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How To Speed Up Linux Booting

Posted by kdawson on from the up-and-running dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A common complaint about Linux is the amount of time the operating system takes to start. Like Linux itself, there are plenty of options and lots of flexibility for boot-time optimization. From dependency-based solutions like initng to event-based solutions like upstart, there's an optimization solution that should fit your needs. Using the bootchart package, you can dig in further to understand where your system is spending its boot time to optimize even more."

7 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. -1st post by Looce · · Score: 5, Funny

    My Linux setup is so optimised that this first post is actually made before opening Firefox and typing slashdot.org.

    Ha!

    1. Re:-1st post by Looce · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not really. Not even mozilla.org either. That would be about:blank.

      I don't need to download a page every time I start my browser, render it and slow it down, then replace it immediately with another page I want to visit. That's another part of system optimisation, and it avoids unnecessary strain on slashdot/mozilla/other servers, too.

  2. Fixed in Gentoo by Wonko+the+Sane · · Score: 5, Informative

    in /etc/conf.d/rc:

    rc_parallel_startup="yes"

    (actually that should be in caps, but the lameness filter doesn't like it)

  3. Customize the Bootscript, Trim the Fat by Old+Duck · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Most bootscripts are very generic in that they will try to load all sorts of RAID drivers, various services that are not needed, special fonts, etc.. I've gone in on my computers and wrote a very simple, quick, and to-the-point bootscript (easy to do with a little BASH knowledge), and my system boots up remarkedly fast. Granted, my bootscript isn't very portable, but one of the benefits of Linux is the ability to customize it.

    Another trick is to prelink files and let KDE (if that is what you use) know about it. Even the startkde script can be long and drawn out, so trimming the fat and only including what's needed on your system can make a big difference. I've shaved over 13 seconds off a boot sequence by writing a minimum bootscript for my hardware, and that was using a relatively fast distro to start with.

    -Mike

    --
    There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
  4. Re:Boot time not an issue. by arth1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Indeed. The boot time of a system you boot once a year is rather irrelevant.
    Laptop, you say? Hibernate, don't boot!

    What's more interesting is to reduce the login time and start-up time for applications. prelink is your best friend here. Make sure that all your apps are compiled for position independent code (PIC), and prelink them. Lots of time saved, at the expense of larger binaries.

    Regards,
    --
    *Art

  5. Re:Popular FUD. by Silver+Sloth · · Score: 5, Funny

    12:47:33 up 65 days, 15:12, 21 users, load average: 1.20, 1.50, 1.61 21 users on a laptop? Doesn't it get a bit crowded around the keyboard?
    --
    init 11 - for when you need that edge.
  6. Re:Boot time not an issue. by Columcille · · Score: 5, Informative

    suspend to disk = hibernate, suspend to ram = sleep. Sleep uses the battery, hibernate doesn't. Granted sleep mode doesn't use much, but it isn't altogether negligible. If you don't want to use any power while moving around, hibernate is the way to go. Perhaps that's his scenario.

    --
    I love my sig.