LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] Slow Log-in

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Slow Log-in/Hardware/Permission Problems.

The log in procedure has slowed to a crawl.
The computer boots up normal (run level 3) and presents the sign on prompt. Once the user name is entered it can take 60 to 70 seconds before the password prompt appears. Sometimes the password prompt pops up as it should, but it takes 60-70 seconds before the "fortune" and command prompt appear.
At first I thought it might have something to do with the last Nvidia driver, but I installed the most recent driver last night and that didn't solve the problem.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.

Edit in: Please see post #6, below.

Some information about your setup, such as dmesg output, output of lspci, output of lsmod, would make it much easier to help you.

Is there an intensive hard disk activity during these 60-70 seconds?
I had similar issue and it was because of an cache update.
In /etc/rc.d/rc.M:

Code:

# Update any existing icon cache files:

if find /usr/share/icons 2> /dev/null | grep -q icon-theme.cache ; then

  for theme_dir in /usr/share/icons/* ; do

    if [ -r ${theme_dir}/icon-theme.cache ]; then

      echo "Updating icon-theme.cache in ${theme_dir}..."

      /usr/bin/gtk-update-icon-cache -t -f ${theme_dir} 1> /dev/null 2> /dev/null &

    fi

  done

  # This would be a large file and probably shouldn't be there.

  if [ -r /usr/share/icons/icon-theme.cache ]; then

    echo "Deleting icon-theme.cache in /usr/share/icons..."

    #/usr/bin/gtk-update-icon-cache -t -f /usr/share/icons 1> /dev/null 2> /dev/null &

    rm -f /usr/share/icons/icon-theme.cache

  fi

fi

You could check with:

Code:

find /usr/share/icons/ -name "*cache"

I just deleted all *.cache files. Don't know it this is the right solution but it saves nerves :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ppencho (Post 4825120)

Is there an intensive hard disk activity during these 60-70 seconds?
I had similar issue and it was because of an cache update.
...

I don't think anything in rc.M can cause a long delay between username and password prompt, since rc.M runs to completion before the processes that prompt for username start. Those cache file rebuilds slow down boot-up, but not login.

In fact, not a whole lot happens on a stock Slackware system between entering your username and the password prompt. agetty reads the username, and then exec's /bin/login to read the password and authenticate you. There isn't even a new process until after you log in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ljb643 (Post 4825404)

I don't think anything in rc.M can cause a long delay between username and password prompt...

Yes, it's true. In my case the password prompt appears immediately after username but it is impossible to login before the cache file rebuild completes.

It looks to be a hardware problem. Apparently the hard drive is going south, BUT Xp-sp3, in its own partition runs just fine.
So, I deleted the Linux partitions, re-created them (different sizes) and did a fresh install of Slackware64 14-current, but the problem remains.
Before deleting the Linux partitions I backed up many files, those not on DVDs, to the Xp (ntfs) partition. After moving them back to the new Linux partition a few are giving me permission programs and nothing I've done, as root, will allow me to install the applications or open a Truecrypt container.
Is there a solution for this?
Thanks.
:hattip:

I see this as well on a laptop we have.

Slackware64 14.0, runlevel 3 or 4 there is a definite lag at the login prompt. You can press the first letter of your username and wait quite sometime for it to appear. There is then also a lag in the password prompt coming up.

I've not really got round to looking in to it yet, we just sort of wait at the moment. Runlevel 4 it happened with xdm, gdm and slim.

It is now taking 3 minutes and 20 seconds for the system to load. You can try to sign on before it is completely loaded, but the results will as described in the first post above. If I wait until all activity has stopped, then the system runs fine. The sign on is as one would expect and whatever desktop, Xfce or KDE, starts up normally. Basically, the start up is now just like winXP has always been....

BTW, while having these problems I've spent sometime using Xp (sp3) and was able to find windows version of almost every Open Source application I use, and many of them have little visual "improvements" you don't see in the Linux versions. I guess even the Open Source developers write with the 800 pound gorilla in mind.
So far I've found Clementine, LibreOffice, VLC, DOSBox (don't really need it), Audacity, GIMP, Midnight Commander, Pidgin, Tor (both the browser bundle and the Vidalia/Polpio bundle), TrueCrypt and even Snow, aka, XSnow (it is that time of the year, :-) ). Of course there is also Opera, Firefox, Thunderbird, etc. I even installed KDE for Windows so I can play Grandfather (KPatience). It all runs, surprisingly, very well and, as previously mentioned, I've noticed several small tweaks that you just don't see in the Linux versions. If I didn't have such an aversion to mickeysoft and their questionable :tisk: business practices...... :scratch:

Turns out is was the hard drive all along. Ran a utility on it and it said the drive was OK. but when I read the "notes" it said the HD was dying a slow death. Replaced the hard drive and all is well.

thanks for posting follow up, sometimes fun, interesting and irritating tracking these oddball things down, took me a few weeks one time few years ago to find out some memory was flaky