[Debian-eeepc-devel] Booting fast

[Phil Endecott]

Paul Menzel wrote:
> Anyway I was thinking that not only EeePC users are interested in this
> but also owners of other netbooks and for example thin client users and
> Debian users in general.
>
> So I am wondering how we could get these other interested people
> involved and to participate?
>
> I came up with the following.
>
> ? Create a dedicated page in the Debian Wiki. I did not find one.
> ? Setup a dedicated mailing list on Alioth.
>
> What do you think? Do you have more ideas?

Would you have seen my work if I had put it on a Wiki page rather than 
posting here?  Or on some other Debian list?

One issue is that Arjan and Aoke's original work itself seems to be 
"homeless" i.e. there is no obvious mailing list, wiki or similar where 
it should be discussed.

It would be great to see this applied to more systems.  Of course 
generic fast booting is harder than hacking one particular system (i.e. 
hardware and combination of installed packages).  I have done two 
things that should help with this:

- My script to take your kernel .config and convert modules to 
built-ins for the things that you actually use (see this message: 
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.devel.eeepc/1015/focus=1050).  
If Debian had a way to make a custom kernel, it could use this script 
to help generate its config.

- The mods to /etc/init.d/udev that I described yesterday for 
pre-populating /dev aren't tied to any particular system and can cope 
with upgrades if you re-generate its tar file.

It would be great if some Debian people would like to use what I've 
done as a starting point for getting all Debian systems to boot more 
quickly.  However, my guess is that there would not be agreement that 
the benefits outweigh the costs: the current Debian boot process did 
not emerge by accident.  I fear that I don't have the energy to push 
this into Debian myself.  (And I also have about a million other things 
that I should be doing.)

> could you please post your current timings for booting?

Currently the time from the end of grub to the xdm login dialog being 
visible is 17 seconds.  But these numbers are difficult to compare 
because of different features (e.g. xdm vs. gnome, wireless on/off etc.)

I am impressed by Jelle's "14 to 17 seconds".  The posted graph shows 
17 seconds, but in my experience it is a few seconds from the end of 
that graph to the X login dialog being visible.  Jelle, can you measure 
(with a watch) the time from the end of grub to the X login dialog appearing?

I hope to get this down to about 12 seconds.


Phil.