Upgrading HDD to SSD but boot is still slower than expected

[Nesbit]

Hello everybody,

I have recently replaced the hard drive of my Dell Precision M4800 with a Samsung EVO 850 SSD (250GB), and would expect a boot time of less than 10s, but in the current state it takes ~27s:

Startup finished in 3.734s (firmware) + 3.345s (loader) + 6.530s (kernel) + 12.877s (userspace) = 26.487s

I attach here the outputs of dmesg and systemd-analyze plot commands:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4yzp ... zlyMlpBSTA
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4yzp ... lVBNmJFV3M

From the output, a big bottleneck in the userspace stage lies at NetworkManager-wait-online.service (11.433s). A solution I found via Google is to disable this service:

Code: Select all

systemctl disable NetworkManager-wait-online.service

but I'm not sure if it's safe to do so. Any comments on this will be appreciated.

Apart from userspace, I find that the other stages (firmware + loader + kernel) also took a long time. Could you please suggest some improvements?

Thank you very much in advance for your help!

[zaqcroyd]

After seeing a suggestion to make that change here on the forums viewtopic.php?f=60&t=252387, I chopped 8 seconds out of my boot time (which was over a third of the total). I believe the discussion in that topic implied that it was a safe thing to do if you used a wired ethernet connection, but that there might be complications if you were using WiFi and that took a little bit of time to handshake and get the connection up. Anyway, take a look at the topic as it has other ideas.

[catweazel]

From the output, a big bottleneck in the userspace stage lies at NetworkManager-wait-online.service (11.433s). A solution I found via Google is to disable this service:

Code: Select all

systemctl disable NetworkManager-wait-online.service

but I'm not sure if it's safe to do so. Any comments on this will be appreciated.

It's ok to issue that command if you use wired ethernet. I'm not so sure of the effects on wifi.

[Nesbit]

After seeing a suggestion to make that change here on the forums viewtopic.php?f=60&t=252387, I chopped 8 seconds out of my boot time (which was over a third of the total). I believe the discussion in that topic implied that it was a safe thing to do if you used a wired ethernet connection, but that there might be complications if you were using WiFi and that took a little bit of time to handshake and get the connection up. Anyway, take a look at the topic as it has other ideas.

From the output, a big bottleneck in the userspace stage lies at NetworkManager-wait-online.service (11.433s). A solution I found via Google is to disable this service:

Code: Select all

systemctl disable NetworkManager-wait-online.service

but I'm not sure if it's safe to do so. Any comments on this will be appreciated.

It's ok to issue that command if you use wired ethernet. I'm not so sure of the effects on wifi.

Thanks. Unfortunately this is my laptop and it's connected to wifi almost all the time

[mr_raider]

I use it on wifi systems too. Not sure if there is an issue, but i disabled the service and it seems fine.

[Mick-Cork]

I recently made two changes that shaved roughly 10 - 11 secs off boot up, and 4 seconds off shutdown. I only use WIFI to connect. Cinnamon 18.2.

1. Changed from MDM to LightDM login. (approx 4 - 5 secs off boot / 4 off shutdown).

2. Changed the ExecStart line in lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager-wait-online.service as follows, ie: reduced timeout to '2' (approx 6 - 7 secs off boot up) :

Code: Select all

[Unit]
Description=Network Manager Wait Online
Documentation=man:nm-online(1)
Requisite=NetworkManager.service
After=NetworkManager.service
Before=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/nm-online -s -q --timeout=2
RemainAfterExit=yes

[Install]
WantedBy=network-online.target

LightDM is the default if you do a fresh install of 18.2. MDM remains the default if you've updated from an earlier 18 release. I use auto-login so that req'd a couple of extra LightDM config tweaks - info available on the blog and forum if needed.

System: Dell E5450 i5, 8Gb Ram, SSD.

[Nesbit]

I use it on wifi systems too. Not sure if there is an issue, but i disabled the service and it seems fine.

Interesting. Have you just disabled it after seeing my post or did you do that before? If it's been some time you have done that and you haven't observed any problem then it's worth to try.

I recently made two changes that shaved roughly 10 - 11 secs off boot up, and 4 seconds off shutdown. I only use WIFI to connect. Cinnamon 18.2.

1. Changed from MDM to LightDM login. (approx 4 - 5 secs off boot / 4 off shutdown).

2. Changed the ExecStart line in lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager-wait-online.service as follows, ie: reduced timeout to '2' (approx 6 - 7 secs off boot up) :

Code: Select all

[Unit]
Description=Network Manager Wait Online
Documentation=man:nm-online(1)
Requisite=NetworkManager.service
After=NetworkManager.service
Before=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/nm-online -s -q --timeout=2
RemainAfterExit=yes

[Install]
WantedBy=network-online.target

LightDM is the default if you do a fresh install of 18.2. MDM remains the default if you've updated from an earlier 18 release. I use auto-login so that req'd a couple of extra LightDM config tweaks - info available on the blog and forum if needed.

System: Dell E5450 i5, 8Gb Ram, SSD.

Thanks. My LM is a fresh installation so I'm already using LightDM. I'll try your second suggestion and get back

[Nesbit]

Before:
3.734s (firmware) + 3.345s (loader) + 6.530s (kernel) + 12.877s (userspace) = 26.487s

After enabling Fast Boot in BIOS:
2.887s (firmware) + 3.347s (loader) + 6.496s (kernel) + 8.450s (userspace) = 21.181s

After setting NetworkManager-wait-online.service timeout to 2s (as suggested by Mick-Cork):
2.819s (firmware) + 3.365s (loader) + 6.501s (kernel) + 4.036s (userspace) = 16.723s

After disabling NetworkManager-wait-online.service:
2.821s (firmware) + 3.357s (loader) + 6.499s (kernel) + 1.178s (userspace) = 13.857s

This is not bad. However, the kernel boot time is still high. It doesn't seem to have many references on how to reducing kernel boot time.

Following this post, I changed MODULES=most to MODULES=dep in /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf but surprisingly this increased slightly the boot time:

2.817s (firmware) + 3.320s (loader) + 6.388s (kernel) + 1.886s (userspace) = 14.412s
Kernel time was actually reduced but more time was added later in userspace. I don't know what happened. Here's the output of dmesg.
It should be noted that when running "sudo update-initramfs -u" I got a warning:

update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.8.0-53-generic
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_dmc_ver1_01.bin for module i915
Warning: No support for locale: en_US.utf8

Suggestions on how to optimize loader + kernel boot time are very appreciated. Thank you!

[catweazel]

Suggestions on how to optimize loader + kernel boot time are very appreciated. Thank you!

I don't see how you can get much better without building and optimising your own kernel.

I have a Ryzen 1800X and run Mint off a 32Gb/s NVMe and get a 13s startup. I think you're chasing a dream, to be honest.

[Mick-Cork]

Good going though, shaving 50% off boot up time

Nesbit, I take it from your tests that disabling NetworkManager-wait-online.service hasn't caused any probs? I'm pondering on doint the same here now.

If you do manage to make any further improvements be great if you could keep this thread updated - handy reference.

[mr_raider]

I use it on wifi systems too. Not sure if there is an issue, but i disabled the service and it seems fine.

Interesting. Have you just disabled it after seeing my post or did you do that before? If it's been some time you have done that and you haven't observed any problem then it's worth to try.

A month ago.

[Nesbit]

Suggestions on how to optimize loader + kernel boot time are very appreciated. Thank you!

I don't see how you can get much better without building and optimising your own kernel.

I have a Ryzen 1800X and run Mint off a 32Gb/s NVMe and get a 13s startup. I think you're chasing a dream, to be honest.

Well I guess one can always disable 'unnecessary' services to get further speed up, as done in this post (not up-to-date). I'm quite happy with the 13s for now though.

Good going though, shaving 50% off boot up time

Nesbit, I take it from your tests that disabling NetworkManager-wait-online.service hasn't caused any probs? I'm pondering on doint the same here now.

If you do manage to make any further improvements be great if you could keep this thread updated - handy reference.

Still no problem so far

A month ago.

Thanks. I did the same thing

[ColdBootII]

I don't wish to necro-bump the thread, just wanted to say, this service started eating boot time since the last update to network manager gnome package in May. As it seems to affect many Mint machines perhaps it should be bug reported.

[jglen490]

It's good that you are on your way to shaving 17 or so seconds off an already decent boot time. I'm not sure how often you actually boot your machine, but eventually that time will add up to something. Is this being offset by anything else, such as starting your wireless connection after boot?

[Nesbit]

I don't wish to necro-bump the thread, just wanted to say, this service started eating boot time since the last update to network manager gnome package in May. As it seems to affect many Mint machines perhaps it should be bug reported.

As suggested I have reported it as a bug

It's good that you are on your way to shaving 17 or so seconds off an already decent boot time. I'm not sure how often you actually boot your machine, but eventually that time will add up to something. Is this being offset by anything else, such as starting your wireless connection after boot?

I boot my machine at least once everyday, and often twice a day. After disabling NetworkManager-wait-online.service it's just faster. At least that's what I feel, it'll be more accurate measuring something like the time it takes from pressing the power button to opening the browser and finishing loading a webpage.

[jglen490]

I don't wish to necro-bump the thread, just wanted to say, this service started eating boot time since the last update to network manager gnome package in May. As it seems to affect many Mint machines perhaps it should be bug reported.

As suggested I have reported it as a bug

It's good that you are on your way to shaving 17 or so seconds off an already decent boot time. I'm not sure how often you actually boot your machine, but eventually that time will add up to something. Is this being offset by anything else, such as starting your wireless connection after boot?

I boot my machine at least once everyday, and often twice a day. After disabling NetworkManager-wait-online.service it's just faster. At least that's what I feel, it'll be more accurate measuring something like the time it takes from pressing the power button to opening the browser and finishing loading a webpage.

As a comparative metric, booting and loading a webpage is probably not very descriptive. What's important is how much time is used until the computer is ready to do useful work, whether booting to a command line or to a GUI login. From that point, there are just too many variables as to what defines useful work for a user, so booting to a login point is more consistently measurable and comparable.

I usually don't reboot more than about once a month. It's not that I'm into who has the best uptime, but rather I'd just rather sit down and do something; and paying for the electricity is just a part of the cost of doing "business". In my case it's not actual economic business but rather the business of looking at the world beyond the view outside my window.

[ColdBootII]

I usually don't reboot more than about once a month. It's not that I'm into who has the best uptime, but rather I'd just rather sit down and do something; and paying for the electricity is just a part of the cost of doing "business". In my case it's not actual economic business but rather the business of looking at the world beyond the view outside my window.

Yes, however when you eventually do a shutdown or reboot after kernel update you may notice that it takes 2 minutes to do so off a SSD. I've disabled the service when it slowly reached 9s (booting every day) as it seemed unnatural to wait 30s when only a week ago it took 20 (form power on to working desktop) on the same hardware and OS setup.

As suggested I have reported it as a bug

Nesbit, would you kindly point me to your bug report? I'd like to chip in so the devs don't regard it as some isolated case?

[Nesbit]

Nesbit, would you kindly point me to your bug report? I'd like to chip in so the devs don't regard it as some isolated case?

Yes please do that: https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/1722642

[ColdBootII]

Nesbit, would you kindly point me to your bug report? I'd like to chip in so the devs don't regard it as some isolated case?

Yes please do that: https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/1722642

I just did.

To all other participants in the thread and all those affected by the same issue: please join in. We stand more chance to produce some traction from the devs, if you do. Disabling a potentially important system service may be a working solution but not a proper way to fix it. What if your network setting change and you find out that you cannot do without this service? So, something in Network Manager needs attention from the devs to be truly fixed. It won't take more than a minute of your time.

[Nesbit]

Nesbit, would you kindly point me to your bug report? I'd like to chip in so the devs don't regard it as some isolated case?

Yes please do that: https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/1722642

I just did.

To all other participants in the thread and all those affected by the same issue: please join in. We stand more chance to produce some traction from the devs, if you do. Disabling a potentially important system service may be a working solution but not a proper way to fix it. What if your network setting change and you find out that you cannot do without this service? So, something in Network Manager needs attention from the devs to be truly fixed. It won't take more than a minute of your time.

Thanks. I've seen your comment, and I'm impressed by the boot time of your machine:

Startup finished in 3.052s (kernel) + 1.899s (userspace) = 4.952s

which is comparable to a Mac. Could you share the configuration of your machine? And how is it possible that you can skip the 'loader' phase?