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Boot Process Visualization
zigam writes "The time needed to boot desktop Linux systems is becoming an issue. That's why I recently took the challenge posted by Red Hat's Owen Taylor on the Fedora developers list and came up with a tool for visualization of the boot process. It collects performance data during the boot up and then renders an SVG or PNG performance chart. It immediately helped Red Hat developers solve some issues and I have since received boot charts from other GNU/Linux developers as well. Solaris kernel developers reported success in improving their boot process too." Update: 12/15 20:04 GMT by T : Sorry, someone decided your time was worth wasting; no more mirrored bootchart.
(* IMHO.. If I'm wrong.. I'm sure you'll let me know..)
feh. stuff.
until hibernate features work correctly anyway... and when X locks up and doesn't let you ctrl+alt+f# to another vterm/tty (only had that happen a few times, but it does happen) and you don't have another computer handy to ssh in and fix it...
and if you have a loud computer near the bed...
Actio personalis moritur cum persona. (Dead men don't sue)
I can think of a number of examples where this would fail but on the average desktop I don't think this would be much of a problem. Servers on the otherhand have to have certain processes started for others to start correctly. MIMEDefang and Sendmail for example. Sendmail and OpenLDAP. PgSQL and OpenLDAP. All the various NFS goodies and any server processes that require something off one of the NFS-mounted volumes. Still I can think of dozens that can and should be started in parallel. I can't think of any ill-effects of starting a number of processes that come to mind in simultaneously. I'll have to give that a try sometime. Maybe the init process should have a Next Generation version that allows you to specify what is absolutely required by a process to start correctly. init-ng can then decide what it can start in parallel based on that. Sounds like a project to me. :-)
# First of all, if you run Linux, you're not booting much.
/.ing should be drug into the street and shot for being an idiot. Twice. /.ed your right on that one pal. Yeah. Sure.
Maybe some people chose to turn of their box when
they are not at home or when they are sleeping. Maybe some people want to save a little bit of electricty if they can.
This is the problem with the linux zelots. Someone points out somthing that is annoying and should be fixed and people rush to say how this is a non issue, then they go on to say how this is actually better than the way windows does it.
People who run IIS and then subject it to a
Yeah because IIS is the only webserver that can be
500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
Still, it's a nice thing to experiment with for people who run Linux in situations where reboots are common, laptops for instance. It's also useful if you are running something like Nessus as a daemon which takes an *age* to initialise itself and obviously has no dependencies. A better solution would be to have an additional prefix on certain init scripts - "P" for "parallel" - to tell INIT that they can safely be started in the background, something that a couple of commercial Unicies do.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
The first two comments in a row I read were saying how "My linux never crashes, I never reboot, etc etc". That's great. You have to keep in mind that the average /. reader is not the average computer user!
Most people turn off their computer when they are not using it, and actually turn it on when they need it. For the average computer user, boot times mean quite a bit more since they see it more. Don't be ignorant and think that just because it means little to you, it is unimportant to improve.
# First of all, if you run Linux, you're not booting much. What...rebooting maybe once a month?
/.ing should be drug into the street and shot for being an idiot. T
/.ing are running IIS from, what I've seen. Ever see Slate or MSN go down when /. links to them?
Some of us shut our computers off. Not every linux PC is a 24/7 server. People own laptops, shut down desktops when not in use, etc. Plus theres linux' ever-growing embedded segment. Your TiVo never gets shut off? How important is boot-time to a device like TiVo or Zaurus?
# Boot time doesn't have to be an arduous wait. Yes, on out-of-the-box distros it can be incredible, but I blame the distro, not Linux.
Yes, distros are poorly configured, and the userbase is largely stupid. Noone talks about runlevels anymore. Put "basic stuff you need to get the user going" on a lower runlevel, and "more advanced gitchy bullshit like AIM etc" on a higher runlevel. Most linux distros behave by default the way a spyware infected win98 box does, making the user wait while it starts umpteen zillion fringe services.
# If you choose to not fiddle, then you choose to have boot times that are increasing. It takes time to autoprobe everything correctly and get it set up if you're too lazy to do it yourself. Windows does it from the perspective of 'throw everything in there and take up gadzillions of RAM'. Linux says, 'I'll autosetup everything but still keep you lean'. You pay for what you get, folks.
Pure "M$ sucks rolF!" bullshit from the clueless. Windows runs a microkernel, Linux runs a monolithic kernel. They work differently. Windows loads the drivers it knows it needs (the installed ones) at boot time, linux pages the crap in and out of the kernel itself.
This is the quickest part of the boot, really. Delays come when you have dhcpcd timing out while looking for a DHCP server that doesn't exist but yet for some reason runs by default even if you have a statically configured address. Or your waiting for privoxy to load and parse its blacklists, or for squid to primp and preen its caches, etc..
# People who run IIS and then subject it to a
Most sites that stand up to a
It has more to do with being able to afford bandwidth than some magical uberneat0 perl script you found on efnet.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Yeah. My desire to cut my electric bill in half is "stupid." My desire to increase my energy efficiency is "stupid." Attempting to be environmentally responsible is "stupid."
Unless you need your computer to be running 24/7, leaving it on is a tremendous waste of energy, and I think it's unethical. You're an ass.
Running Windows doesn't prevent one from running Apache.. I've never understood these people who choose to use the limited version of IIS instead of spending 5 minutes to set up Apache. It's not that hard, guys.
This is faulty logic. This is like saying "Since I can't do everything, I'm going to do nothing". That's the kind of piss-poor logic which unfortunately is contributing significantly to the current dismissive attitudes toward environmental protection. Sigh...
A strong argument to counter yours would be the simple "Well, I may not be perfect, but at least I'm better than you".