Table of Contents
Ubuntu - Boot - Speed up boot
Check startup time
Check how long it takes to boot:
systemd-analyze time
returns:
Startup finished in 16.619s (firmware) + 10.201s (loader) + 36.729s (kernel) + 41.034s (userspace) = 1min 44.586s graphical.target reached after 23.396s in userspace
This shows how long it takes for the Linux kernel and base system services to load.
It shows you how much time is required, from the moment the kernel is loaded until you are dropped to the Linux console.
It doesn’t account for the time your graphical interface requires to boot up.
Check startup time for the graphical interface to initialize
You can also see the time required by the graphical interface to initialize with this command:
systemd-analyze critical-chain graphical.target
returns
The time after the unit is active or started is printed after the "@" character. The time the unit takes to start is printed after the "+" character. graphical.target @23.396s └─multi-user.target @23.396s └─libvirt-guests.service @23.378s +18ms └─libvirtd.service @3.189s +20.187s └─network.target @3.189s └─NetworkManager.service @2.333s +855ms └─dbus.service @2.223s └─basic.target @2.207s └─sockets.target @2.207s └─docker.socket @2.206s +965us └─sysinit.target @2.203s └─apparmor.service @1.458s +745ms └─local-fs.target @1.457s └─run-user-1000-gvfs.mount @15.641s └─run-user-1000.mount @14.700s └─swap.target @1.607s └─dev-mapper-ubuntu\x2d\x2dvg\x2dswap_1.swap @1.565s +36ms └─dev-mapper-ubuntu\x2d\x2dvg\x2dswap_1.device @1.565s
This shows that the graphical user interface loaded in 23.396 seconds.
This doesn’t account for the time required to load desktop utilities.
To enable/disable those, launch your desktop environment startup manager.
Check which services takes most time
Use the following command to check which service takes most of time
systemd-analyze blame
returns
30.898s apt-daily.service 20.417s rsyslog.service 20.187s libvirtd.service 5.774s systemd-networkd-wait-online.service 3.654s docker.service 1.841s apt-daily-upgrade.service 1.820s snapd.service 1.487s plymouth-quit-wait.service 993ms dev-mapper-ubuntu\x2d\x2dvg\x2droot.device 855ms NetworkManager.service 768ms fwupd.service 752ms udisks2.service 745ms apparmor.service 736ms networkd-dispatcher.service 725ms snap-gnome\x2dcalculator-544.mount 710ms networking.service 697ms thermald.service 680ms snap-netbeans-10.mount 674ms snap-gnome\x2dlogs-81.mount 661ms systemd-resolved.service 643ms systemd-timesyncd.service 642ms systemd-logind.service 558ms ModemManager.service 550ms apport.service 544ms gpu-manager.service 528ms motd-news.service 502ms grub-common.service ...
You can navigate the list with your arrow keys or PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN.
Press q to quit.
Check the critical chain
Analyze each major process to determine how long it takes to run.
For example, to get further information on the AppArmor Service, to see if you can disable it or speed it up, use:
systemctl status apparmor.service
returns:
● apparmor.service - AppArmor initialization Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apparmor.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: active (exited) since Sat 2019-11-23 10:23:26 GMT; 2 days ago Docs: man:apparmor(7) http://wiki.apparmor.net/ Process: 1181 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/apparmor start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Main PID: 1181 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Warning: Journal has been rotated since unit was started. Log output is incomplete or unavailable.
Also check the journal:
journalctl -u apparmor.service
returns:
-- Logs begin at Sun 2019-11-24 02:17:01 GMT, end at Mon 2019-11-25 21:05:42 GMT. -- -- No entries --
Disabling auto-start of services during boot
If you want to disable auto-starting of services during boot you can use the following command:
sudo systemctl disable some-time-eater-service.service --now
However, you might want to see which other services needs the service in question. To check use the following command
systemctl list-dependencies some-service.service --reverse
Note: Replace some-service.service with actual service name.
WARNING: Disabling a service doesn't make a service non-startable. If you reboot, you could notice the service (daemon) is still running. That’s because other dependencies may launch it, even if it’s disabled.
Try to see what those may be:
systemd-analyze blame | grep some-service
If you want to completely disable it, read the next section.
Disabling services completely
If you want to completely disable a service so that it can't be started, you should use mask instead of disable. Like this
sudo systemctl mask <SERVICE-NAME>
Replace the <SERVICE-NAME> with actual name of a service.
The difference between mask and disable is mask make a service completely disable, you can't start it. You must unmask to start it with systemd (you can still start with service). But disable simply disables auto-start of a service, you can start it later.
For example, after masking the some-service service, if you tried start it with systemctl the following message is shown
Failed to start some-service.service: Unit some-service.service is masked.
Re-enable a service
If you want to re-enable a service:
sudo systemctl unmask <SERVICE-NAME> sudo systemctl enable <SERVICE-NAME>