Grub 2 long delay while loading Ubuntu kernel

[sanctimon]

Binary package hint: grub2

After GRUB2 is loaded, I select Lucid Lynx and hit enter (it does not matter which kernel). It then takes roughly 40 seconds before the system starts to boot, while the screen remains dark during this time with no activity from the HD.

This is a 64-bit fresh install of 10.04 on an external USB drive (although the issue was also present at an upgrade installation from 9.10).

See attached files for System info.

There are no messages apparent in dmesg, kernel.log, or any other logs, as they do not begin to register any activity until after the 40 seconds have passed.

Further investigation has revealed the issue to be related to the time it takes GRUB to run the "linux" and "initrd" commands (13 and 25 seconds, respectively). Please consult the following videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUnc2iBeXmw (normal startup)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMrjorH3gmU (debug startup)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00zGomqwrQM (custom grub - loaded from cd)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsEjDvUVUNE (custom grub with debug on)

This bug may be related to bug #451202 and bug #482927.

As more and more onus is given to startup times, I feel this is something that needs to be looked at.

[Dick Streefland (dick-streefland)]

I also have this problem on my new Asrock ION 330 Pro PC running Ubuntu 10.04. This is a diskless machine, and when I boot it from a USB stick, or external USB disk, grub2 is extremely slow. Loading a 3.9MB kernel takes 30 seconds from a USB stick, and loading a 7.4MB initrd takes 55 seconds. With an external 1TB USB disk, I get roughly the same figures. As a test, I installed grub1 on another partition on the same stick, and loading the same files with grub1 only takes a couple of seconds. That is about 10 times faster. The problem seems to be related to the hardware or BIOS, because I cannot reproduce this problem in a Dell Optiplex. The Asrock has an AMI BIOS.

[schnubert (schnubert)]

I am experiencing the same problems with Zotac ION F.
When I boot XBMC Live which uses GRUB2 from USB-Stick it takes roughly 1 min after the GRUB Menu to get to the XBMC logo, where the "real" boot is happening.
With "set debug=all" in grub.cfg you can clearly see that nothing happens within this 1 min blank screen.
I already unplugged my hard drive and optical drive but unfortunately with the same result.

There is no issue when I use legacy GRUB instead.

The Zotac also uses AMI BIOS.

This delay is really annoying and decreases the WAF of my HTPC tremendously.
I would highly welcome any fix for it!

[sanctimon (dj.martin)]

I can confirm that the issue has not been resolved by upgrading to 10.10 nor by updating to the latest cores. The issue is possibly related to BIOS/motherboard incompatibility with GRUB 2, which in my opinion needs to be resolved as soon as possible. This bug has been reported since May 2010.

[Goh Lip (gohlip)]

Is this related to this bug?
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/577120

[Goh Lip (gohlip)]

Sorry, I meant to write the above comment on this bug
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/669023
Apologies.

[Martin Riethmayer (ripper-f)]

I got the same issue with Ubuntu Server 11.10 on a HP ProLiant MicroServer (36L) which also has an AMI BIOS.

It's a nasty 40 second delay between selecting an entry in grub and the first entry in dmesg, just like the thread starter.

I'll try to downgrade to grub (instead of grub2) and see if that resolves it.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Keith Baker (keibak)]

The same happens to me. The delay between selecting a kernel and first boot messages is about 5 seconds. However if I select the windows boot entry, there's no such delay. The windows 7 icon shows immediately.

[Jason Bodycott (jbodycott)]

Poking this bug. I just received this problem as a regression during my upgrade from 10.10 to 11.04 (64-bit); issue was not present in 10.10 (system was successfully running grub2 before this upgrade). Can't find this detailed/resolved anywhere.

Relevant versioning lines from my dist-upgrade in case they're helpful:
Preparing to replace grub-pc 1.98+20100804-5ubuntu3.3 (using .../grub-pc_1.99~rc1-13ubuntu3_amd64.deb) ...
Preparing to replace grub-common 1.98+20100804-5ubuntu3.3 (using .../grub-common_1.99~rc1-13ubuntu3_amd64.deb) ...

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for grub2 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]