very slow booting and no boot splash

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt]]

Binary package hint: usplash

Boot is very slow here on Ubuntu AMD64 (running edgy, daily dist-upgrade'ed) compared to eg Dapper and no splash is shown at all, only the blinking cursor is shown. Takes minutes to got the first message about the swap, and further minutes to get getty running (and some seconds to run gdm). I though it's an upstart problem (and it can be, I don't know) whoever the lack of splash and the fact that logging in fast after starting getty I see 99% CPU usage of usplash and another usplash processes with much lower CPU usage. I've no idea how I can help, so please require further information from me. Shutting down the machine is also very slow, and no splash either. If it helps, this distro was dapper, but it's daily upgraded to edgy repositories for a while ...

Update : This bug is generally caused by too high values in /etc/usplash.conf. It often appears in Linux Ubuntu Gutsy because of bug #150930 ( ubiquity install a bad /etc/usplash.conf file ). When it happens, it can take up to 3 minutes to boot the computer and get the GDM screen.

Workaround :
1. Open your System / Administration / Screens and Graphics menu and look at your actual screen resolution.
2. Type "gksu gedit /etc/usplash.conf" without the quotes in a terminal to edit your usplash.conf file and change the actual values to be the same as the resolution of your screen as shown in Screens and Graphics. Save the file.
3. Type "sudo update-initramfs -u" without the quotes in a terminal to apply the changes to usplash.

Reproduced on these graphic cards :
ATI Technologies Inc M22 [Mobility Radeon X300]
Intel Corporation 82G965 Integrated Graphics Controller
ATI Technologies Inc RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10] [1002:4e50] (prog-if 00 [VGA])
nVidia Corporation G72M [GeForce Go 7400] [10de:01d8] (rev a1)

lgb@oxygene:~$ dpkg-query -W "usplash*" "upstart*"
usplash 0.4-29
usplash-theme-ubuntu 0.1-1
upstart 0.2.7-3
upstart-compat-sysv 0.2.7-3
upstart-logd 0.2.7-3
lgb@oxygene:~$ uname -a
Linux oxygene 2.6.17-8-generic #2 SMP Tue Sep 19 08:53:32 UTC 2006 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

By the way, this is /var/log/boot, hope it helps somewhat ...

[JoseStefan (josestefan)]

Is this happening with an NVIDIA card,
If so, this may be related to bug 60135
(possible duplicate)

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Yes, it's Nvidia (nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6200] (rev a2) according to lspci). Just tried to boot with 'nosplash and noquiet' kernel parameters: it's much faster! I've commented bug #60135 as well. Maybe you're right, I don't know if it's nvidia related or not since I haven't got another VGA card nearby to try with something else ...

[funkwalkr (stvonyii)]

I have the exact same problem: nvidia geforce 7900gt, no logo just blinking cursor, delayed boot time (compared to if "splash" was disabled in the kernel command line). I don't think it's the same as segfault bug https://launchpad.net/bugs/56587 (which I used to get) but might be the same as https://launchpad.net/bugs/60135 (but I don't get the error screen as shown in the screenshot of comment #2). Running edgy-eft knot2 on amd64, usplash 4.29

[John Dong (jdong)]

This happens on -31, with my newly upgraded Shuttle AMD64 + NForce3 + NVidia GPU. usplash uses 100% CPU, nothing is displayed, and bootup is dog slow, and eventually I gave up on waiting for gdm to ever load, and rebooted without splash, and it was normal.

I'm gonna call it confirmed for now. If any debug info is needed from this box, I'd be more than happy to provide it.

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Yes, I have no "error messages" either, just a blinking cursor and no other stuff. There is no sign for segfault either in kernel log buffer (dmesg), and before launched gdm but after having console login, I can log in and check output of top: usplash is running but uses all otherwise idle CPU ... So I thing it's quite different bug than the one describing segfault and messages on the screen ... However many people compain about this with nvidia/amd64, so somewhat related, imho.

[Donnie Pennington (donniepennington)]

I have the same issue on iMac 20" (ATI Radeon X1600) with Ubuntu running in Parallels VM. Boot splash worked fine in Dapper, but after upgrading to Edgy beta, it's just the black screen with no error messages. Removing splash from menu.lst kernel line works fine and adding a vga= option with splash left on also sort of works (you can see the splash but it doesn't wrap right and on shutdown it's not black but not readable either).

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

donnie: I don't think it's the same issue ... I have text mode screen (empty screen with blinking cursor), also adding any vga option does not help. As I've written it's also affect booting speed (or your issue does this, too?).

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

I'm bitten by this bug as well. I notice that there are on tty1 error messages saying "INVALID X86 OPCODE". I'm on amd64.

My current workaround is to remove usplash

[John Dong (jdong)]

Aha! good eye, Reinhard! usplash does cause a few INVALID X86 OPCODE errors.

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

It seems this is no longer an issue for me, after a dist-upgrade some days ago (don't remember exactly which dist-upgrade cause the update of usplash which cured my problem).

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

It seems this is no longer an issue for me, after a dist-upgrade some days ago (don't remember exactly which dist-upgrade cause the update of usplash which cured my problem). Now the monoscope like splash is shown, and boot is fast! However there is no usplash at shutdown dunno it's problem or not. Only text mode console is shown with some "Stopping" message of course.

[pacodani (pacodani)]

Same problem here with a Radeon 9600 on a PentiumM laptop. Blinking cursor with usplash, and about 3 minutes to start. Without graphical boot, editing grub, about 40 seconds to boot.

[pacodani (pacodani)]

Attach the bottcharts from a slow start

[pacodani (pacodani)]

And a fast start...

[pacodani (pacodani)]

If during a slow boot I press Ctrl+Alt+F1, the boot becomes fast.

[MaxNegro (maxnegro)]

Same here (blinking cursor and extremely slow boot) with Transmeta Crusoe TM5800 and Ati Radeon Mobility M6. Problem manifested after upgrading from dapper to edgy, and doesn't seem related to the kernel I use for boot (I kept old dapper kernels around as a safety net).

Please let me know if and how I can produce some useful debug info.

[MaxNegro (maxnegro)]

just one "strange" thing more: i tried booting with the external vga plugged to an external monitor. boot went normally, splash displayed (badly, but I think it's a monitor issue) on external monitor, lcd stayed black with blinking cursor. when it reached gdm login, lcd and external monitor went in sync and showed login screen correctly. I wonder, since my lcd is 16:9, maybe the issue could be related to "strange" resolutions? (mine usually works at 1024x600)

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

... and now shutdown usplash is working as well! :) However the shutdown process seems to be a bit slower than it was before, dunno it's real or only I am who think it.

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Ok, now the "only" probelm that usplash is a black&white Ubuntu logo at the center of the screen, some garbage pixels and the progress bar is at the top of the screen (with some pixel error again).

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

After upgrade package usplash-theme-ubuntu from 0.5 to 0.6, progress bar is at the right space (as changelog states this too) however the image is till black&white ... After seeing the same splash on an i386 (which is perfect) I discovered that there is no garbage pixeles on progress bar, they're part of it ;) However the black&white splash on amd64 looks like a badly dithered image from colour to monochrome 1 bit/pixel ...

[MaxNegro (maxnegro)]

I found that during upgrade process from dapper to edgy my /etc/usplash.conf was overwritten and got the wrong resolution, ie 1024x768 instead of 1024x600. Modified it with right resolution for my screen and boot is now speedy as it was before and the splash screen is displayed right.

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Hmm. Just one question: what should _BE_ the content of /etc/usplash.conf on i386 and AMD64 by default? What this 1024x600? I've just removed file /etc/usplash.conf and then reinstall packages usplash and usplash-theme-ubuntu but the content of created /etc/usplash.conf is 1024x768 again. Should it be 1024x600 on AMD, and 1024x768 for i386? If so, why does isn't this resolution written into /etc/usplash.conf?

[MaxNegro (maxnegro)]

Resolution in usplash.conf should depend on your monitor capabilities, regardless of architecture.

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Hmm, I've just asked because you stated that 1024x600 is the right resolution and not 1024x786. So I'm totally confused now. What should I do to have working usplash on AMD64 with Ubuntu6.10? It's black&white ;-(

[MaxNegro (maxnegro)]

try using a lower resolution in usplash.conf (ie 800x600 or 640x480) and see if it displays better.

[Jesse Lang (jesselang)]

Thought I had the same thing here, AMD, upgrade from dapper. Slow boot from grub, I see the usplash initially, but then it goes to blinking cursor, hard drive light *blinks* furiously. Tried a 'noquiet' 'nosplash' suggested above, but it does the same thing (HD starts blinking, screen sits for at least 3 minutes) when loading my USB drivers). This happens even without my mouse plugged in. After more searching, I found bug #68888 and bug #67299 which seemed to have similar symptoms. Oddly enough, the upgrade created an ARRAY entry in my /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf even though I don't use any software RAID. After much trial and tribulation, this got my system back on track:

1) remove the ARRAY entry in /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf
2) run 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure mdadm, answer the questions, defaulting to no since I don't use software RAID. This will update the initramfs for the kernel
3) reboot

Now my boot time is back to normal!

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Please note that I have no md array as well, and now (from one or two days before edgy was released) there IS usplash, and boot is NOT slow, the only problem I write here again and again :) that my usplash is black&white ... Sure, this is not a show-stopper, but quite strange and ugly, since on i386 it's perfect and nice.

[Helio Pereira (helio-mc-pereira)]

I have the same problem with a clean new instalation of edgy for amd64.

On 11/8/06, LGB [Gábor Lénárt] <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> Please note that I have no md array as well, and now (from one or two
> days before edgy was released) there IS usplash, and boot is NOT slow,
> the only problem I write here again and again :) that my usplash is
> black&white ... Sure, this is not a show-stopper, but quite strange and
> ugly, since on i386 it's perfect and nice.
>
> --
> no boot splash and very slow booting
> https://launchpad.net/bugs/61711
>
> --
> ubuntu-bugs mailing list
> <email address hidden>
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
>

--
Cumprimentos,
Helio Pereira

Blog - http://helio-pt.blogspot.com/

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Resolution does not matter, I've tried a few, but splash is always black&white on AMD64.

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

I've just upgraded a dapper to edgy using PIII CPU (i810 integrated video I think, lspci said: Intel Corporation 82810E DC-133 CGC rev03). Bootsplash is okey, however video mode is not switched back to something usable, eg it's not possible to login in character consoles, since only short green pixel bars shown and such. X11 is okey, however I would have to use the machine without X too.

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

... also found a fifo in the root directory named /usplash_fifo
I've never seen a such a file in the root directory before ...

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Sorry, I don't think this problem is related to the original one, so I've opened a new one instead as #75392.

[Reuben Firmin (reubenf)]

I had identical symptoms on a Dell Dimension 2350 - slow boot, no display. I disabled usplash by removing quiet splash from the boot options, and the boot sped up tremendously.

It's an intel architecture, so it may be a different bug - but since the symptoms are the same I thought I post them here. Details: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim2350/specs.htm#1101572

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

According to the comment of Shawn McMahon in the duplicate bug #153594, I believe that the default values in /etc/usplash.conf should be 1024x768 because this is the default VESA resolution that should normally works on all hardware.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

In order to get relevant informations to reproduce and diagnose that bug, I suggest that people who are able to reproduce that bug add these informations to the bug report :

1. The output of : cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf | grep -A 2 'Section "Device"'
2. The output of : apt-cache policy usplash
3. The output of : cat /etc/usplash.conf
4. The ubuntu version used ( Ex. Gutsy | 7.10 )

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

Raising importance to High.

[Darrel O'Pry (dopry)]

I experienced the same error with a fresh install.
usplash.conf was configure for a resolution of 1280x1024, my computer only supports 1024x768.

I updated the xres and yres values in /etc/usplash.conf for a 1024x768 display.

I then had to run:

   sudo update-initramfs -u -k all

to update the boot images so the new configuration could take effect.

[Gatestone (app-iki)]

As requested:

- Section "Device"
        Identifier "ATI Technologies Inc M22 [Mobility Radeon X300]"
        Driver "ati"

- usplash:
  Installed: 0.5.7
  Candidate: 0.5.7
  Version table:
 *** 0.5.7 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

- # Usplash configuration file
xres=1280
yres=1024

- Gutsy

Note also this: http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Gutsy#Fix_Slow_boot.2Ffaulty_splash_screen

I have a setting of 1024x800 in use, because it is the best one for my eyes on this IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad z60m. I use "nosplash" in menu.lst to ignore the problem. Before that, the boot was 2 minutes delayed because of the bad splash. Note that I can bypass the wait also by hitting Atl-F1 to go to the console.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

Gatestone : Thanks for the information you provide to help the improvement of that bug report.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

Can every people that can reproduce this bug on the mean time provide the following informations :

1. Attach the file created by this command on a terminal : lspci -vvnn > lspci-vvnn.txt
2. The output of this command on a terminal : cat /etc/usplash.conf
3. The output of this command on a terminal : uname -a

[colpompidou (colpompidou-deactivatedaccount)]

1. See the attachment.
2. # Usplash configuration file
xres=1280
yres=1024
3. Linux dell 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Tue Feb 12 07:42:25 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

Without usplash, boot lasts less than thirty seconds. Within, it lasts one minute.

[colpompidou (colpompidou-deactivatedaccount)]

I must add that Usplash works but the boot is quite longer.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

colpompidou : Thanks for providing this information. We found another graphic card on which the problem can be reproduced :)
If some people that have another graphic card then the ones I added to the description of the bug can reproduce this bug, can you also provide the information I asked earlier?

[Sergio Barjola (sbarjola)]

Hi, I have found similar problem with Hardy Alpha 6 in Laptop Sony VGN-C2Z/B:
At boot:
ACPI: EC: acpi_ec_wait timeout , status = 0, expect_event 0 1
ACPI: EC: read timeout, command = 128
I think is related with kernel bug: http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10101

but, booting without splash and quiet boot ok .. no need acpi=off

Linux ubuntu 2.6.24-11-generic #1 SMP Fri Feb 29 22:08:31 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
# Usplash configuration file
xres=640
yres=480

[Dieter Smorra (dieda)]

I can confirm this bug on newly installed Ubuntu 7.10 on Acer Travelmate 4002. Native screen resolution is 1280x800.

Output of usplash.conf:
# Usplash configuration file
xres=1280
yres=1024

Kernel is 2.6.22-14-generic SMP i686 GNU/Linux

[Knudson (michielkodde)]

Updating usplash.conf tackled the problem for me! Thanks all!! This really improves the user experience.

[Telorn (telorn)]

This bug also affects me.

System: Jaunty AMD64 Beta with all updates.
Hardware: Acer TM 6292 (Intel GMA X3100)

Description:
Boot is very slow and usplash turns off if i try to modify services launching at startup, for example if I remove rsync and apport using system-preferences-services it will be for about 50% slowly at boot (from 30s to 60s).

Behavior:
- System starts booting, uspash is on the screen. (35s)
- then video mode starts frequently change (7-10s)
- then display goes to text mode and I see for example (attached picture) (5s)
- then GDM screen appears.
(notice, that originaly boot takes at all 30s)

And versus default configuration it really takes up to two times slowly, got no ideas why it happenes.

Ready to provide any additional information, if needed.

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

You can install the bootchart package. It will make nice boot timing diagrams in /var/log/bootchart/ which help to see what is taking so much time.

[Telorn (telorn)]

i have just installed bootchart and tested the system.

result was: the main delay (about 15-20s) is taken after bootchart completes its job.

i mean system blinks the screen and do some other strange things before gdm, but after bootchart.

may be this can have some correlation with this bug
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/332772

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

If you boot with the option "bootchart=nostop" it will continue to log until you stop it with "sudo /etc/init.d/stop-bootchart start".

[Telorn (telorn)]

Ok, i made it with bootchar=nonstop, so the result is in attachments.

The delay was beetwen 30 and 40s of booting, at this time screen blinks and there is no disk activity, as you can see in graphics.

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

Telorn, an Xorg.0.log with timestamps (from the beta release or with the xorg-server packages from my PPA) would be nice, it could be that the X server is stuck on something. However, I don't know how much this is relevant to the original report or if we are highjacking the report with your issues...

[Telorn (telorn)]

ok, i've done it, using Xorg from your PPA.

It seems, that we found problem, Tormod.

[ 3.765003] (II) intel(0): Modeline "640x480"x75.0 31.50 640 656 720 840 480 481 484 500 -hsync -vsync (37.5 kHz)
[ 3.765014] (II) intel(0): Modeline "640x480"x59.9 25.18 640 656 752 800 480 490 492 525 -hsync -vsync (31.5 kHz)
[ 3.765025] (II) intel(0): Modeline "720x400"x85.0 35.50 720 756 828 936 400 401 404 446 -hsync +vsync (37.9 kHz)
[ 3.765036] (II) intel(0): Modeline "640x400"x85.1 31.50 640 672 736 832 400 401 404 445 -hsync +vsync (37.9 kHz)
[ 3.765047] (II) intel(0): Modeline "640x350"x85.1 31.50 640 672 736 832 350 382 385 445 +hsync -vsync (37.9 kHz)
[ 3.773021] (II) intel(0): EDID for output TMDS-1
[ 4.022866] (II) intel(0): EDID for output TV
[ 13.621660] (II) intel(0): EDID for output VGA
[ 13.672446] (II) intel(0): EDID for output LVDS
[ 13.672467] (II) intel(0): Manufacturer: AUO Model: 3414 Serial#: 0
[ 13.672475] (II) intel(0): Year: 2007 Week: 1
[ 13.672482] (II) intel(0): EDID Version: 1.3
[ 13.672489] (II) intel(0): Digital Display Input
[ 13.672496] (II) intel(0): Max Image Size [cm]: horiz.: 26 vert.: 16
[ 13.672509] (II) intel(0): Gamma: 2.20

Also attaching full Xorg.0.log with timestamps.

And so, it really not looks like relevant for usplash..

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

Telorn, do you get this time delay in Xorg if you boot without usplash? Otherwise it would be related to usplash, but I suggest you file a separate bug anyway. There are way too many issues in this bug report.

[Telorn (telorn)]

I get this time delay even without splash, so it is really another bug.

should i open it manualy?

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

> should i open it manually?

The best is to run "ubuntu-bug xserver-xorg-video-intel". Thanks.

[Telorn (telorn)]

i have reinstalled Xorg server, using synaptics, and then done dpkg-reconfigure xorg,

but the problem still exists, have made "ubuntu-bug xserver-xorg-video-intel", don't know it it would help, there is no timestamps, or should i use Xorg from your ppa?

[Mitch Towner (kermiac)]

invalidated upstart bug task as this was created over 18 months after the last comment on this bug report

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

The usplash package has been superseded by plymouth and has been removed from the Ubuntu archive. Closing all related bugs.