Ubuntu Wiki

Background

Casper and the boot process of live-cd images on ARM based hardware is currently very slow. As part of the blueprint mobile-lucid-une-casper-speedup the process needed to be first investigated, profiled and conclusions drawn on that information.

Time-stamping information was added to the call_scripts function in /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/functions of a live-cd, the date binary added, and the initramfs recreated using ModifyCasper.

Initial Findings

The output from the initial time-stamping.

5 seconds plus (aka, the culprits)

Two to 5 seconds (aka, should be looked at)

One second or less (aka, no use optimizing)

More detailed analysis

10adduser

chroot /root debconf-communicate -fnoninteractive casper > /dev/null <<EOF
set passwd/root-password-crypted *
set passwd/user-password-crypted U6aMy0wojraho
set passwd/user-fullname $USERFULLNAME 
set passwd/username $USERNAME
set passwd/user-uid 999
EOF

Takes around 7 seconds.

chroot /root /usr/lib/user-setup/user-setup-apply > /dev/null

Takes around 12 seconds.

chroot /root debconf-communicate -fnoninteractive casper > /dev/null <<EOF
set passwd/root-password-crypted
set passwd/user-password-crypted
set passwd/user-fullname
set passwd/username
set passwd/user-uid
EOF

Takes around 4 seconds.

19keyboard

Each of the

casper-preseed /root console-setup/layoutcode '' false
casper-preseed /root console-setup/variantcode '' false
casper-preseed /root console-setup/modelcode '' false
casper-preseed /root console-setup/optionscode '' false
casper-preseed /root console-setup/codesetcode '' false

Take around 4 seconds each.

24preseed

chroot /root debconf-communicate -fnoninteractive casper)"

Takes around 5 seconds.

14locales

chroot /root /usr/sbin/locale-gen "${LANG}"

Takes around 7 seconds (chroot + generating the locale)

45disable_guest_account

chroot /root dpkg -P gdm-guest-session || true

Takes around 7 seconds to read the database (129858 files and directories according to the output)

22sslcert

chroot /root /usr/sbin/make-ssl-cert generate-default-snakeoil --force-overwrite

3 seconds are spent on the chroot, 1.5 seconds on the "make-ssl0cert:again".

35fix_language_selection

chroot /root fontconfig-voodoo --auto --quiet || true

Pretty much all the 4 seconds are spent here.

The original output

[04:59:48] Calling hook 10driver_updates
[04:59:48] Calling hook 20iso_scan
[04:59:48] Calling hook 30custom_installation
[04:59:50] Calling hook 01integrity_check
[04:59:50] Calling hook 05mountpoints
[04:59:50] Calling hook 05mountpoints_lupin
[04:59:50] Calling hook 10adduser
Shadow passwords are now on.
[05:00:16] Calling hook 10custom_installation
[05:00:16] Calling hook 10ntfs_3g
[05:00:16] Calling hook 12fstab
[05:00:16] Calling hook 13swap
[05:00:16] Calling hook 14locales
Generating locales...
  en_US.UTF-8... done
Generation complete.
[05:00:24] Calling hook 15autologin
[05:00:24] Calling hook 18hostname
[05:00:24] Calling hook 19keyboard
[05:00:47] Calling hook 20xconfig
[05:00:47] Calling hook 22gnome_panel_data
[05:00:48] Calling hook 22screensaver
[05:00:49] Calling hook 22serialtty
[05:00:49] Calling hook 22sslcert
[05:00:54] Calling hook 23etc_modules
[05:00:54] Calling hook 23networking
[05:00:55] Calling hook 24preseed
[05:01:06] Calling hook 25configure_init
[05:01:07] Calling hook 30accessibility
[05:01:07] Calling hook 31disable_update_notifier
[05:01:07] Calling hook 32disable_hibernation
[05:01:08] Calling hook 33enable_apport_crashes
[05:01:08] Calling hook 34disable_kde_services
[05:01:08] Calling hook 35fix_language_selector
[05:01:12] Calling hook 36disable_trackerd
[05:01:12] Calling hook 37kubuntu_netbook_installer_link
[05:01:12] Calling hook 40install_driver_updates
[05:01:12] Calling hook 41apt_cdrom
Using CD-ROM mount point /cdrom/
Identifying.. [4dc8ab4694d3b0e7528f442bee3567df-2]
Scanning disc for index files..
Found 1 package indexes, 0 source indexes, 0 translation indexes and 1 signatures
Found label 'Ubuntu 9.10 _Karmic Koala_ - Release armel+imx51 (20091027.2)'
This disc is called:
'Ubuntu 9.10 _Karmic Koala_ - Release armel+imx51 (20091027.2)'
Copying package lists...gpgv: Signature made Tue Oct 27 21:59:50 2009 UTC using DSA key ID FBB75451
gpgv: key FBB75451 was created 1104415711 seconds in the future (time warp or clock problem)
gpgv: key FBB75451 was created 1104415711 seconds in the future (time warp or clock problem)
gpgv: Can't check signature: timestamp conflict
E: Sub-process gpgv returned an error code (2)
W: Signature verification failed for: /cdrom/dists/karmic/Release.gpg
[05:01:13] Calling hook 42disable_apparmor
 Removing any system startup links for /etc/init.d/apparmor ...
   /etc/rcS.d/S37apparmor
[05:01:13] Calling hook 43disable_updateinitramfs
[05:01:13] Calling hook 44pk_allow_ubuntu
[05:01:13] Calling hook 45disable_guest_account
(Reading database ... 129861 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing gdm-guest-session ...
Purging configuration files for gdm-guest-session ...
[05:01:21] Calling hook 46disable_services
[05:01:21] Calling hook 47unr_ubiquity
No value set for `/apps/netbook-launcher/favorites/favorites_list'
No value set for `/apps/netbook-launcher/favorites/favorites_list'
No value to set for key: `/apps/netbook-launcher/favorites/favorites_list'