slow post in bios (asus p5pe-vm)
 

Not really linux but... POST is very slow with this mobo. The bottleknecks are at the 4 usb mass storage devices (it waits for the to time out... 10s each - was 40s each but there is a bios switch to change this but none to disable). Bios claims there are 4 devices but there are none and lsusb shows none.

There is a card reader using one usb internal. Nothing connected.

Another bottlekneck seems to be waiting for the cd drive... boot order doesn't matter.

Anyone know what I'm missing?

apart from that I am real pleased with this mobo - everything goes out of the box with Ubuntu Feisty as well as Zenwalk 4.2

possibly related: grub loads very sloow ... 30-40s for stage 1.5 and again for stage 2. I'm not used to being able to actually watch grub load... the whole thing adds up to 2.5 mins before the OS can start to boot. Not good for showing off the power of linux even if it ain't a linux issue.

There are recent BIOS updates at the ASUS web site for this motherboard. Some USB issues addressed. While your specific issue is not listed, that's not unusual for a BIOS update (their change lists are very sketchy).

First thing to always try with any problematic device is to update firmware (the BIOS in this case). If nothing else, it eliminates one issue from the list.

Solved: sorta
 

Well BIOS update didn't do it... but, an upgrade later did. Now the boot speed is lightning and I have no idea why.

I can understand how an upgrade would have had grub 1.5 load faster but why would this affect BIOS POST?

The only thing left is those pesky non-existant USB mass storage devices - BIOS lists four and I have to wait for them to time out. That's 10 seconds each (set to minimum) so not too bad.