I have Windows 98SE, Windows XP Home SP2, and SUSE Linux 9.3 Professional on my computer. SUSE is taking 3 times as long as both versions of Windows combined to start up... I'm wondering if this is normal or if there is something I'm doing wrong. I'm using the Raiser file system, which I hear is slow and is probably the cause, but I'd like to know that for sure. Also, could a large number of programs be causing it? I installed nearly everything when I installed SUSE. Could it maybe be lack of enough swap space?

In case it's important, here's my setup:

Hard Drive 1
MBR - Microsoft NTDLR Bootloader
Partition 1, FAT32, 10gb - Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition
Partition 2, NTFS, 70gb - Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2

Hard Drive 2
Partition 1, RAISER, 79gb - Novell SUSE Linux 9.3 Professional
Partition 2, SWAP, 1gb, SWAP

Floppy
GRUB bootloader

So, what should I do to get my SUSE to start faster? I am willing to reinstall SUSE if necessary.

reiserfs is an improved FS
what do u get when u run

chkconfig --list
on ur suse system
we can try to close down unrequired services

regards

there are three issues:
1. most important linux does not have implemented paralell service start on boot (there is a gentoo project - initng, you can try to modify scripts)
2. you have a lot of services to start
3. reiserfs is pretty slow on boot (xfs is way faster) because it si checking fs integrity (slow in comparison to xfs and probably other fs)

you can fix ad. 2 easily, ad. requires format, ad 1 is most difficult, I would not try it if you are newbie.

SuSe is normally slow

how long does it take to boot ??

on my laptop it takes about 1 minute and 20 seconds