[LAPTOP] Taking longer to boot up

[CanyonRoss]

Hi,

My laptop used to boot up in about 10 seconds, if that. These days it's taking a good 30+ and seems to hang on this screen for some time. Please see the link.

Any thoughts anyone?

Many thanks!

[claydoh]

Those may not be related to anything slowing boot times.

You will want to observe more of these messages - hit <esc> after the Grub screen to view.
As it is consistently taking this time, it could be some process or service taking too long to start, which can then slow other things a bit as well.
having LOTS of snap packages is one thing that can sometimes slow boot times, though there other common things as well.

systemd-analyze can help see if anything specific is adding time.

[CanyonRoss]

Thanks for your help. Here the outputs from that (I've copied just the main ones for the "blame" command).

systemd-analyze
Startup finished in 11.114s (firmware) + 12.091s (loader) + 4.410s (kernel) + 13.046s (userspace) = 40.662s
graphical.target reached after 13.020s in userspace
ross@ross-Alienware-15-R2:~$ systemd-analyze blame
10.504s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
10.275s gpu-manager.service
980ms dev-sda4.device
503ms systemd-journal-flush.service
470ms networkd-dispatcher.service
423ms accounts-daemon.service
414ms udisks2.service
351ms systemd-udevd.service

and finally

ystemd-analyze critical-chain
The time when unit became active or started is printed after the "@" character.
The time the unit took to start is printed after the "+" character.

graphical.target @13.020s
└─multi-user.target @13.020s
└─kerneloops.service @13.000s +19ms
└─network-online.target @12.996s
└─NetworkManager-wait-online.service @2.491s +10.504s
└─NetworkManager.service @2.176s +295ms
└─dbus.service @2.172s
└─basic.target @2.152s
└─sockets.target @2.151s
└─nordvpnd.socket @2.145s +3ms
└─sysinit.target @2.110s
└─systemd-timesyncd.service @1.944s +165ms
└─systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service @1.879s +59ms
└─local-fs.target @1.855s
└─home.mount @1.843s +11ms
└─systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-6d150343\x2ddd26\x2d4991\x2dab3c\x2d132e29de44>
└─dev-disk-by\x2duuid-6d150343\x2ddd26\x2d4991\x2dab3c\x2d132e29de44d9.d evice @>

Any thoughts?

Many thanks in advance

[claydoh]

10.504s NetworkManager-wait-online.service

─NetworkManager-wait-online.service @2.491s +10.504s

Pretty obvious what it is here
This one is common, though I donm't know what the cause is specifically. The +10.504 in critical-chain is the time this thing is adding to the overall time.
Your BIOS is taking 11 seconds, probably not much you can do there.
12 seconds is your grub, which can be sped up by selecting a menu entry faster


But NetworkManager-wait-online.service can be disabled, usually with no detriment.
This is literally doing what its name says - waiting for the network to connect.

You can disable it easily: sudo systemctl disable NetworkManager-wait-online.service
to re-enable: sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager-wait-online.service


You might also see if there is something slowing down your connection, at the router or modem level, maybe.

[CanyonRoss]

I wonder whether, actually, whether it's my autoconnect VPN - nordvpn.

I assume if I disable that service, then the system would boot up more quickly, but I'd still be waiting until the WiFi was fully functioning?

Thanks!

[CanyonRoss]

Edit - that seems to have helped, but it when I press esc as it's loading it hangs significantly on "setvtrgb.service" is there a way to speed this up?

[claydoh]

hangs significantly on "setvtrgb.service"

?? What do you mean by significantly?
You will want to run those commands again to compare.
In blame you can find how long this setvtrgb.service is actually taking, it probably is waaay down at the bottom.


Your boot info is showing that it takes ~17 seconds to get from grub boot menu to the desktop, and iirc that includes the time it takes to log in.

Your bios takes 11 seconds, and that last boot, it took 12+ seconds to choose a boot entry (or hit <enter>), maybe? -- If not, the grub timeout can be adjusted, there are hundreds of how-tos on that topic.

What you are seeing this in the terminal output may not be what is actually happening in the background, which of course confuses things. Multiple things are going in in parallel, but the screen only shows one thing at a time (and not everything)

but I'd still be waiting until the WiFi was fully functioning?

No, not really. There is a decent set of descriptions for this service here. And more technically here.

[CanyonRoss]

Hi, thanks again for taking the time to reply. Here's the latest output. Is there anything here that stands out?

systemd-analyze
Startup finished in 11.010s (firmware) + 5.402s (loader) + 4.495s (kernel) + 12.900s (userspace) = 33.808s
graphical.target reached after 12.893s in userspace
ross@ross-Alienware-15-R2:~$ systemd-analyze blame
10.367s gpu-manager.service
1.079s dev-sda4.device
1.078s networkd-dispatcher.service
794ms systemd-journal-flush.service
789ms udisks2.service
610ms accounts-daemon.service
480ms systemd-udevd.service
417ms avahi-daemon.service
415ms NetworkManager.service
409ms bluetooth.service
395ms power-profiles-daemon.service
392ms polkit.service
381ms ModemManager.service

systemd-analyze critical-chain
The time when unit became active or started is printed after the "@" character.
The time the unit took to start is printed after the "+" character.

graphical.target @12.893s
└─sddm.service @12.889s +2ms
└─plymouth-quit.service @3.014s +30ms
└─systemd-user-sessions.service @2.994s +11ms
└─network.target @2.940s
└─NetworkManager.service @2.508s +415ms
└─dbus.service @2.503s
└─basic.target @2.488s
└─sockets.target @2.487s
└─nordvpnd.socket @2.483s +2ms
└─sysinit.target @2.450s
└─systemd-timesyncd.service @2.207s +243ms
└─systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service @2.075s +111ms
└─local-fs.target @2.065s
└─home.mount @2.047s +15ms
└─systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-6d150343\x2ddd26\x2d4991\x2dab3c\x2d132e29de44>
└─dev-disk-by\x2duuid-6d150343\x2ddd26\x2d4991\x2dab3c\x2d132e29de44d9.d evice @>
lines 1-20/20 (END)



Thanks once more.

[claydoh]

So, the next common item between your boots is gpu-manager.service.

This one iirc shouldn't be running every boot. It basically creates a new x11 config every time, and doesn't need to. I have seen this one reported before, but didn't remember it.

You can try disabling it to test, same method as before

[CanyonRoss]

It won't ruin my graphical interface/break my system if I disable it, will it....??

Thanks

edit - just done it. It appears to have knocked about 10s off my boot time, so looks like by changing those 2 things we've knocked 20 seconds off the boot time! That's great!

Thanks for your help. It still used to be faster, I am sure, but 20s is acceptable, 40 was a bit irritating.

Many thanks!