"rc.hotplug start" very slow
 

I was happily surprised by how fast slackware boots, that is, until it reaches:
"Activating hardware detection: /etc/rc.d rc.hotplug start"
This takes more time than everything else together!
When I look at dmesg I see something like:
"hw_random: misc device register failed"
This is repeated over and over again. Is this the reason why starting hotplug is slow: it fails and keeps trying? Or is it not related at all? Any way to give hotplug a faster start?

Sort of. That message is indicating that it is probing something, but there is no device there. If you aren't going to upgrade the kernel to 2.6, you could just deactivate it.

Thanks, tuxdev. I want to be able to use my usb memory stick, so I should not deactivate hotplug.
But what does this have to do with 2.4 versus 2.6 kernel?

I noticed this as well on my laptop, hotplug would take an extended period of time to probe, once I updated to 2.6 it went much faster. Didnt take the time before upgrading to diagnose the issue. Must be some module/driver causing the delay.


-cyanidebm

2.4 does not support udev, and hotplug is required for pretty much just udev, so those with 2.4 has no use for hotplug except for certain things, like a usb flash drive (I think). They may have backported udev support to 2.4 and everything I just said can be completely disregarded in that case.

Thanks for your replies! I was planning to get a recent 2.6 kernel anyway, I'll let you know how it works out.

you can update your kernel to recognize your device.
If you not like it ,you can add it to "/etc/hotplug/blacklist"