Improve (potentially halve) login time by using readahead

[Vadi]

Oh, question - I use autologin. Will this work with it?

[jdong]

Oh, question - I use autologin. Will this work with it?

yeah, it should still save you login time compared to a normal login the same way that the readahead at boot saves you time when you slurp up all the data in order beforehands rather than thrashing all over the disk as you suddenly realize you need to read a certain file to boot.

The BIGGEST time saving is realized when the system waits for the user to type in their password while in the background we can effectively pre-load their GNOME session from disk. But even without this advantage you should still shave a few seconds off login time.

[ispy]

I tried it.

I'm not sure if it worked though. I didn't notice a major difference in startup time, and the /.readahead directory is empty.

what's going on? I'm still at 1:15 from grub to the stoppage of disk usage. (I think that's what you'd call it...)

[sh4d0w808]

Thanks jdong, it is a great howto! I applied it to my / and to my /home - I saved approx. 20 secs to use my computer! Keep up the good work!

[macvr]

this worked for me when my whole system[/ and /home] was in the same partition>
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...9&postcount=97
it had reduced my BOOT time by 25secs....

BUT after i separated the / and /home partitions it worsens my boot times!!!
it takes 1:35 mins for me to use the system from the time i switch it on! i have autologin so didnt check the times till the loginwindow and after... is 1:35 mins a reasonable time for startup?
this happened in 8.04 itself... even after i have reinstalled 8.10 it seems to make my boots worse!

sudo readahead-watch -o ~/.readahead/gnome.root /
sudo killall readahead-watch
sudo chown macvr:macvr ~/.readahead -R
sudo readahead-watch -o ~/.readahead/gnome.home /home
sudo killall readahead-watch
sudo chown macvr:macvr ~/.readahead -R

i know tht i have done chown twice! thought it might help !

i have removed the bigger files from the list , also added the 00readahead file... and also in the rc.local...

but nothing seems to help...! have i done it correctly?

anyway to make this work AGAIN ? previously it had reduced my boottimes but i dont understand why it worsens things now!

[Ng Oon-Ee]

Hmm, I have a separate /home/ partition and that doesn't seem to affect anything. Boot time is improved relative to no read-ahead. And did you logout before starting readahead-watch the second time?

[macvr]

Hmm, I have a separate /home/ partition and that doesn't seem to affect anything. Boot time is improved relative to no read-ahead. And did you logout before starting readahead-watch the second time?

previously i did logout of the session , but not in the terminal... so this is what i'v done again...

mkdir ~/.readahead
sudo readahead-watch -o ~/.readahead/gnome.root /
sudo killall readahead-watch
sudo chown macvr:macvr ~/.readahead -R
logout

sudo readahead-watch -o ~/.readahead/gnome.home /home
sudo killall readahead-watch
sudo chown macvr:macvr ~/.readahead -R

but my login time stays at 24secs both before and after i do this but the boot time worsens!

i'v tried using the part three of the guide too, but no use!
guess i'm one of the UNlucky ones!

[macvr]

ok... i'v done more googling and split the boot times

my total boot time from switching on is 1min35secs

till end of grub options:12s
boot according to bootchart:38s
??????????????:21s< this increases when i use readahead
login after a logout:24 secs

ok, i'm just a noob but this may be a silly question !
why is there a gap of 21s? what happens during that time? its is this time which increases when i use the readahead

could someone look at the bootchart and check if anything can be improved?

is this bootup time normal ? its just that i hear startup times of 33 secs i'm wondering if my settings are correct!

[Saghaulor]

It took some tweaking, both stripping things out of rcS/rc2, disabling a good chunk of restricted modules, and then streamlining the login process to load fewer things by default.

But yeah, I can go from GRUB to a full desktop in just a tad over 20s

Jdong, could you post some specifics on the stripping, disabling, and streamlining that you did?

I have a slew of HP mini 1000's that I'm trying to optimize. They'll be used to connect via aircard to the internet for online charting by my nurses.

So obviously, I'd like them to be running as fast as possible.

[zika]

if I use the script "00readahead" provided by Pat Double I get empty ~/.readahead directory.
if I go "by the book (jdong)" I get gnome.root filled.
if I use jdong's recipe and fill the gnome.root, subsequent use of pat's script (with "profile") erases gnome.root and does not create a new one. I get empty .readahead directory.
so, I'm having trouble with pat's script. what am I doing wrong?