Slow Boot Mint Cinnamon 17

[chazdg24]

I have used Mint since 13. It is lightening fast and love 2.2 except for one issue - a slow boot. Windows 7 and Opensuse 13.1 boot faster. I was wondering what can be done to correct the issue. I do have an ATI 5870 card and am using the FGLRX-Updates driver.

Any ideas how to go about this issue? I never needed to deal with it whether using Ubuntu or Mint. Many thanks!

[karlchen]

Hello, chazdg24.

Somehow I am a bit confused. You love Mint 13. Fine. Next you complain that Cinnamon 2.2 boots so slowly. Mint 13 comes with ancient Cinnamon 1.4up3. Provided you activate backports, you will have Mint 13 with Cinnamon 2.0.14 (like me), but never ever Mint 13 with Cinnamon 2.2.
Could you please post the screen output of the terminal commands

Code: Select all

cinnamon --version; inxi -Fxz

This should clear up any confusion about your system setup.
About slow boot times:
You might inspect the logfile /var/log/syslog. The booting process is logged to this file in detail, including pretty precise timestamps. These might help locating periods where the startup does not make any progress for several seconds (5, 10, 20, 30 seconds, whatever)

Kind regards,
Karl

[chazdg24]

Hello, chazdg24.

Somehow I am a bit confused. You love Mint 13. Fine. Next you complain that Cinnamon 2.2 boots so slowly. Mint 13 comes with ancient Cinnamon 1.4up3. Provided you activate backports, you will have Mint 13 with Cinnamon 2.0.14 (like me), but never ever Mint 13 with Cinnamon 2.2.
Could you please post the screen output of the terminal commands

Code: Select all

cinnamon --version; inxi -Fxz

This should clear up any confusion about your system setup.
About slow boot times:
You might inspect the logfile /var/log/syslog. The booting process is logged to this file in detail, including pretty precise timestamps. These might help locating periods where the startup does not make any progress for several seconds (5, 10, 20, 30 seconds, whatever)

Kind regards,
Karl

Sorry I rambled on. I have used Mint 13, 14, 15 & 16 with a very fast boot process. Same goes for Ubuntu since 12.04, 12.10, 13.04, 13.10.

Mint 17 takes its time getting to the desktop environment. Just wanted to clear that up before I start looking at any log files. By the way, this issue was mentioned in the comments section of the Linux Mint blog by at least one other user. I'm curious if this is an issue with Mint or the Ubuntu base. But it is an issue. I will report back.

[chazdg24]

Could /var/log/syslog be located someplace else? I can't seem to find it in Nemo after doing Ctrl+H to show hidden files. Feeling mighty clueless at the moment.

Thanks.

Edit: It has been some time since I have done anything via the command line...

[WinterTroubles]

Was reading out of interest, unable to actually offer assistance.. However, if you are having difficulty locating the syslog you can also view it in a GUI called Log File Viewer under applications in the menu. Hope this helps in some small way.

[chazdg24]

Was reading out of interest, unable to actually offer assistance.. However, if you are having difficulty locating the syslog you can also view it in a GUI called Log File Viewer under applications in the menu. Hope this helps in some small way.

Yes. I was just perusing that and have no clue what to look for, but thanks for replying!

The first thing I notice is - /var/log/mail.log, Error when getting the information for file /var/log/mail.log: No such file or directory.

[chazdg24]

Hello, chazdg24.

Somehow I am a bit confused. You love Mint 13. Fine. Next you complain that Cinnamon 2.2 boots so slowly. Mint 13 comes with ancient Cinnamon 1.4up3. Provided you activate backports, you will have Mint 13 with Cinnamon 2.0.14 (like me), but never ever Mint 13 with Cinnamon 2.2.
Could you please post the screen output of the terminal commands

Code: Select all

cinnamon --version; inxi -Fxz

This should clear up any confusion about your system setup.
About slow boot times:
You might inspect the logfile /var/log/syslog. The booting process is logged to this file in detail, including pretty precise timestamps. These might help locating periods where the startup does not make any progress for several seconds (5, 10, 20, 30 seconds, whatever)

Kind regards,
Karl

Forgot to post the code you asked for. Sorry about that.

chazdg50@chazdg50-Studio-XPS-435T-9000 ~ $ cinnamon --version; inxi -Fxz
Cinnamon 2.2.13
System: Host: chazdg50-Studio-XPS-435T-9000 Kernel: 3.14.5-031405-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.6.3)
Desktop: Gnome Distro: Linux Mint 17 Qiana
Machine: System: DELL product: Studio XPS 435T/9000 version: 00
Mobo: DELL model: 0X501H version: A03 Bios: DELL version: A16 date: 02/04/2010
CPU: Quad core Intel Core i7 CPU 960 (-HT-MCP-) cache: 8192 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 25536.8
Clock Speeds: 1: 1600.00 MHz 2: 1600.00 MHz 3: 1600.00 MHz 4: 1600.00 MHz 5: 1600.00 MHz 6: 1600.00 MHz 7: 1600.00 MHz 8: 1600.00 MHz
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Cypress XT [Radeon HD 5870] bus-ID: 08:00.0
X.Org: 1.15.1 driver: fglrx Resolution: 1920x1080@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: AMD Radeon HD 5800 Series GLX Version: 4.3.12798 - CPC 13.35.1005 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Cypress HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5800 Series] driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 08:00.1
Card-2: Intel 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.14.5-031405-generic
Network: Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: d800 bus-ID: 04:00.0
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 3000.6GB (6.3% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: ST31500341AS size: 1500.3GB
2: id: /dev/sdb model: ST31500341AS size: 1500.3GB
Partition: ID: / size: 280G used: 13G (5%) fs: ext4 ID: swap-1 size: 9.65GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
RAID: No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 65.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 64.00C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 242 Uptime: 4:48 Memory: 1569.2/8983.2MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.2 Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4

[WinterTroubles]

If I understand Karlchen's suggestion correctly.. you are looking for places in the log entries for start up where the 'time spaces' between entries is in the tens of seconds, suggesting something is taking longer than it should.

[WinterTroubles]

The first thing I notice is - /var/log/mail.log, Error when getting the information for file /var/log/mail.log: No such file or directory.

I see that too, I believe/think/guess that it simply means there is no log file for mail, either because it's not enabled or simply because you don't use the relevant piece of software.

[chazdg24]

Bump...

Anybody have an idea?

[kyphi]

No, I don't know why. I am experiencing the same thing with the interval between login screen and GUI being about 40 seconds (Windows 7 boots in a flash).

I have made several installations on separate machines and partitions and the result is a slow boot process in all of them.

I can see that there is drive activity as the activity light on the computer flashes.

System is a fast desktop system (no point in giving those specifications) with previous Linux Mint installations giving a snappy response.

What is different this time is 64-bit.

There is nothing obviously delaying the boot process in /var/log/sys.log.

If I find an answer, of course, I will share it.

[chazdg24]

No, I don't know why. I am experiencing the same thing with the interval between login screen and GUI being about 40 seconds (Windows 7 boots in a flash).

I have made several installations on separate machines and partitions and the result is a slow boot process in all of them.

I can see that there is drive activity as the activity light on the computer flashes.

System is a fast desktop system (no point in giving those specifications) with previous Linux Mint installations giving a snappy response.

What is different this time is 64-bit.

There is nothing obviously delaying the boot process in /var/log/sys.log.

If I find an answer, of course, I will share it.

Same here, except I always used the 64 Bit version. It really is disappointing. Once the desktop is up, it is fast.

[chazdg24]

Since this issue is a Mint 17 issue, will Clem be addressing it with a fix? I too have installed Mint 17 on several PC's with the same result - painfully slow boot. What's the story?

Edit: I want to be clear, Mint has decided that updates are based on 14.04 LTS. That is great provided they address the slow boot issue, otherwise I feel the need to try other distros that I know boot much faster. I can't imagine sticking with Mint 17 with a slow boot for two years, no matter how much I love Cinnamon.

[kyphi]

No resolution yet.
Tried setting all sorts of boot parameters in GRUB - all to no avail.
Installed Ubuntu 14.04 with Gnome - same slow boot.
Reinstalled Linux Mint 17 64-bit using a fresh download of the final release (md5sum OK) - same slow boot.
Checked UEFI settings in BIOS one by one - no change.

Installed Zorin 6.1 - fast boot.
Installed Linux Mint 16 - fast boot.

I am tempted to install the waiting kernel update - it may break my system.

[chazdg24]

No resolution yet.
Tried setting all sorts of boot parameters in GRUB - all to no avail.
Installed Ubuntu 14.04 with Gnome - same slow boot.
Reinstalled Linux Mint 17 64-bit using a fresh download of the final release (md5sum OK) - same slow boot.
Checked UEFI settings in BIOS one by one - no change.

Installed Zorin 6.1 - fast boot.
Installed Linux Mint 16 - fast boot.

I am tempted to install the waiting kernel update - it may break my system.

Ubuntu 14.04 boots faster for me. I don't know what video card you have. I installed kernel 3.15 and I had no problems with the driver. Still boots slow, but I have the latest & greatest.

[kyphi]

Installed the (untested) kernel from the update manager "3.13.0-24.47" - nothing seems broken that was not broken before. Linux Mint 16 used the 3.11.0-12 kernel and I would think that going back to that might solve the slow boot. There is no need to go for later kernels unless you have some hardware that needs it to function (although the 3.15 kernel is reported to be fast).

My graphics card is nvidia gts 450 and the "recommended" driver is nvidia-304. I have tried that plus nvidia-304-updates, nvidia-331 and nvidia-331-updates. I have purged them all and am now using xserver-xorg-video-nouveau which seems to be best. Unfortunately nemo got slightly damaged but that is another story.

[chazdg24]

Installed the (untested) kernel from the update manager "3.13.0-24.47" - nothing seems broken that was not broken before. Linux Mint 16 used the 3.11.0-12 kernel and I would think that going back to that might solve the slow boot. There is no need to go for later kernels unless you have some hardware that needs it to function (although the 3.15 kernel is reported to be fast).

My graphics card is nvidia gts 450 and the "recommended" driver is nvidia-304. I have tried that plus nvidia-304-updates, nvidia-331 and nvidia-331-updates. I have purged them all and am now using xserver-xorg-video-nouveau which seems to be best. Unfortunately nemo got slightly damaged but that is another story.

Search 'Kernel 3.15 Ubuntu' in Google (the latest stable kernel) . It broke nothing on my box but didn't fix the boot problem.

[kyphi]

Thank you. I will keep it in mind. Meanwhile, what seems like hundreds of experiments later, there is still no resolution to the slow boot.

[chazdg24]

Thank you. I will keep it in mind. Meanwhile, what seems like hundreds of experiments later, there is still no resolution to the slow boot.

I don't think there will be. I have installed Chakra which is as fast as Cinnamon for a KDE Distro. The learning curve is a bit steep but well worth it. I love Cinnamon but just don't find it useful at the moment with a painfully slow boot.

[tassoevan]

This topic has a wrong title.

The slow step is between login and desktop initialization, meaning that there is a delay in Cinnamon start. I'm seeing the same problem: working online or offline, the black screen is present in the same time interval, of many seconds. In another PC, small delays in Cinnamon responsiveness occur randomly too.