faster boot

[Stryker]

One of the most common arguments I hear among my friends against linux is: "It takes too long to bootup, Windows only takes 8 seconds". I've also noticed that it's the only argument that actually holds up. Is there anything I can do to decrease the bootup time to neutralize this arguement? I'm running RedHat 9. I tried disabling nearly all of the services, still doesn't quite cut it as far as speed. I tried recompiling the kernel for only the hardware that I have, but it always fails while compiling.

[xyle_one]

i work as a graphic designer/ animator and my machine is never off. Who cares how long it takes to boot up? if thats the only argument windoids have then that sounds good to me. fuck 'em.

other than my pointless post, i have n oidea how to make linx boot faster, sorry  

[JH]

Set your boot loader delay to minimum.

Remove all unnecessary drivers from your kernel.

Remove all unnecessary modules.

Remove unnecessary services from your default runlevel (especially slow to start are postgres and proxy servers).

Make sure you don't have a 2 minute delay while mailserver trying to find a DNS server.

Anyway, boot time isn't critical providing you don't boot up 10 times a day. And Windows, actually, isn't so fast to start as drowing the desktop isn't the last point. It's very common for MS to make it look like fast to start, take Word as example - sometimes it load some components up to a couple of minutes after you think it's started.

[choasforages]

compile your own kernel. and remove services that you don't need like sendmail and such
iv had a version of Choasnet OS boot in about 20 seconds on my 500mhz. and the windiods probably have their time wrong. its from power on, to usable. not when windows gui is showing but shit's still loading and you can't do anything.

[Stryker]

Well... I'm not for windows, everyone should know this by now. But here's what I have experienced.

I turn windows on, under 8 seconds I get a desktop with no disk activity. I can open word, write a few sentences, close it. and shut it off improperly. I turn it back on and the file is still there... I dont care if it is secretly loading stuff... I got my stuff done. If I can get linux to start faster by  having some things load like that then I'd do it.
With linux, it takes about 40 seconds to be up and running. I consider that extra 32 seconds worth it, but I would really like to see it be comparable to 8.

[jtpenrod]

quote:i work as a graphic designer/ animator and my machine is never off. Who cares how long it takes to boot up? if thats the only argument windoids have then that sounds good to me. fuck 'em.

Yeah, I've heard that too. With Linux, you just boot it up and let it run. So it takes a little longer to boot. Fast booting is important to Winderz (l)users since they have to do it so often.

The reason that Winderz boots so fast is that it's not designed in the modular manner that Linux is. It is also the reason why an application cock-up in Win* will bring down the whole OS. If something fails in Linux, you just kill the misbehaving app, and everything continues to work right. I'll take that over a somewhat faster boot time any day  

Of course, you can speed the boot times up by not going into graphical mode on boot, and you can always edit your /etc/inittab file to this:

Code: [Select]

That'll put you into Run Level 3, pure command line (Slack has this as its default). You'll have to enter "startx" at the command prompt to activate X and the graphical desktop.
_______________________________________
Live Free or Die: Linux

"There: now you'll never have to look at those dirty Windows anymore"
      --Daffy Duck

[TheKnifeThrower]

quote:Originally posted by Stryker:
I turn windows on, under 8 seconds I get a desktop with no disk activity.

The fastest I ever got a PC to boot up was a P2400 with 64mb of ram and windows95b on it. It took 30 seconds to get to the desktop and to stop disk activity.

[Stryker]

quote:Originally posted by TheKnifeThrower:



The fastest I ever got a PC to boot up was a P2400 with 64mb of ram and windows95b on it. It took 30 seconds to get to the desktop and to stop disk activity.

   AMD Athlon XP 2700+ w/ 512mb RAM PC2700 333FSP 60gb EIDE 7200rpm UDMA5 (100mb/s)... but i'm getting a scsi.

How about something similiar to the hibernate feature?

[solo]

my pc usually boots in about 25 seconds without my misbehaving second hard drive in, which takes 30 seconds for the kernel to timeout on trying to contact (im sure winderz does that too). 25 seconds is fine for me, because I only reboot once every 2 or 3 days (alrhough some misbehaving sound app has been opening /dev/dsp and not closing it, really pissing me off. i think someone should make a kernel module for flushing unclosed abandoned file descriptors)

[solo]

im gonna try and make my redhat box boot as fast as possible.... so stryker: youll be hearing from me on that

[runkpock]

of course you should look at your startup scripts
to trim down on useless startup programs, like
sendmail is a classic, _most_ people dont need to
start up a mail server on a PC. You can even start
processes in the background on bootup, so that the
system does more than one thing at a time. but
you should always use the KISS method with things
that dont make much of a difference, like bootup
times    Of course you can change it, it's not
binary only, don't let freedom choke you too badly.

[Fett101]

Fastest boot I've seen!

[excyle-the-art-fag]

Who the hell cares, I leave my system running, or just use software suspend.

[slvadcjelli42]

quote:Originally posted by Fury: Freedom Fighter:
some misbehaving sound app has been opening /dev/dsp and not closing it, really pissing me off. i think someone should make a kernel module for flushing unclosed abandoned file descriptors)

Haha, I should have read this before posting my sound problem question! That's exactly what was happening to me, I just didn't realize it for a while. I think it was actually Gaim that was doing it, ever since I started using the version that came with the OS I haven't had that problem (although that version is not as good)
A little bit more on topic: My experience with startup times is pretty much the same, windows has been faster for me but boots up in one big, uninformative chunk. (I definitely noticed the difference the last time I turned on my PC with XP, and all I saw was a logo and a little scrolling animation.)  :rolleyes:

[solo]

yeah i think it was gaim too, i turned sounds off and it doesnt happen any more.