Very slow Linux

christopherlinux · 01-18-2023, 12:13 PM

Hello,
I am running an Alienware Aurora R11 and am dual-booted on Windows and POP Os but I am running into issues with just my POP Os. Boot time is very slow (around 2 minutes), it takes around 2 minutes to open applications like chrome, vscode, docker (starting with systemctl), spotify. In addition, file transfer speeds are weirdly slow given that I am on an SSD, but I see around 13mbps transfer speeds when copying files on my SSD. I was wondering if anyone knew what could be causing this or how to fix it?

Other background information which may help:
- On Windows, my computer boots in seconds and applications open nearly instantly.
- After booting to Pop OS and then booting to windows, the time in windows will be set incorrectly.
- I previously tried installing Ubuntu, which failed in its initial installation and once I got it working, black screened.

If anyone knows what may be causing this or how to fix it, please let me know!

yvesjv · 01-18-2023, 01:08 PM

That is actually strange.

Do not know POP OS (wikipedia says Ubuntu) but can you:
1. post your dmesg output after booting into POP OS
2. Boot into a 'Live USB' and compare. For example Devuan Live which is also based on Debian but without the extra baggage:- https://www.devuan.org/get-devuan
3. Check what your system components are meant to be against what dmidecode outputs... never know
4. Check your bios settings to see if there is anything required that is disabled/modified/etc

jailbait · 01-18-2023, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by christopherlinux

Hello,
I am running an Alienware Aurora R11 and am dual-booted on Windows and POP Os but I am running into issues with just my POP Os. Boot time is very slow (around 2 minutes), it takes around 2 minutes to open applications like chrome, vscode, docker (starting with systemctl), spotify. In addition, file transfer speeds are weirdly slow given that I am on an SSD, but I see around 13mbps transfer speeds when copying files on my SSD. I was wondering if anyone knew what could be causing this or how to fix it?

Other background information which may help:
- On Windows, my computer boots in seconds and applications open nearly instantly.
- After booting to Pop OS and then booting to windows, the time in windows will be set incorrectly.
- I previously tried installing Ubuntu, which failed in its initial installation and once I got it working, black screened.

If anyone knows what may be causing this or how to fix it, please let me know!

The time problem is caused by Linux keeping time in GMT time and Windows keeping time in local time. There is a way to tell Windows to keep time in GMT but I don't know how to do that in Windows.

Your time delays might be caused by your partition IDs in /etc/fstab not matching the partition IDs on the actual partitions. You can arrive in such a problem state by failed installs being followed by a successful install. Take a look at your /etc/fstab file and if necessary change the UUIDs in /etc/fstab to match what you have on the actual partitions. In particular take a look at your UUID on the swap partition.

rokytnji · 01-18-2023, 05:30 PM

to find uuid

Code:

harry@scooter:~
$ blkid
/dev/sda1: UUID="A025-F394" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="f0c97e1c-01"
/dev/sda2: UUID="d4674d03-607f-4de9-abd8-a72ea41e4d0a" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="f0c97e1c-02"
/dev/sda3: LABEL="rootantiX22" UUID="ddec6fb9-cec9-4bd7-b2f7-ae23e7048674" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="f0c97e1c-03"

to find fstab

Code:

harry@scooter:~
$ cat /etc/fstab
# Pluggable devices are handled by uDev, they are not in fstab
UUID=ddec6fb9-cec9-4bd7-b2f7-ae23e7048674 / ext4 discard,noatime 1 1
#-> /dev/sda2
UUID=d4674d03-607f-4de9-abd8-a72ea41e4d0a  swap                                        swap       defaults                        0 0
#-> /dev/sda1
UUID=A025-F394                             /media/A025-F394                            vfat       noauto,uid=1000,gid=users,dmask=002,fmask=113,users  0 0

IF ME. I would unplug any external usb devices when checking slow boot.
I would also look into installing a newer kernel in PopOS also.

https://linux-hardware.org/index.php?probe=a1a72e5448

https://linuxhint.com/update-linux-kernel-pop-os/

uteck · 01-18-2023, 06:51 PM

You can ask systemd to show the time each boot item is taking with:

Code:

systemd-analyze blame

christopherlinux · 01-18-2023, 07:26 PM

@yvesjv
I have attached my dmesg outupt, it was quite long and filled with many errors so I've put it in 4 text files.

christopherlinux · 01-18-2023, 07:28 PM

@yvesj
Here is my dmidecode output:

christopherlinux · 01-18-2023, 07:31 PM

@jailbat
@rokytnji

Code:

blkid
/dev/sda5: UUID="02481f90-b528-4ccf-8e1a-bfd6aaa81aa7" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="419f276c-8856-425d-b477-490191b10cda"

Code:

cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system>  <mount point>  <type>  <options>  <dump>  <pass>
PARTUUID=b5b4c7f0-682a-4bf1-b67d-ac5b6c3bb5d6  /boot/efi  vfat  umask=0077  0  0
UUID=02481f90-b528-4ccf-8e1a-bfd6aaa81aa7  /  ext4  noatime,errors=remount-ro  0  0
/dev/mapper/cryptswap  none  swap  defaults  0  0

christopherlinux · 01-18-2023, 07:38 PM

@teck

Code:

systemd-analyze blame
28.311s networkd-dispatcher.service
19.657s plymouth-quit-wait.service
 8.651s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
 8.081s com.system76.Scheduler.service
 7.064s NetworkManager.service
 6.857s accounts-daemon.service
 5.873s dev-sda5.device
 5.487s rsyslog.service
 5.396s gpu-manager.service
 5.227s wpa_supplicant.service
 4.930s udisks2.service
 3.637s com.system76.SystemUpdater.service
 3.402s packagekit.service
 3.398s polkit.service
 3.393s secureboot-db.service
 3.155s systemd-journal-flush.service
 3.060s e2scrub_reap.service
 3.046s pop-default-settings-zram.service
 2.545s grub-common.service
 2.509s thermald.service
 2.474s systemd-udevd.service
 2.183s apport.service
 2.104s tailscaled.service
 2.039s bluetooth.service
 1.999s fwupd-refresh.service
 1.957s avahi-daemon.service
 1.777s ModemManager.service
 1.776s apparmor.service
 1.705s colord.service
 1.487s nvidia-persistenced.service
 1.348s plymouth-start.service
 1.293s systemd-modules-load.service
 1.237s upower.service
 1.148s gdm.service
 1.002s systemd-rfkill.service
  944ms switcheroo-control.service
  799ms systemd-udev-trigger.service
  789ms systemd-cryptsetup@cryptswap.service
  788ms com.system76.PowerDaemon.service
  783ms grub-initrd-fallback.service
  750ms systemd-sysusers.service
  646ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
  640ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
  625ms systemd-journald.service
  614ms networking.service
  595ms fwupd.service
  513ms plymouth-read-write.service
  504ms ufw.service
  504ms console-setup.service
  496ms systemd-resolved.service
  455ms chrony.service
  453ms keyboard-setup.service
  407ms ua-timer.service
  399ms systemd-random-seed.service
  392ms boot-efi.mount
  384ms finalrd.service
  383ms setvtrgb.service
  378ms modprobe@drm.service

uteck · 01-18-2023, 07:48 PM

You can disable networkd-dispatcher.service since desktops use Network Manager, so that will shave off bout 30 seconds from the boot.

Code:

sudo systemctl stop systemd-networkd.service
sudo systemctl disable systemd-networkd.service

If that does cause an issue, then enable it again.

jailbait · 01-18-2023, 08:38 PM

I think that you asked for swap to be encrypted but did not specify a swap partition:

Code:

 /dev/mapper/cryptswap  none  swap  defaults  0  0

Then systemd starts the encryption subsytem:

Code:

 789ms systemd-cryptsetup@cryptswap.service

Part of the delay may be systemd waiting for a minute or two to see if swap encryption might actually do something. Are you getting systemd countdown messages at boot?

christopherlinux · 01-18-2023, 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jailbait

I think that you asked for swap to be encrypted but did not specify a swap partition:

Code:

 /dev/mapper/cryptswap  none  swap  defaults  0  0

Then systemd starts the encryption subsytem:

Code:

 789ms systemd-cryptsetup@cryptswap.service

Part of the delay may be systemd waiting for a minute or two to see if swap encryption might actually do something. Are you getting systemd countdown messages at boot?

As far as I know I see no messages during boot, however my monitor does turn from black to grey several times over.
Not only is boot slow, but I do also get slow performance when its running and its frequent for my computer to entirely freeze.

christopherlinux · 01-18-2023, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uteck

You can disable networkd-dispatcher.service since desktops use Network Manager, so that will shave off bout 30 seconds from the boot.

Code:

sudo systemctl stop systemd-networkd.service
sudo systemctl disable systemd-networkd.service

If that does cause an issue, then enable it again.

Thank you, will try this.
Do you know what might be the source of these issues? I'm running Pop Os on my much less powerful laptop and it runs like butter on that.

Debian6to11 · 01-19-2023, 06:40 AM

blkid output is incomplete

uteck · 01-19-2023, 07:05 AM

Could the encrypted swap be the problem?
In /etc/fstab comment out the /dev/mapper/cryptswap line and reboot and see if that makes a difference.
If you have enough RAM, swap is not needed, and I think PopOS is enabling zram to compress unused memory rather then sending to swap.