[SGVLUG] Time to boot getting longer with Debian

[David Lawyer]

On Sat, Apr 22, 2006 at 12:58:58PM -0700, John E. Kreznar wrote:
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> David Lawyer <dave at lafn.org> writes:
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> > I just installed kernel 2.6.15 on my 11-year-old PC and it takes over
> > 3 min. to boot. ... I could track down the delays ....
> 
> 2.6.16 (and maybe 2.6.15 as well?) has a new configuration parameter
> PRINTK_TIME described as follows.
[snip]
Thanks for the info but if I watch the boot-time messages I can see
a few places where it pauses far too long (I think) so I'll work on
these first without using any timing tools.  I've sent in the first
bug report on this and hope the reply isn't to get a faster PC to work
around inefficiencies and bloat.

I've gotten such responses from Debian maintainers in the past.
A bug was introduced in the latest revision of module load tools so
that the ppp module of kernel 2.2.20 doesn't load (but other modules
for 2.2.20 do load).  Without the ppp module I can't connect to the
Internet (with 2.2.20 -- but I've got later versions I can select from
the boot menu that take longer to boot and provide ppp OK).  The
response was that 2.2.20 is no longer supported.  But I'm appealing
this and will let this list know if I succeed in getting this bug
fixed.

Actually I can connect to the Internet with 2.2.20 since I reverted to
an old version of the modutils package but one shouldn't need to do
this.

And when Tom E. wrote that the longer boot times might be a price we pay
for progress, I think it's a price we pay for not having people like
me that complain about it, try to find the causes for it, and get them
fixed.

			David Lawyer