System start up slow

[Gonzalo_VC]

Dear friends, I am running Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) with Gnome 3.30.2 in a Core i7 Positivo-Vaio from Brazil (not the best hardware). This machine also has some special drivers for screen and touchpad (pudre Debian or any other friendly distro won't suffice, out of the box; I've tried). The problem is that Debian takes a long time after boot to get really ready for work. Partially because it has a physical hard drive (not an SSD), the HD light keeps blinking for minutes after start-up, and the processor busy for that matter. I don't know if it is something about indexing files, and if it is Debian or Gnome's fault.
I have run htop to try to understand what application or service is causing the CPU and HD usage the first 2 to 3 minutes after the graphic mode is displayed. See attachment.
Any clues on how to "solve" this?
Thank you!

[None1975]

Hello.

The reason for high CPU load is tracker. It is gnome nonsense, for metadata database, indexer and searching. You can disable it with simple command

Code: Select all

gsettings set org.freedesktop.Tracker.Miner.Files index-recursive-directories "[]"'

Keep in mind that Gnome is not the best solution if you are using Gnome on an old computer....of course it is possible to remove some Gnome components (for example gnome-software) and it will free up about 200 megabytes of RAM, but if I were you, I'd look for a lighter desktop environment (or window manager).

CPU and HD usage the first 2 to 3 minutes

The culprit is Tracker Miner Files and gnome-software. In my opinion you can disable Tracker Miner and remove gnome-software from your system.

[Bulkley]

Look for a startup file. You should be able to choose what starts immediately and what can wait until you need it.

My suspicion is that Gnome is a problem on an older machine; it is rather bloated. You might try replacing Gnome with Xfce which is a light desktop or a window manager like Openbox. I'm running Debian 10 with Openbox on an old machine and don't have long boot times.

[lindi]

https://lindi.iki.fi/lindi/tune-debian12-desktop.bash has some recipes for reducing desktop resource usage. This version is for debian 12 but I have the old version for debian 10 available as well: https://lindi.iki.fi/lindi/tune-debian10-desktop.bash