop:
dell inspiron 8600, ati 9600 m, 512MB ram - 1GB swap

jshanab · Guru Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Posts: 359

My machine boots gentoo way faster than windows, i think. WHen I get back to work, I am gonna get out the stop watch.

I try to compile everything I can into the kernel, I have one module; nvidia. I got rid of the darn DHCP and just set the IP sense I have one of those linksys routers to give the office wireless.

gsbarbieri · Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2004 7:57 am Post subject: Gentoo Fast Boot Group

Hello people,

I want to setup a group to work on gentoo boot process and try some techniques to speed it up, making it the fastest boot around (it's already the fastest linux boot) and this thread will be one of the starting points.

Check it out and join me: https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=69579

Crazor · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 131

I moved xdm (gdm) to the boot runlevel (last thing starting in boot) and replaced "telinit a" with "/etc/X11/startDM.sh" in order to get gdm started as soon as the script is run. i setup gdm to start on vt7 so that getty and gdm don't fight for the keyboard and everything works nearly nicely.

what is ugly about that way is that the output of the programs starting in runlevel default actually goes to vt7 instead of vt1. when i disable xdm and switch to vt7, i can look at the messages. same thing with output of shutdown sequence: all on vt7 and part time behind gdm.

so how can I achieve that output from init scripts is only shown on vt1?

seems like i do have to create a new runlevel for everything postx and use the telinit trick to run it just like the xdm script does in order to launch the dm after getty.

gsbarbieri

You must fix your logger so it output to the desired vt, check your (syslog|metalog|...) documentation.

But why don't you start X at vt8, 9, 10, ...?

jshanab · Guru Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Posts: 359

beep to grub 12 sec
grub to login 44 sec
login to desktop 15 sec

71 sec = 1 min 11 sec

I should add that this is runnig apache 2 + tomcat + Php + mysql
and is fixed IP on Athlon Xp1600 with 768Meg ram

Crazor · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 131

castorilo · Apprentice Joined: 25 Dec 2002 Posts: 157

I made 3 patches that speed up boot time dramatically. Initially, It took my computer 2:00 minutes from grub to kdm, and I have been able to reduce it to 1:09 (YMMV). Here is how you can do it:
make sure you have baselayout-1.11.6-r1.

Before you start, make sure you time your current boot time (so you can post it here later

)

Do not calculate module dependencies if not needed
This patch saves me around 11 seconds

1) go to this bug and download the patch named "modules-update.patch" and save it as /tmp/modules-update.patch
2) apply the patch:

Crazor · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 131

paulpach,

i followed your instructions and applied the patches you mentioned. fastxdm kicks in early, but gdm now needs much more time to start than usual. i.e. console is switched earlier, but it takes longer to start gdm. i am still at 53 seconds from grub to gdm, nothing gained.

castorilo · Apprentice Joined: 25 Dec 2002 Posts: 157

Crazor · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 131

before applying the patches, i reverted back to the original init scripts.

to get gdm to run on vt7, i changed /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf:

Crazor · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 131

i am using gensplash.
when i set these patches up, i always used verbose mode to get a glimpse if they are working.
when i boot in silent mode, gensplash switches to verbose mode as soon as gdm is being set up by the fastxdm script and vt1 stays the active terminal.
i have to manually switch to vt7 to see gdm.
whats wrong here?

alligator421 · Apprentice Joined: 30 Jul 2003 Posts: 191

I tried your fastxdm startup script and I ran into some weird problem.
xdm service started indeed a little sooner than usual but at the kdm login manager prompt, it was as if my keyboard was not functionnal. Pressing keys from keyboard did not work so I couldn't even switched to a VT :/. Pressing numeric lock did not light the led too. My mouse was ok, so I used it to get a console login from the kdm menu, after several seconds it switched to VT1, so I logged in (keyboard ok), than several seconds later xdm service restarted automatically and I was able to press keys. I switch to VT2 to see and I saw the VT was filled with binary garbage.

Crazor · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 131

alligator421,
this is probably due to kdm and getty fighting for the keyboard. as said earlier in this thread and also stated in the original xdm init script, it is dangerous to start *dm before getty.
i use gdm and have no problem at all, but ymmv. probably gdm does the trick for you.

castorilo · Apprentice Joined: 25 Dec 2002 Posts: 157

Crazor · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 131

probably kdm starts on vt2 when no vt is specified for kdm to use because vt2 is the next free vt.

castorilo · Apprentice Joined: 25 Dec 2002 Posts: 157

Ok, I think it should work now.

Go back to the bug, download the new fastxdm, and apply the patch Xservers.patch (instructions are in the comment).

This should work with all display managers (gdm, kdm, entrance, ...).

I will update the instructions accordingly.

castorilo · Apprentice Joined: 25 Dec 2002 Posts: 157

alligator421 · Apprentice Joined: 30 Jul 2003 Posts: 191

I eventually managed to make fastxdm (the first version) working up by editing in /usr/kde/3.3/share/config/kdm/Xservers

asiobob · Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2004 8:36 am Post subject:

I havent' tried the patches mentioned here, but on my box, mouting partitions is the slow part. Esp mouting reiserfs partitions takes ages, is there any options to put in fstab to mount reiserfs quicker? EXT3 is quite fast in that regard.

(btw I've added the "F" option to the mount command in /etc/init.d/localmount) so mount forks off and mounts several partitions at once (noting that it does it in any order so if you have recursive mount points ie, /usr/ and /usr/spool things may not work)

But my biggest problem is Reiserfs, a manually or boot mount is slow.
I've noticed others complain of the same thing.

It doesnt really matter, I hardly reboot but for laptop uers etc..

Dud3! · Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2004 7:19 pm Post subject:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=231170
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