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Letharion
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Joined: 13 Jun 2005
Posts: 1344
Location: Sweden
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 Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 11:08 am Post subject: Cutting down bootup time (to 5 sec) |
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Hi, I got curious about the 5 second boot thingie. (http://lwn.net/Articles/299483/)
I was trying to google up some info on how the old style of a more static /dev but "dev" just gives me "development" stuff.
There's probably a more useful search term, but this was before my linux days, so I'm not familiar enough with it.
(1)
Where can I find more information about this kind of setup?
In what situation is it useful, was the somthing in particular that made this "fast" on the EEE and less so no my
computer that diffs pretty much from the EEE. (Core2, 4GB ram, standard HD instead of flash)
(2)
I also had a look at readahead, and I'm guessing that this is sys-apps/readahead-list, correct?
How could I find out what files are interesting to my particular setup, so that I could optimize for my system?
(3)
Is the bootchard drawing service down? http://www.bootchart.org/ hasn't worked for me for a while, doesn't work now, and
didn't work a few weeks ago when I tried. Any other ways for me to draw up the chart?
Last edited by Letharion on Tue Jan 06, 2009 3:14 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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El_Presidente_Pufferfish
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Location: Seattle
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| Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 4:11 pm Post subject: |
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1) A good SSD really improves boot times
3) emerge bootchart with USE="java" and set
AUTO_RENDER="yes" in /etc/bootchartd.conf |
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_sil
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Joined: 31 Dec 2007
Posts: 37
Location: UK
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| Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 6:33 pm Post subject: |
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Hi,
as for #2, readahead implemetation that was used in the article can be found here (requires kernel patch, included in package). To find out which files are accessed during boot you can can use readahead-collector tool from here (don't know whether it's in portage or not).
EDIT: you should also consider switching to 2.6.28 kernel as it includes new sata initialization code that is way faster than previous implementation. For me it reduced kernel initialization time from 6 to 3s. |
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Letharion
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Joined: 13 Jun 2005
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Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 11:34 pm Post subject: |
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| El_Presidente_Pufferfish wrote: | 1) A good SSD really improves boot times
3) emerge bootchart with USE="java" and set
AUTO_RENDER="yes" in /etc/bootchartd.conf |
1) If I can get this down to about 10 seconds as suggested on a regular disc, I'm gonna seriously consider a SSD drive just for fun. 
3) Thanks, that worked perfectly 
| _sil wrote: | Hi,
as for #2, readahead implemetation that was used in the article can be found here (requires kernel patch, included in package). To find out which files are accessed during boot you can can use readahead-collector tool from here (don't know whether it's in portage or not).
EDIT: you should also consider switching to 2.6.28 kernel as it includes new sata initialization code that is way faster than previous implementation. For me it reduced kernel initialization time from 6 to 3s. |
Thanks for the links. Unfortunately I still don't quite get it working, are you using it?
I applied the patch with "patch -p1 < 0001-superreadahead-patch.patch" which worked.
I tried "make oldconfig" to see if this had added any options, but it didn't seem like it, so I compiled as normal.
But now what?
I compiled the generate_filelist and sreadahead, and put them in /sbin. I installed the readahead that in portage and changed their addresses to point to sreadahead, but this is just pure guesswork. (And I don't boot any faster)
I also noticed in Arjans presentation that again he recommends a persistent /dev. Any links to how I could set that up?
Maybe I'll try 28 But for now I'm gonna try working the other parts. |
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coolsnowmen
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Joined: 30 Jun 2004
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| Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 5:58 am Post subject: |
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Read /etc/conf.d/rc for how to set up a persistent "static" /dev
Use baselayout-2/openrc and see if parallel vs non parallel is faster/slower using boot chart
Turn off coldpluging and list all needed modules in the modules.autoload.d/*6
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Letharion
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Joined: 13 Jun 2005
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Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 2:16 am Post subject: |
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Ok, I poked around a bit with 6.28, but didn't get any interesting results, and since it's now released and in the tree I'm running it.
Didn't help much I'm afraid. And as far as I can tell, there is no new fast boot in it. :/
| Quote: | | Use baselayout-2/openrc and see if parallel vs non parallel is faster/slower using boot chart |
| Quote: | | Read /etc/conf.d/rc for how to set up a persistent "static" /dev |
Still "to-do" on both of those.
| Quote: | | Turn off coldpluging and list all needed modules in the modules.autoload.d/*6 |
At that time, I had 0 modules at all, and not even modules support in the kernel. Turning of coldplugging didn't help at all.
[/profile] |
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pussi
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Joined: 08 May 2004
Posts: 727
Location: Finland
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| Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 3:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Letharion wrote: | | I compiled the generate_filelist and sreadahead, and put them in /sbin. I installed the readahead that in portage and changed their addresses to point to sreadahead, but this is just pure guesswork. (And I don't boot any faster) |
If I remember correctly that won't work but here's what I did:
Download and install the latest sreadahead from here.
Patch and recompile the kernel.
Reboot without sreadahead or any other readahead service and create the filelist (this might take awhile): | Code: | find / -type f \( -fstype ext3 -o -fstype rootfs \) > readahead.packed.new
sreadahead-pack readahead.packed.new
mv readahead.packed /etc/readahead.packed |
Save this as /etc/init.d/sreadahead
| Code: | #!/sbin/runscript
# $Header:
depend() {
need checkroot
# this should start as early as possible
# we can't do 'before *' as that breaks it
before hostname modules domainname crypto-loop checkfs localmount
}
start() {
if ! grep -q "profile" /proc/cmdline && test ! -f /profile-once; then
ebegin "Reading files needed to boot"
/sbin/sreadahead
eend $?
fi
} |
and add it to boot runlevel with rc-update (sysinit runlevel could be better if you're using openrc 0.4* but I haven't tried it) and reboot.
Let me know how it worked. My box actually booted about 10 seconds slower with sreadahead. :P |
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Letharion
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Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 3:14 pm Post subject: |
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Hey Thanks
| pussi wrote: | | Letharion wrote: | | I compiled the generate_filelist and sreadahead, and put them in /sbin. I installed the readahead that in portage and changed their addresses to point to sreadahead, but this is just pure guesswork. (And I don't boot any faster) |
If I remember correctly that won't work but here's what I did:
Download and install the latest sreadahead from here.
Patch and recompile the kernel.
|
I'm fairly new here, so how exactly do I apply the patch?
I've tried some variations of patch < file.patch and patch -p0 < file.patch but I'm just guessing, and when I'm done there's no target for make all. |
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Letharion
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Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 11:37 pm Post subject: |
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Oh, just copy the .patch file to the new kernel and do patch -p1 < file.patch.
I copied all the files, and thus overwrote the kernels makefile. Doh |
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Letharion
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Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 12:28 am Post subject: |
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Hmm, well... I think I get sread to do SOME work, but it doesn't help.
I do clearly hear that the disc is far more active in the early stage of rc, and this is confirmed by my bootchart.
However, the "full" disc activity doesn't stop until the boot process is complete, which doesn't make much sense,
as the total disc usage is now a lot greater. Nor did it take a single second off my starttime.
I'm gonna try to get some picture up somewhere... |
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Letharion
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| Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 9:39 pm Post subject: |
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Just because I wanna keep this idea (thread) alive, I want to let everyone know that sreadhead 0.04 has been released awhile ago and is now in portage.
There's even a 1.00 version?! that will work with any FS, but also requires a 2.6.29 kernel, which I'm not ready to try yet.
Trying out the 0.04 now, I'll get back |
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VinzC
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Posts: 5098
Location: Dark side of the mood
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| Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 3:43 pm Post subject: Help Gentoo Boot As Fast As Possible |
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Hi all.
There is an idea that's been going in my head for a long time. I'd like to build a Gentoo system for fast booting. I'm planning to use a x86 or x86_64 virtual machine (KVM) first, probably with busybox and OpenRC.
I'm watching Phoronix and those GNU/Linux systems like SplashTop and the likes have tempted me to do it myself. I know about Gentoo's customizing abilities but I'm no expert. There will certainly be a point where I'll need help. My first goal is to get to the login screen on a TTY as quickly as possible.
If any of you has anything to share, you're welcome.
It's only for the pride of doing it myself. And if I get to satisfying results, why not go further, who knows...
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Sadako
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| Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 4:29 pm Post subject: |
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Well, bootchart seems very useful to figure out where the delays are, which would be of help to you.
My desktop has a fairly minimalist setup, and while it wasn't something I was specifically aiming for, it boots from grub to a tty login prompt in about 10 seconds.
Obviously one of the first things to look at is the services you start at boot time, eliminate any you don't particularly need, and hopefully bootchart will tell you which services are taking the longest to start.
Editing init scripts can help a lot too, I've trimmed quite a bit from the bootmisc script (and added a few things to have /var/run and similar on tmpfs).
I believe a lot of the bootup delay is within the kernel itself, and initialising things which you may very well not need, so look there too.
I honestly believe that an optimised kernel made the big difference.
Probably common sense, but disable all debug options, and build in everything that you need upon boot rather than build them as modules.
Also, try booting with the "quiet" kernel parameter.
It's not altogether practical, but it does seem to make a big difference.
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nativemad
Developer
Joined: 30 Aug 2004
Posts: 918
Location: Switzerland
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| Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:34 pm Post subject: |
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Hi,
i've seen it several times, that there was no real init at all (thinclients for example, or minimal livecds). They just used an initrd with busybox and probably uclib with some scripts (started through linuxrc) to startup the thing.
Also, i would also recommend to disable the possibility to load modules at all! (no check should speedup the thing!) 
-I would be quite happy to have such a linux-rc script, but with bash<never tried dash!?!> and glibc! 
Maybe i could help a bit out with scripting <hack up genkernel-scripts?!?>, if you decide to go that way! -I've several pxe-images that could perhaps profit from it!
Cheers
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VinzC
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Joined: 17 Apr 2004
Posts: 5098
Location: Dark side of the mood
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| Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:12 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for your lights. As for the main library I'm thinking of uclibc -- not to hide I might use such a setup for embedded systems.
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Tariella
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Posts: 384
Location: Europe/Austria
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| Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 9:24 am Post subject: |
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Did you check out kyuba? Maybe you could help with that.
Its predecessor einit is already pretty fast, kyuba will be a complete rewrite. |
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bunder
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Joined: 10 Apr 2004
Posts: 5937
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| Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Tariella wrote: | Did you check out kyuba? Maybe you could help with that.
Its predecessor einit is already pretty fast, kyuba will be a complete rewrite. |
last time i talked to mdeininger, he said he was still working on it... i'm not sure if it's ready for public consumption yet. i, of course, could be wrong though.
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Tariella
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Posts: 384
Location: Europe/Austria
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| Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 3:35 pm Post subject: |
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I'm sure mdeininger would accept help.
I think it is better to help with an existing development than start another from scratch. |
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VinzC
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Joined: 17 Apr 2004
Posts: 5098
Location: Dark side of the mood
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| Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 5:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Tariella wrote: | Did you check out kyuba? Maybe you could help with that.
Its predecessor einit is already pretty fast, kyuba will be a complete rewrite. |
Didn't even know of its existence... 
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kernelOfTruth
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Location: Vienna, Austria; Germany; hello world :)
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jel
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Joined: 10 Aug 2005
Posts: 259
Location: Gothenburg
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| Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 11:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Hopeless wrote: |
Editing init scripts can help a lot too, I've trimmed quite a bit from the bootmisc script (and added a few things to have /var/run and similar on tmpfs). |
That's interesting! Would you like to share your bootmisc?
I'm always looking for ways to speed up booting since this is really my gf's box and she likes to do stuff in Windows XP which translates into a lot of reboots. Tried to make her use a virtual XP but she is really stubborn about it. XP boots really fast now that I have disabled most of the useless services.
cheers!
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gerardo
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Posts: 228
Location: Belgium
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| Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 11:28 am Post subject: |
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I've just installed Kyuba:
| Code: | layman -a jyujin
emerge kyuba |
But how do I use it?
There's no documentation...
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Mimamau
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Joined: 11 Jun 2002
Posts: 160
Location: Germany
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| Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 12:08 pm Post subject: |
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As it's the successor of einit, maybe the docs of einit can help you?
http://einit.jyujin.de/node/16
I've had einit running, it was great. Compared to the normal gentoo init system it was really fast, but compared to baselayout2 and openrc the difference is very small. |
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energyman76b
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Posts: 2048
Location: Germany
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| Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:58 am Post subject: |
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I boot in 14 seconds to the point where localmount kicks in. 41 seconds of mounting, 22 seconds for the rest.
...
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jel
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Posts: 259
Location: Gothenburg
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| Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:35 am Post subject: |
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| energyman76b wrote: | I boot in 14 seconds to the point where localmount kicks in. 41 seconds of mounting, 22 seconds for the rest.
... |
I boot in 2 seconds to the point where init is started... The rest is left as an excercise for the user.
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