A Two-Second Boot Time With systemd

Phoronix ^ | May 14th | Michael Larabel

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

Lennart Poettering has written a guide for optimizing systemd to the extent that a two-second boot-time or less for this popular free software project.

The systemd optimization guide can be found on the FreeDesktop.org Wiki.

While right now there's many manual steps to lower the systemd-controlled boot-time, the goal is to eventually incorporate these tweaks into upstream distributions as the defaults. "It is our intention to optimize the upstream distributions by default (in particular Fedora) so that these optimizations won't be necessary. However, this will take some time, especially since making these changes is often not trivial when the general purpose usefulness cannot be compromised."

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

The headline is a bit misleading.

All OS have a multi phase booting cycle.

This only reduces the speed of the init phase of the booting cycle.

But typically, in a lot of modern linux distros system booting is very quick. It takes longer to get from login screen to desktop in many cases than it does to get from power=off to login screen.

But GUI initialization is being sped up too. See:

http://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/2012/04/improving-kwin-startup-performance/

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

Clickable link:

http://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/2012/04/improving-kwin-startup-performance/

[re_nortex]

But typically, in a lot of modern linux distros system booting is very quick.

It takes ma a while to get out of my comfort zone. I rebelled when GRUB came along since I was so accustomed to LILO. Now I look back and wonder what I was thinking by clinging to the familiar for so long.

I'm undergoing the same transition now as I get used to the new approach since the SysV init scripts were what I had been use to for so very long. Progress is disruptive and, for me, sometimes painful. But I can already see the benefits of the new way of launching services. It's not only faster but less brittle than the serialized order of the startup symlinks.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Halfmanhalfamazing.

http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/

[JRandomFreeper]

You could really screw up the config when GRUB first came along. I still have the 'root (hd0,0); makeactive; chainloader +1; boot' instructions written up on the wall because of that.

It's much easier today.

And yes, looking in /etc/rc.d for startup problems is sort of a reflex.

I no longer ride the bleeding edge. I want my apps to work, and I'm not going to change unless hardware requires it, or a really new app comes along that requires a new kernel.

/johnny

[ShadowAce]

[martin_fierro]

It takes ma a while to get out of my comfort zone.

She's your ma. Let her stay in your comfort zone.

[Egon]

She's your ma. Let her stay in your comfort zone.

I don't let my ma anywhere near my comfort zone.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Very interesting - thanks for this. Just proves once again what a force Linux in general (and I claim Fedora/Red Hat in particular) is to keep pushing the envelope in all areas. I think any one innovation is not necessarily a game changer but all the innovations taken together do end up changing the game!

[re_nortex]

re_nortex: It takes ma a while to get out of my comfort zone.

martin_fierro: She's your ma. Let her stay in your comfort zone.

Egon: I don't let my ma anywhere near my comfort zone.

Heads will roll over this! I'm going to write a sternly-worded letter to John Robinson immediately about the borken spell check here on FR! It has brought me everlasting shame and ridicule from my peers. I can't imagine for the life of me why it doesn't properly correct things in accord with what I mean. Why it merely parses the individual words without understanding the intent. What a shoddy system! Heuristics! Ha! Bring back Clippy!

:-)

[zeugma]

I don't really get systemd. It's something that I've spent a little time looking at, but it is such a huge change from the standard init process, that I haven't really wrapped my head around it yet. As of the moment, I don't particularly care for it, because it is just too different from every other unix out there in the world.