how do i let dhclient3 run at a later runlevel with concurrency active?

MrInept · 03-26-2007, 02:36 AM

Hi guys,

I followed this guide to speed up my boot time, and i got significant improvements. My latest bootchart shows 42sec boot time which I'm really happy with and people in my family might start using it cos it takes about 4 minutes to be able to run a program in XP from boot. One thing that is bothering me though is the huge amount of time wasted while my system is doing dhcp requests. I have a wireless pci card and it just isn't fast. I've run the option Concurrency=shell i'm just trying to figure out how to get dhclient3 to do whatever it has to while say gdm and xorg are loading. I'm running debian etch kernel 2.6.18 (custom compile).

How do I post the png file of my bootchart?

Thanks to all you helpful ppl,

Marc

JimBass · 03-27-2007, 12:35 PM

I don't know how it could be done within the parameters you set, but if it is a DHCP request that is taking long, why not remove the DHCP part of it, and assign a static address on the computer?

I've never played with a fast boot, but on default booting, machine with static addresses set on themselves take much less time than DHCP set addresses.

You can't post any pics here on LQ, so the way to deal with a picture is to post it on one of your machines and give a link, or put it on a free picture site, and again give a link.

Although to be honest, seeing a picture of how long your boot takes is unnecessary for us.

Peace,
JimBass

MrInept · 03-27-2007, 10:05 PM

Is there any way to simply move it to a different run level though?

I've tried everything to get it to be a static ip and i just can't do it. My router does allow it because in windows xp it works a treat but i've followed the various guides regarding the ./networking/interfaces file and can't do it. Nonetheless, it could dhcp its heart away if it was doing other things at the same time.

JimBass · 03-27-2007, 10:15 PM

You don't mean a different run level. Runlevels are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, and just categorize what programs start within their parameters. What you are looking for is the tool update-rc.d. Use the manpage.

Problem is, dhclient isn't listed specifically in the startup scripts in /etc/rcX.d. It is part of some other process, and likely can't easily be called earlier.

It is far easier to simply give the machine a static address. It will take less than 60 seconds to do, and it will work flawlessly, allowing a much faster boot.

Peace,
JimBass

MrInept · 03-28-2007, 06:06 AM

Ok Jim thanks for your help i'll have a look at both.

Isn't it great how open source software brings together these little communities of really helpful ppl? Or am i still just recovering from the weekend

MrInept · 03-29-2007, 07:59 AM

Hmm... thanks for the help, it seems i may have already had static ip working.

the networking script still pauses for a long time when it says

ipv6 over ipv4 tunnelling driver
Done.

Is there something here i can fiddle with? I've tried changing in /etc/modprobe.d/aliases

the line alias net-pf-10 ipv6

to

alias net-pf-10 off
alias ipv6 off

but it still comes up (as per http://beranger.org/index.php?article=1127)

JimBass · 03-29-2007, 08:33 AM

Did you also try the other suggestion on the page?

Quote:

In /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist, add a line
blacklist ipv6

You also can find where ipv6 may be getting called from with a slow search - something like

Code:

grep -r ipv6 /etc
(do as root or with sudo)

That will probably have a fair number of hits, but it can help you comment out the calls to ipv6.

Peace,
JimBass