Mint 18.1 - 4 minute startup

[mintNme]

Mint 18.1 Cinnamon, new installation. Very slow startup, around 4 minutes. I'm new to Linux but I found some references about Terminal commands to run. I'm very new to using the Terminal and commands so I'm very confused by the results. Since the results are rather lengthy I uploaded a file. It can be downloaded from here: http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=864 ... 7221944773
Suggestions welcome.

[grumpy_geek]

See viewtopic.php?t=224604#p1184066

[mintNme]

I had read that thread, that was where I got a couple of the commands that I ran. Although that thread is marked solved, apparently because ntp.service was turned off, it is also noted at the end: "that turning off ntp may not be in your best interest".

In any event, I turned off ntp and after a shutdown, timing with a watch, from pushing the power button to the Desktop, it took 3 minutes 25 seconds. That was about a minute faster then with ntp enabled. But, I then ran the blame command which showed 14+ seconds while the critical-chain command showed 35+ seconds. I re-enabled ntp, shut down then started up again in a little over 3 minutes. When I then ran the blame command it noted that boot up was not finished.

I'm more confused than I was and since this will not be resolved easily I'll just give up and let it load at whatever lengthy time it takes.

[gtsfer]

Forget ntp for now. It sounds like a squirrely install. When you booted up in live mode with the LM iso (prior to installing) it didn't take 3+ minutes, did it? If you're not sure and still have the install medium please try a live boot again, just as a sanity check.

[mintNme]

gtsfer, live CD boot time, from pressing the power button to desktop, 5 minutes 15 seconds. (Dell Optiplex GX520 SD, 2GB RAM)

"squirrely install"? This is my second time. The first install was slow and got worse as I tried different suggestions to get a better startup time. When it got to over a 7 minute startup I then installed again from the Live CD. I think it's a lost cause.

[gtsfer]

gtsfer, live CD boot time, from pressing the power button to desktop, 5 minutes 15 seconds. (Dell Optiplex GX520 SD, 2GB RAM)

Well this is not good at all. Can you copy/paste the output of this command from Terminal? It will tell us about your system and exactly what you installed.

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inxi -Fxz

If LM takes more than 20 seconds to boot something is seriously amiss. OK, 30 seconds tops....

[mintNme]

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OptiPlex-GX520 ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: OptiPlex-GX520 Kernel: 4.4.0-53-generic i686 (32 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.2.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.1)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.1 Serena
Machine:   System: Dell product: OptiPlex GX520
           Mobo: Dell model: 0XG312 Bios: Dell v: A11 date: 11/30/2006
CPU:       Single core Intel Pentium 4 (-HT-) cache: 1024 KB
           flags: (lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3) bmips: 5586
           clock speeds: max: 2793 MHz 1: 2793 MHz 2: 2793 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel 82945G/GZ Integrated Graphics Controller
           bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1280x1024@60.02hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 945G x86/MMX/SSE2
           GLX Version: 1.4 Mesa 11.2.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller
           driver: snd_intel8x0 ports: ec00 e8c0 bus-ID: 00:1e.2
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-53-generic
Network:   Card: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
           driver: tg3 v: 3.137 bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: enp2s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 48.1GB (36.5% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST340810A size: 40.0GB
           ID-2: USB /dev/sdb model: DataTraveler_2.0 size: 8.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 35G used: 13G (39%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 2.14GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   None detected - is lm-sensors installed and configured?
Info:      Processes: 169 Uptime: 6 min Memory: 317.9/2004.4MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.461) inxi: 2.2.35

[gtsfer]

Well I don't see why the long boot time yet. And the same thing occurs in live mode too. It's possible that Cinnamon is a little too much for your machine. You have a single core CPU (but 64-bit which is good). There's not much hard disk space either on your system (40GB total). But neither of these would result in a 4 minute boot time.

Can you try downloading and making a live boot media using MATE? (or even XFCE which is very lightweight). Live boot from that and see what happens. But DON'T install it yet even if it's much better. Let us know what happens.

If the live boot itself takes that long to start up I would have hesitated to install that version for sure.

[mintNme]

XFCE Live CD took 5 minutes 25 seconds from power on to desktop.
I'm downloading a copy of Ubuntu 16.04.2. I'll see what happens with it.

[Rocky Bennett]

XFCE Live CD took 5 minutes 25 seconds from power on to desktop.
I'm downloading a copy of Ubuntu 16.04.2. I'll see what happens with it.

On my system Ubuntu 16.04 takes the longest to start up, (I"m triple booting). Windows 10 is the fastest at 11 seconds, Linux Mint 18.1 is very close at 12.5 seconds and Ubuntu actually takes 14 seconds. YMMV, but Ubuntu has always been real slow to start up on my equipment.

[gtsfer]

I don't get it yet, yes try Ubuntu fwiw. Do you perhaps have any USB drives attached when you boot? (if so try removing them first).

Your graphics even look half decent so I'm not sure where to go from here. Maybe after Ubuntu try "compatibility mode" from the Grub menu on Linux Mint.

My system starts up LM in less than 15 seconds. That's faster than even Windows 10 (it's a triple boot system) with "fast startup" disabled.

I'm thinking about what might be in your BIOS setup that might affect this. But on an older machine I can't put my finger on it yet.

[austin.texas]

I suggest a memory check. In your Grub menu, select Memory Check. Let it run for a long time for best results.

[odtech]

Mint 18.1 Cinnamon, new installation. Very slow startup, around 4 minutes. I'm new to Linux but I found some references about Terminal commands to run. I'm very new to using the Terminal and commands so I'm very confused by the results. Since the results are rather lengthy I uploaded a file. It can be downloaded from here: http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=864 ... 7221944773
Suggestions welcome.

Try disabling the LM splash screen in grub to see what is taking so long.

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sudo nano /etc/default/grub

From this following line delete "splash"

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GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

Now the line should read.

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GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet"

Save and exit
"Ctrl + x" "y" "enter"

Update grub

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sudo update-grub

And lastly reboot the system.
Now you reboot you will see a whole lot of text and you will see what is taking 3 minutes to load.

[mintNme]

Ubuntu Live CD took longer than Mint to get to the desktop. I am now running Dell Diagnostics from a CD. That will take a little time. I will then run the memory test from that same CD for a few hours, maybe overnight.

gtsfer: On one startup I had an 8GB usb thumb drive installed. Other than that one time there are no USB drives plugged in during startups.

odtech: Right now I'm not sure I am ready to do what you suggest. Only because when I previously tried some grub commands things got worse. I'll give this some thought after the memory testing is finished.

For now this is on hold until tomorrow after the memory tests.

[gtsfer]

gtsfer: On one startup I had an 8GB usb thumb drive installed. Other than that one time there are no USB drives plugged in during startups.

The only reason I asked is that I have an external USB Touro 7200 rpm drive that I got cheap and use for backups. I had to play with some stuff) modprobe and ignore_uas.config) because it would hang my boot for about 20 seconds. Nothing like what you are seeing though.

Definitely do the HW test and MEMORY test as was suggested. At least you have a few others now interested to help. There's about 3 other current posts on slow startup issues now but I didn't want to get off topic by referencing them by link. You're on the right track. The fact that multiple version of Linux do this is at least proof of something. I just dunno what yet. Maybe it is hardware so let's eliminate that part first.

P.S. By "squirrely install" I meant the installation itself and not the "installer". It happens and all HW presents different issues.

[mintNme]

Update: Diagnostics results, no problems with hardware or memory.

odtech: I removed the "splash" as per your instructions. 1st screen message is about scanning for Btrfs filesystem; 2nd message has OS name, computer name, something about tty1, then computer name login:_ ; 3rd message is the same as the 2nd.

YouTube Slow Startup Video: https://youtu.be/dybYCTWgq0g
GRUB: 1st message is at 37s, 2nd at 1m 19s, 3rd at 1m 31s.
Startup from power on to desktop 3 minutes 15 seconds.
I will use it as is, unless there is a quick, easy fix.

[gtsfer]

odtech: I removed the "splash" as per your instructions. 1st screen message is about scanning for Btrfs filesystem; 2nd message has OS name, computer name, something about tty1, then computer name login:_ ; 3rd message is the same as the 2nd.

YouTube Slow Startup Video: https://youtu.be/dybYCTWgq0g
GRUB: 1st message is at 37s, 2nd at 1m 19s, 3rd at 1m 31s.
Startup from power on to desktop 3 minutes 15 seconds.
I will use it as is, unless there is a quick, easy fix.

I wonder why it's stuck scanning for Btrfs filesystem at all (maybe that's normal, but I've never caught this happening). And apparently for pretty long, from 37s to 1m 19s. Even 37s for complete boot seems like a lot, but your system is an older single-core cpu so maybe that makes sense.

[mintNme]

I got the content of the GRUB messages.

1st message:
[ 16.581061] hid-generic 0003:1A2C:0021.0003: usb_submit_urb(ctrl) failed: -1
Scanning for Btrfs filesystems
/dev/sda1:clean, 235584/2313808 files, 3518377/9248512 blocks

2nd and 3rd messages:
Linux Mint 18.1 Serena Optiplex-GX520 tty1
Optiplex-GX520 login:_

[gtsfer]

Let's try this if you're game. It's easy. Here's some background info to check out. viewtopic.php?t=226892

Try running these two commands after a fresh boot into your installed LM. Just reboot and let it sit for 5 minutes first or until you are sure it's completed startup. This will be easier to read and narrow down exactly what's going on here.

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systemd-analyze critical-chain
systemd-analyze blame

[mintNme]

blame results:
3min 45.031s ntp.service
14.945s dev-sda1.device
12.681s networking.service
11.823s loadcpufreq.service
11.378s ModemManager.service
9.687s grub-common.service
8.922s NetworkManager.service
7.142s irqbalance.service
6.296s accounts-daemon.service
5.891s thermald.service
5.884s systemd-logind.service
5.324s console-kit-log-system-start.service
5.183s lm-sensors.service
5.164s rsyslog.service
5.141s systemd-user-sessions.service
4.944s avahi-daemon.service
4.568s console-setup.service
4.568s systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
3.443s lvm2-monitor.service
3.088s systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
2.585s systemd-udevd.service
2.537s binfmt-support.service
2.243s keyboard-setup.service
2.228s virtualbox-guest-utils.service
2.133s systemd-journald.service
1.921s systemd-modules-load.service
1.824s polkitd.service
1.217s sys-kernel-debug.mount
1.214s dev-mqueue.mount
1.035s ondemand.service
1.035s systemd-journal-flush.service
926ms speech-dispatcher.service
859ms hddtemp.service
832ms plymouth-read-write.service
743ms systemd-udev-trigger.service
702ms kmod-static-nodes.service
701ms ufw.service
691ms systemd-update-utmp.service
616ms dns-clean.service
603ms systemd-sysctl.service
534ms dev-hugepages.mount
519ms systemd-random-seed.service
515ms systemd-hostnamed.service
490ms upower.service
484ms dev-disk-by\x2duuid-a63bc174\x2d68be\x2d47e5\x2d9f59\x2db769bfc5ac11.swap
345ms openvpn.service
343ms udisks2.service
306ms systemd-remount-fs.service
219ms resolvconf.service
211ms setvtrgb.service
180ms proc-sys-fs-binfmt_misc.mount
172ms alsa-restore.service
159ms user@1000.service
133ms colord.service
113ms pppd-dns.service
112ms rc-local.service
94ms console-kit-daemon.service
35ms cpufrequtils.service
32ms ureadahead-stop.service
26ms systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service
18ms rtkit-daemon.service
15ms plymouth-quit.service
13ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount
8ms plymouth-quit-wait.service

critical-chain results:
The time after the unit is active or started is printed after the "@" character.
The time the unit takes to start is printed after the "+" character.

graphical.target @4min 15.551s
└─multi-user.target @4min 15.549s
└─[0;1;31mntp.service @30.510s +3min 45.031s[0m
└─basic.target @20.088s
└─paths.target @20.088s
└─systemd-networkd-resolvconf-update.path @20.088s
└─sysinit.target @19.752s
└─swap.target @19.751s
└─[0;1;31mdev-disk-by\x2duuid-a63bc174\x2d68be\x2d47e5\x2d9f59\x2db769bfc5ac11.swap @19.262s +484ms[0m
└─dev-disk-by\x2duuid-a63bc174\x2d68be\x2d47e5\x2d9f59\x2db769bfc5ac11.device @19.244s