readahead adds 50 seconds to boot time w/intrepid ibex

[Fernando Miguel]

Ubuntu (and also Fedora) are trying to make the boot of a system be the shortest possible, but on my system, readahead is adding up to 90 seconds to my boot time.
I've attached my lastest bootchart log and my dmesg.
On dmesg between line 505 and 506, it's visible the 90 sec pause.
[ 8.869740] ieee1394: Host added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023] GUID[00e0180003a853e6]
[ 104.088084] udevd version 124 started

[Gérard Bigot (gerard-bigot)]

Did you consider the first part of this?

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=254263

I mean

boot,
go into the grub,
modify the boot string adding profile at the end.

Could you time a cold boot before and after?

G.

[Fernando Miguel (fernandomiguel)]

Here is one boot chart with readahead and readahead-desktop disable
20 sec dmesg boot.

[Fernando Miguel (fernandomiguel)]

mangouste06 i do a "profile" everytime i get a new kernel!

[Fernando Miguel (fernandomiguel)]

here are some of my bootcharts ever since hardy

http://fileland.bugabundo.net/Linux/bootchart/

[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

Please leave the assignee field alone, that is for the developer to use to indicate that they will fix the problem.

In this case, you assigned someone who no longer works for Canonical - it would be very unlikely for your bug to ever get looked at, unless I happen to chance across it.

[Fernando Miguel (fernandomiguel)]

Scott then there is another bug with that package, because it mentions Maintainer: Tollef Fog Heen <email address hidden>

[Kyle M Weller (kylew)]

I have the same issue, intrepid ibex is the slowest os ever?!??
Hopefully this can be resolved soon before its final release

[Kyle M Weller (kylew)]

I temporarily fixed this issue by removing readahead:
sudo apt-get remove readahead

Checkout the boot improvement by removing readahead...

[Kyle M Weller (kylew)]

The result of removing readahead gave me -50 seconds of boot time! Isnt readahead supposed to improve time? Feisty booted in 20 seconds. Now im at a 1 minute boot time, xp/vista boots in half that

[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

Kyle: please attach your /etc/readahead/boot file

[Fernando Miguel (fernandomiguel)]

Olá Scott e a todos.

On Thursday 02 October 2008 19:27:15 Scott James Remnant wrote:
> /etc/readahead/boot

Not Kyle, but I suffer the same

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[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

On Fri, 2008-10-03 at 07:41 +0000, BUGabundo wrote:

> Olá Scott e a todos.
>
> On Thursday 02 October 2008 19:27:15 Scott James Remnant wrote:
> > /etc/readahead/boot
>
> Not Kyle, but I suffer the same
>
BUGabundo: you have booted with "profile" at some point in the past?

Scott
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Scott James Remnant
<email address hidden>

[Fernando Miguel (fernandomiguel)]

i've added "profile" on grub several times in the past.
I usually do it after i get a new kernel, or change my startup services.

IIRC I did run it for 2.6.27-4-generic.

I'll reinstall readahead and test it again.

[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

If you run "profile", then you'll change the set of files that readahead loads - and may well end up with it taking longer! "profile" is deliberately not documented, it only exists for one reason and that is for us to generate files we use to make the default file.

Since you've got non-default file lists, this bug is Invalid

[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

(If anyone else wishes to file the same bug, please file a new bug and attach your /etc/readahead/boot file to prove you haven't run "profile")

[Fernando Miguel (fernandomiguel)]

so how do i fix my system? how do i restore my /etc/readahead/boot ?

Can some documentation or warning be issue when "profile" is run from grub?

Ever since I use Ubuntu, and looked up performece tweaks, running "profile" seems to be mention many times.

If it is not the correct way, please advise.

[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

On Fri, 2008-10-03 at 15:34 +0000, BUGabundo wrote:

> so how do i fix my system? how do i restore my /etc/readahead/boot ?
>
dpkg --force-confnew --force-confmiss -i readahead...deb

> Can some documentation or warning be issue when "profile" is run from
> grub?
>
No, it's not a documented option - don't use documented options if you
don't know what their potential side-effects are.

> Ever since I use Ubuntu, and looked up performece tweaks, running
> "profile" seems to be mention many times.
>
Where? Is it mentioned in any official documentation?

> If it is not the correct way, please advise.
>
There is no correct way, don't fiddle if you don't understand ;)

Scott
--
Scott James Remnant
<email address hidden>

[Fernando Miguel (fernandomiguel)]

This very ticket has a link to ubuntuforums where it recommends it: https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/readahead/+bug/262311/comments/1

Before you got the change to post the dpkg command, i manually removed and purged readahead, and made sure /etc/readahead/boot was removed.

rebooted and installed readahead again.
I'm attaching some bootcharts from before, during and after.