Fresh 20.04 Install On Old Apple MacBook - Everything OK Except Boot Time?

[JeZ-l-Lee]

Hi,

Just installed Kubuntu 20.04 LTS 64Bit onto a very old Apple MacBook A1181 laptop.
Apple laptop has a Intel Core 2 Duo 2-core CPU, Intel HD GPU, 2GB RAM, & 160GB HDD.

Everything works 100%, but the boot time is pretty long - about 2 minutes?
Anything I can do to improve boot time?

I did a fresh install of Kubuntu, the notebook had an unlicensed Windows 7 32Bit before.
Let me know, thanks!

Jesse

[claydoh]

systemd-analyze
and
systemd-analyze blame

The first will show how long each part of booting takes, from powering on.
The last shows the individual bits of item load times post-grub, in descending order. This can help find if one particular service or item is slowing down or waiting for something.
Note that this is not a concurrent list, as multiple items are loaded in parallel.

Here is mine as an example:

[FONT=monospace][COLOR=#54FF54][B]claydoh@claydoh-Pavilion590[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]:[/COLOR][COLOR=#5454FF][B]~[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]$ systemd-analyze  [/COLOR]
Startup finished in 12.008s (firmware) + 5.540s (loader) + 4.751s (kernel) + 3.460s (userspace) = 25.760s
graphical.target reached after 3.456s in userspace

[/FONT]

Note my PC takes 12 seconds to get past the bios.

[FONT=monospace][COLOR=#54FF54][B]claydoh@claydoh-Pavilion590[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]:[/COLOR][COLOR=#5454FF][B]~[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]$ systemd-analyze blame[/COLOR]
          1.693s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
           677ms dev-nvme0n1p2.device
           603ms snapd.service
           426ms vboxdrv.service
           362ms fwupd.service
           349ms systemd-logind.service
           340ms media-stuff.mount
           285ms dev-loop1.device
           228ms dev-loop4.device
           224ms dev-loop3.device
           223ms dev-loop2.device
           193ms dev-loop5.device
           191ms systemd-journal-flush.service
           158ms upower.service
           156ms apt-daily.service
           151ms snap-core-9066.mount
           151ms snap-deadbeef\x2dvs-5.mount
           138ms libvirtd.service

[/FONT]

[JeZ-l-Lee]

Hi,

It's faster than I thought, but still slow:

user@User-MacBook:~$ systemd-analyze
Startup finished in 7.206s (kernel) + 42.855s (userspace) = 50.061s 
graphical.target reached after 42.807s in userspace
user@User-MacBook:~$

user@User-MacBook:~$ systemd-analyze blame
17.908s snapd.service                                        
16.770s networkd-dispatcher.service                          
14.819s udisks2.service                                      
13.322s accounts-daemon.service                              
12.841s NetworkManager-wait-online.service                   
11.356s dev-mapper-vgkubuntu\x2droot.device                  
11.053s tor@default.service                                  
10.101s polkit.service                                       
9.386s avahi-daemon.service                                 
9.375s bluetooth.service                                    
9.339s NetworkManager.service                               
8.501s thermald.service                                     
8.490s systemd-logind.service                               
8.479s wpa_supplicant.service                               
7.754s ModemManager.service                                 
7.688s systemd-resolved.service                             
5.038s grub-common.service                                  
4.763s gpu-manager.service                                  
4.182s upower.service                                       
4.164s apport.service                                       
3.756s grub-initrd-fallback.service                         
3.351s rsyslog.service                                      
3.192s packagekit.service                                   
2.115s systemd-journal-flush.service                        
2.017s systemd-timesyncd.service                            
1.923s systemd-udevd.service                                
1.750s systemd-journald.service                             
1.504s e2scrub_reap.service                                 
1.204s apparmor.service                                     
1.056s user@1000.service                                    
1.041s alsa-restore.service                                 
1.029s keyboard-setup.service                               
1.029s pppd-dns.service                                     
 944ms systemd-modules-load.service                         
 874ms systemd-udev-trigger.service                         
 856ms systemd-rfkill.service                               
 627ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service                       
 564ms systemd-sysusers.service                             
 560ms systemd-random-seed.service                          
 489ms setvtrgb.service                                     
 452ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service                   
 418ms systemd-sysctl.service                               
 355ms ufw.service                                          
 320ms snapd.seeded.service                                 
 308ms lvm2-monitor.service                                 
 292ms plymouth-quit.service                                
 285ms systemd-backlight@backlight:intel_backlight.service  
 249ms systemd-remount-fs.service                           
 234ms console-setup.service                                
 222ms kmod-static-nodes.service                            
 204ms sddm.service                                         
 194ms systemd-user-sessions.service                        
 176ms dev-hugepages.mount                                  
 174ms dev-mqueue.mount                                     
 174ms systemd-update-utmp.service                          
 172ms sys-kernel-debug.mount                               
 171ms sys-kernel-tracing.mount                             
 167ms systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-36B0\x2d3582.service
 166ms blk-availability.service                             
 153ms plymouth-read-write.service                          
 118ms dev-mapper-vgkubuntu\x2dswap_1.swap                  
 112ms boot-efi.mount                                       
 102ms kerneloops.service                                   
  96ms snapd.apparmor.service                               
  81ms lvm2-pvscan@8:2.service                              
  70ms user-runtime-dir@1000.service                        
  37ms tor.service                                          
  36ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount                        
  29ms systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service                 
  27ms rtkit-daemon.service                                 
  27ms plymouth-start.service                               
  16ms sys-kernel-config.mount                              
   6ms snapd.socket                                         
user@User-MacBook:~$

[claydoh]

That is slow, but then again it is what, 14 years old?
*everything* is slow, but a common culprit of slower boot is the networking services.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1166...166492#1166492
and
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1181...182196#1182196


others will blindly jump in and yell about Snapd, but i think this is also related to the networking
if you don't use snaps, then it would be good to uninstall snap related things, I am sure this is extra overhead not amenable for such 'vintage' hardware specs.

[oldgeek]

Pardon me for jumping into this thread with my own question, but I tried the second command and found that man-db.service takes 23.504 sec to load. Is this normal? What is man-db.service anyway?

[claydoh]

It periodically updates the database that has all the info for all the manpages . Could be a one time thing, after an update, or called by a timer to keep it up to date.
See if this persists
Note that this time of 23 seconds is not necessarily pre-boot times, this may still be finishing up once the desktop loads and is usable, so it is not adding those 23 seconds to your boot time but is probably just how long it takes to finish the task. Unlike services such as the networking ones, which can actually keep later items from running.

Also see the command systemd-analyze critical-chain for more


on my quicker-booting laptop this time:

[B]dohbuoy@dohbuoy-FLEX-15IIL:[/B]~$ systemd-analyze 
Startup finished in 3.461s (firmware) + 1.191s (loader) + 2.703s (kernel) + 783ms (userspace) = 8.139s
graphical.target reached after 778ms in userspace


[FONT=monospace][B]dohbuoy@dohbuoy-FLEX-15IIL[/B][COLOR=#000000]:[/COLOR][COLOR=#5454FF][B]~[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]$ systemd-analyze critical-chain  [/COLOR]
The time after the unit is active or started is printed after the "@" character.
[COLOR=#ff0000][U][B]The time the unit takes to start is printed after the "+" character.
[/B][/U][/COLOR]
graphical.target @778ms
└─multi-user.target @778ms
  └─[COLOR=#FF5454][B]snapd.seeded.service @769ms +8ms[/B][/COLOR]
    └─[COLOR=#FF5454][B]snapd.service @616ms +152ms[/B][/COLOR]
      └─basic.target @595ms
        └─sockets.target @595ms
          └─[COLOR=#FF5454][B]snapd.socket @594ms +1ms[/B][/COLOR]
            └─sysinit.target @593ms
              └─[COLOR=#FF5454][B]apparmor.service @515ms +78ms[/B][/COLOR]
                └─local-fs.target @514ms
                  └─[COLOR=#FF5454][B]boot-efi.mount @510ms +4ms[/B][/COLOR]
                    └─[COLOR=#FF5454][B]systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-0A4B\x2dAE5A.service @476ms +31ms[/B][/COLOR]
                      └─dev-disk-by\x2duuid-0A4B\x2dAE5A.device @476ms

[/FONT]

Good lordy having an nvme m.2 drive makes things so much zippier.
Some of JeZ-l-Lee's lack of boot speed is also due to the (lack of) speed of his 'ancient' peripherals.

[GreyGeek]

A lot of those 10+ second services will take less time as you use your system. Man-db is indexing the man pages. When it is done its boot time will shrink significantly.
Take a look at man-db on my system:

$ systemd-analyze blame
889ms smartmontools.service                                                                    
723ms tor@default.service                                                                      
[COLOR=#ff0000]699ms man-db.service  [/COLOR]                                                                         
694ms systemd-logind.service                                                                   
563ms apt-daily-upgrade.service                                                                
534ms dev-sda1.device                                                                          
513ms upower.service                                                                           
484ms networkd-dispatcher.service                                                              
481ms udisks2.service                                                                          
418ms systemd-journald.service                                                                 
389ms systemd-timesyncd.service                                                                
379ms systemd-resolved.service                                                                 
361ms gpu-manager.service                                                                      
347ms accounts-daemon.service                                                                  
294ms logrotate.service                                                                        
289ms systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-ce2b5741\x2dc01e\x2d4b3d\x2db6ba\x2d401ad7f7fcdf.service
250ms systemd-journal-flush.service                                                            
231ms avahi-daemon.service                                                                     
224ms NetworkManager.service                                                                   
218ms polkit.service                                                                           
196ms cwdaemon.service

Like Claydoh says, purging snapd, which will remove chromium-browser because they are joined at the hip, will also eliminate 10 loop devices.

sudo systemctl stop snapd
sudo apt autoremove --purge snapd
rm -vrf ~/snap (might fail if you haven't used the snap store)
sudo systemctl disable snapd.service
sudo systemctl mask snapd.service
sudo systemctl disable snapd.seed.service
sudo systemctl mask snapd.seed.service
sudo apt-mark hold snapd
Then reboot.
The last command will prevent any update from reinstalling snapd.

[JeZ-l-Lee]

Shaved some of the boot time from your suggestions:
Anything else can be done?

user@User-MacBook:~$ systemd-analyze
Startup finished in 7.395s (kernel) + 33.866s (userspace) = 41.262s 
graphical.target reached after 33.831s in userspace
user@User-MacBook:~$

user@User-MacBook:~$ systemd-analyze blame
11.005s udisks2.service                                      
10.178s accounts-daemon.service                              
7.444s dev-mapper-vgkubuntu\x2droot.device                  
6.939s systemd-resolved.service                             
6.637s polkit.service                                       
6.561s avahi-daemon.service                                 
6.551s ModemManager.service                                 
6.475s NetworkManager.service                               
6.041s thermald.service                                     
6.031s systemd-logind.service
6.006s wpa_supplicant.service                               
4.554s grub-common.service                                  
4.544s gpu-manager.service                                  
4.486s apport.service                                       
3.925s upower.service                                       
3.855s packagekit.service                                   
3.738s grub-initrd-fallback.service                         
3.432s rsyslog.service                                      
3.261s systemd-journal-flush.service                        
2.647s systemd-udevd.service                                
2.409s e2scrub_reap.service                                 
2.070s apparmor.service                                     
2.011s systemd-timesyncd.service                            
1.599s systemd-journald.service                             
1.388s systemd-rfkill.service                               
1.282s user@1000.service                                    
1.081s pppd-dns.service                                     
954ms keyboard-setup.service                               
922ms systemd-modules-load.service                         
911ms systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-36B0\x2d3582.service
868ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service                       
736ms systemd-udev-trigger.service                         
679ms alsa-restore.service                                 
593ms systemd-sysusers.service                             
576ms systemd-random-seed.service                          
501ms systemd-backlight@backlight:intel_backlight.service  
499ms dev-mapper-vgkubuntu\x2dswap_1.swap                  
401ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service                   
398ms console-setup.service                                
373ms systemd-sysctl.service                               
336ms lvm2-monitor.service                                 
290ms ufw.service                                          
287ms sys-kernel-tracing.mount                             
287ms dev-hugepages.mount                                  
286ms dev-mqueue.mount                                     
284ms sys-kernel-debug.mount                               
282ms blk-availability.service                             
275ms kmod-static-nodes.service                            
221ms setvtrgb.service                                     
221ms kerneloops.service                                   
213ms systemd-remount-fs.service                           
198ms plymouth-read-write.service                          
152ms systemd-user-sessions.service                        
148ms sddm.service                                         
146ms lvm2-pvscan@8:2.service                              
136ms systemd-update-utmp.service                          
110ms boot-efi.mount                                       
 83ms user-runtime-dir@1000.service                        
 46ms plymouth-quit.service                                
 41ms rtkit-daemon.service                                 
 33ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount                        
 29ms systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service                 
 27ms plymouth-start.service                               
 21ms sys-kernel-config.mount                              
user@User-MacBook:~$

[claydoh]

Not really, imo. Not with a slow cpu, slow ram, slow HDD, plus disk encryption.
~40 seconds ain't bad at all, imo. considering the vintage.

[JeZ-l-Lee]

I should be happy this 13 year old Apple notebook works...
...I tried to install Windows 10 Pro 64Bit from USB and it was a complete failure...

[claydoh]

needz moar ramzes!