Those times are really good. I think I'll start tinkering with my box and see what it produces. But first: How do I turn on boot logging and where is the log saved? David On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 18:22:50 -0300, Franco Catrin <fcatrin@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Sorry to hang up on this part of the discussion, I've just subscribed > fedora-devel because I knew there was a discussion about the boot time > on Fedora. > > I was trying to improve the boot time with FC2 some weeks ago, and I got > very interesting results. This is not directly related to the boot > poster, it is just a trial and error work to improve FC2 boot time. > > My machine: > > P4-M 2.8Ghz HT > 512MB RAM > 4200RM hard disk drive (dell notebook, very slow compared to a desktop > machine) > Fedora Core 2 + updates > Nvidia card with nvidia drivers > > Critical times for me: > > GDM: Time from GRUB until GDM gets ready to login an user > GNOME: Time to load the whole gnome-session for the fist time > EPIPHANY: Time to load epiphany for the fist time > OPENOFFICE: Time to load any openoffice application for the fist time > > Original timings: > > - GDM: 75 seconds (more than 1 minute!) > - GNOME: 41 seconds > - EPIPHANY: 5 seconds > - OPENOFFICE: 22 seconds > > Results: > - GDM: 38 seconds (!!) > - GNOME: 19 seconds > - EPIPHANY: 2 seconds > - OPENOFFICE: 5 seconds (!!) > > Bottlenecks I couldn't resolve: > > - IDE detection in the kernel > - init start time > - USB detection > - nvidia driver probing for monitor/lcd/tv > - gnome trying to load 1500 files (it seems to be resolved now with > icon-cache, owen?) > > FC3 seems to be slower. I've just installed FC3 this week, and I really > miss my old boot timings > > Method: > > Since I am the only one who uses this notebook, and it doesn't change > the hardware, there are several things that doesn't need to be running, > and several other things that doesn't need to be checked (quota for > example) > > I've also changed the order of things that are started, for example > there is no need to load httpd nor sshd before bringing gdm up. > > Gory details: > > - I disabled: > - kudzu > - rhgb > - netfs > - sendmail > > - I added "fastboot" option to the kernel. I saw that rc.sysinit use > this flag to skip some things, I don't remember what exactly did at this > time > > - I commented out every unneeded check by rc.sysinit on my machine (like > quotas) > > - I prepared an readahead.early.files running strace -e trace=open on X > and gdm > > - the fist thing that I put in rc.sysinit was an hdparm command the get > the best of my slow disk > > - readahead.early.files is processed asynchronously with low priority as > soon as possible (on top of rc.sysinit). It preloads X+gdm > > - I commented out the line that loads prefdm in iniitab, replacing it > with a chkconfig script > > - I disabled "unix:" fonts in X, so xfs was disabled > > - the fisrt script to run runlevel 5 is the prefdm chkconfig script, I > added "ifup lo" in before loading the real prefedm script > > - services like pcmcia, sshd, httpd, and others are loaded with low > priority behinds the scenes, while x+gdm are starting. They ever load > fine, so I don't need to see if they load or not. > > - I prepared a readahead.files running strace -e trace=open over gnome- > session + gnome componentes (gnome-panel, gconfd and others). There I > found all the icons loaded by gnome-panel (by the theme I suppose) > > - readahead is executed against readahead.files just after gdm is ready > to accept a login. I did it measuring the time and adding a sleep > command before running readahead (cof cof) > > - while the user (me) is entering the username and password, the gnome > session is preloaded with readahead. > > - I prepared another readahead file running strace -e trace=open over > openoffice and epiphany > > - I set up gnome-session-properties to run this readahead just after > loading the gnome-session (priority 90 did the work) > > This approach doesn't make the system faster at all, but it seems faster > to the user. The main trick is to change the order of loading the system > components and preload the slowest applications. > > I don't think that this is applicable to the distribution as a whole, > but I know that some things than can help on this type of customization > and may be applied on Fedora > > 1. rc.sysinit could be modularized, so the user can disable/enable some > bits of it without touching the script file. An easy way could be to > move some part of it to chkconfig scripts > > 2. prefdm in inittab could be moved to a chkconfig script, and the order > of services could be changed so prefdm could be started before starting > services like httpd, sshd, and others > > 3. figure out a way to automate the generation of readahead files to > match the most used files > > I know that Seth Nickell was working on 1 and 2, but I haven't heard of > that again (SystemServices) > > I would be glad to help on improving Fedora boot time > -- > Franco Catrin L. TUXPAN > http://www.tuxpan.com/fcatrin > > -- > fedora-devel-list mailing list > fedora-devel-list@xxxxxxxxxx > http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-devel-list >
