/etc/init.d/virtualbox-ose wastes 10 seconds with find /lib/modules

[Marius Gedminas]

Binary package hint: virtualbox-ose

bootchart shows me that /etc/rc2.d/S20virtualbox-ose spends 10 seconds doing disk I/O in find. I see this in the init script:

                if ! find /lib/modules/`uname -r` -name "vboxdrv\.*" 2>/dev/null
|grep -q vboxdrv; then
                    failure "No suitable module for running kernel found"
                fi
                if ! rm -f $DEVICE; then
                    failure "Cannot remove $DEVICE"
                fi
                if ! modprobe vboxdrv > /dev/null 2>&1; then
                    failure "modprobe vboxdrv failed. Please use 'dmesg' to find
 out why"
                fi

The sole purpose of that costly operation is to print a slightly more informative error message in case modprobe should fail.

I would suggest using 'modprobe -n -q vboxdrv' instead of find. Experiments show it takes only 1 second:

$ echo 3 |sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
3

$ time modprobe -n -q vboxdrv
real 0m0.995s
user 0m0.004s
sys 0m0.000s

$ time find /lib/modules/`uname -r` -name "vboxdrv\.*" 2>/dev/null|grep -q vboxdrv
real 0m12.979s
user 0m0.036s
sys 0m0.076s

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
Package: virtualbox-ose 2.1.4-dfsg-1ubuntu3
ProcEnviron:
 LC_CTYPE=lt_LT.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=lt_LT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: virtualbox-ose
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-11-generic i686

[Daniel Hahler (blueyed)]

Thank you for your investigation and proposed solution. This sounds like a great improvement in boot time.

I'm looking into getting it fixed in Karmic and forwarded to Debian.

My results (please note that you should use "sudo" for the modprobe call):

$ echo 3 |sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
3
daniel@base { ~ }
$ time sudo modprobe -n -q vboxdrv

real 0m2.076s
user 0m0.008s
sys 0m0.004s
daniel@base { ~ }
$ echo 3 |sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
3
daniel@base { ~ }
$ time find /lib/modules/`uname -r` -name "vboxdrv\.*" 2>/dev/null|grep -q vboxdrv

real 0m9.875s
user 0m0.028s
sys 0m0.072s

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package virtualbox-ose - 2.1.4-dfsg-1ubuntu4

---------------
virtualbox-ose (2.1.4-dfsg-1ubuntu4) karmic; urgency=low

  * Do not use find in virtulbox-ose init script, which saves about
    ~10s during boot/init (LP: #369550).
    Thanks to Marius Gedminas for the suggestion and bug report.
    - debian/patches/09-initscript.dpatch:

 -- Daniel Hahler <email address hidden> Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:06:48 +0200

[Daniel Hahler (blueyed)]

The fix submitted by me is wrong - I'll get the proper fix from Debian.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package virtualbox-ose - 2.1.4-dfsg-1ubuntu5

---------------
virtualbox-ose (2.1.4-dfsg-1ubuntu5) karmic; urgency=low

  * Merge proper fix for LP: #369550 from Debian.
    - debian/patches/00list
    - debian/patches/09-initscript.dpatch
    - Drop debian/patches/08-

 -- Daniel Hahler <email address hidden> Tue, 05 May 2009 23:54:28 +0200