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HowTo Speed Up Boot & Increase Responsiveness (Desktop)

Share your HowTo, Documentation, Tips and Tricks. Not for support questions!.
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julian67
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#41 Post by julian67 »

There's another way to compare it which might be more convenient. I'm pretty sure this is a good method but if someone knows different please say.

With preload running and having had it running for some (weeks I guess):

reboot and log in

start several regularly used apps and record the start up times.

Next we clear the cached RAM

Code: Select all

# sync; echo 3 >> /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
and again start several regularly used apps and record the start up times.

edit: I just tried this and found no real difference in application start times whereas when I wrote this howto the differences were large and unmistakeable. In the meantime I've moved from using i686 laptops to mostly using an amd64 desktop and I've also recompiled the kernel with the latest version from kernel.org and enabled preemption and changed the timer frequency to 1000 so I can't say which factor made the difference or if it's a combination though I suspect preemption is the key, but at the moment on my system I find application start up times are at least as good when preload is actually uninstalled so it's gone.
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Hadret
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#42 Post by Hadret »

noatime isn't needed in XFS, but is it recommended for ext4 (like it was for ext3)?

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julian67
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#43 Post by julian67 »

Hadret wrote:noatime isn't needed in XFS, but is it recommended for ext4 (like it was for ext3)?
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext4
Features
Dates recorded modification (mtime), attribute modification (ctime), access (atime), delete (dtime), create (crtime)
I haven't used ext4 but examples of people's fstab I've seen show noatime being used. If this is from necessity or habit I don't know. Suggest you read Ext4 overview
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Hadret
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#44 Post by Hadret »

julian67, I will, thank you! (:

erykroom
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#45 Post by erykroom »

Thanks for the tips.
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jalu
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#46 Post by jalu »

it wouldn`t hurt if that would be a sticky

(like you said: its about 10 minutes of work and, as far i can tell,
the system seems to be much more solid now
+ one is getting interested in the 'problem/topic'
+ its important for everyone).
thanks for that jalu

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Hadret
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Re: HowTo Speed Up Boot & Increase Responsiveness (Desktop)

#47 Post by Hadret »

What about Upstart? It's in Sid repository, does anybody use that? Is it fast? (:

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lbm
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Re: HowTo Speed Up Boot & Increase Responsiveness (Desktop)

#48 Post by lbm »

Nice and usefull post. I have a couple of things to try thats for sure.

hameau
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Re: HowTo Speed Up Boot & Increase Responsiveness (Desktop)

#49 Post by hameau »

I have been a satisfied user of CONCURRENCY=shell since the end of last year, running Lenny (when it was testing) and subsequently Squeeze.

I'm pretty sure that it was recent updates to sysvinit (v2.86.ds1-63) that broke my system, boot stopping with a flashing cursor and no further action (further details below). Commenting the CONCURRENCY=shell line in /etc/default/rcS restored booting.

Interestingly, the difference between with and without CONCURRENCY=shell in the current Squeeze is almost too small to notice, though it certainly made a bigger difference when I first used it.

=====

For the sake of those Googling later, these were the significant lines from the boot process (not the full output):
getpt: no such file or directory
could not get pty for /etc/rcS.d/S02hostname.sh
could not get pty for /etc/rcS.d/S02mountkernfs.sh

The final line to appear before the boot process stopped indefinitely:
Waiting for /dev to be fully populated ... done
<flashing cursor>
Nick.

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dbbolton
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Re: HowTo Speed Up Boot & Increase Responsiveness (Desktop)

#50 Post by dbbolton »

I would like to mention, for those so inclined, that after installing insserv and setting the concurrency variable, I could not boot into my system. After removing the package and commenting out the concurrency line, I could once again boot: http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 53#p243853

Luckily this was on an experimental system. I know I would get to keep both pieces.
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Stian1979
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Re: HowTo Speed Up Boot & Increase Responsiveness (Desktop)

#51 Post by Stian1979 »

Hadret wrote:What about Upstart? It's in Sid repository, does anybody use that? Is it fast? (:
I use it and it was originaly developed for ubuntu I belive, when it made it into squeeze and has ben used also for fedore I think it should be quite stable by now.
I mean I got some improvements with it.
Installed it on 3 computers and did not have any problems despite the warnings.
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Stian1979
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Re: HowTo Speed Up Boot & Increase Responsiveness (Desktop)

#52 Post by Stian1979 »

julian67 wrote:

Code: Select all

# echo 'CONCURRENCY=shell' >> /etc/default/rcS
I have used this one in the past and working well.
Now it make my system not boot. populating dev and that's it.
How can I have it undone?
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Re: HowTo Speed Up Boot & Increase Responsiveness (Desktop)

#53 Post by julian67 »

Stian1979 wrote:
julian67 wrote:

Code: Select all

# echo 'CONCURRENCY=shell' >> /etc/default/rcS
I have used this one in the past and working well.
Now it make my system not boot. populating dev and that's it.
How can I have it undone?

Code: Select all

# echo 'CONCURRENCY=none' >> /etc/default/rcS
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patrick
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Re: HowTo Speed Up Boot & Increase Responsiveness (Desktop)

#54 Post by patrick »

julian67 wrote:
Stian1979 wrote:
julian67 wrote:

Code: Select all

# echo 'CONCURRENCY=shell' >> /etc/default/rcS
I have used this one in the past and working well.
Now it make my system not boot. populating dev and that's it.
How can I have it undone?

Code: Select all

# echo 'CONCURRENCY=none' >> /etc/default/rcS
I Changed mine to

Code: Select all

# echo 'CONCURRENCY=startpar' >> /etc/default/rcS
It works fine.
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Stian1979
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Re: HowTo Speed Up Boot & Increase Responsiveness (Desktop)

#55 Post by Stian1979 »

patrick wrote: I Changed mine to

Code: Select all

# echo 'CONCURRENCY=startpar' >> /etc/default/rcS
It works fine.
Me too and it worked quite well.
I can now get into my desktop invironment in less then 1 minute.
I doubt it posible to get it any faster without disabling things I use and trow out the ultra slow 5400rpm hardisk.
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Hadret
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Re: HowTo Speed Up Boot & Increase Responsiveness (Desktop)

#56 Post by Hadret »

Is there any easy way of managing scripts in /etc/rc?.?? Cause I have some I need to disable and wondered if there's any simpler way than renaming symlinks starting with S to start with K and than launching update-rc.d script defaults...

[edited]

Got it -- *sysv-rc-conf* (:

Also, is there any place that explains how Debian is booting and which /etc/rc's are launched in what time?

oOarthurOo
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Re: HowTo Speed Up Boot & Increase Responsiveness (Desktop)

#57 Post by oOarthurOo »

My normal boot was 48.8 seconds. Of that, 6 is for the bios, 4 is for Grub2. So, let's say an even 10 seconds is something other than the system booting up.

Normal boot is therefore 38.8 seconds.

Installed readahead-fedora (readahead just points at this I believe), rebooted twice to allow it to profile the boot. Third reboot was 33.5, so about 5 seconds saved.

Then I tried to install insserv and found it was already installed, strange, but I set concurrency to shell. Reboot was timed again and came in at a slightly faster 32.2, so saved about 1 second with that.

That's right to a useable gnome desktop by the way, with network manager up and running and all panels and wallpapers brought up and ready. It's roughly 10 seconds from GDM to ready desktop, though I never timed that part.

Oh and I've got a pretty slow 7200 rpm hard-drive, because I like things quiet rather than super speedy.

Update
Created a bit of a problem here. Made some changes to /etc/readahead.conf and so wanted to regenerate my profile. Removed the four custom files under /etc/readahead.d and rebooted, thinking it would regenerate. But that is how ubuntu's readahead operates. Oops.

Reinstalling doesn't fix it. Though i haven't tried purging then reinstalling. Can't touch /etc/readahead/profile-once, because that directory doesn't exist. Touch /etc/readahead.d/profile-once doesn't work either. Gonna look for a solution, but if you know of one before I post back please clue me in.

Cheers,

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Rolling Stone
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Re: HowTo Speed Up Boot & Increase Responsiveness (Desktop)

#58 Post by Rolling Stone »

If you're the sole user and use autologin you can save a few megabytes of RAM by replacing gdm with nodm.

[I run Trisquel these days (a FSF approved Debian derivative via Ubuntu) so your mileage may vary. No refunds.]

nodm is an autologin display manager. When you install the nodm package, gdm will be removed. Then you will want to edit /etc/X11/default-display-manager to point to nodm instead of gdm and then edit /etc/default/nodm to first enable nodm and then you probably want to login as somebody else besides root. (If you don't edit these files, you can funk your .Xauthority file. Ask me how I know...)

Should you logout, you will be automagically login again at once. Restarts and reboots work just like they used to.

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Grimnar
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Re: HowTo Speed Up Boot & Increase Responsiveness (Desktop)

#59 Post by Grimnar »

Since this is a desktop version, how about a server version? Not that booting is that relevant, but I bet there are some other stuff to disable and such.

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Rolling Stone
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Re: HowTo Speed Up Boot & Increase Responsiveness (Desktop)

#60 Post by Rolling Stone »

I never boot these days, I only hibernate. A custom kernel with the TuxOnIce patch makes it really smooth and quicker than anything else out there. :)

I guess you all knew that already but since it wasn't mentioned in the thread...

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