Slow boot and slow desktop, along with indecipherable log messages

linux-mint graphics cifs smb

9,652

Try forcing the system to run a disk check. Linux uses fsck to check a disk, the disc cannot be mounted at the time.

try starting the linux OS in recovery mode (at console rather than at gui) then as root or using sudo (not sure which is possible with Mint) execute

# shutdown -rF now

this will force a reboot with an fsck run

9,652

kchak

An inquisitive soul

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

kchak almost 2 years
I am a Linux Mint 17 - Cinnamon user, and have been using it for the past 1 month. I am new to this OS, and trying to learn how to work in a linux environment.

My system boots extremely slowly (takes about 20 minutes), and when it does boot the desktop is very unresponsive. Double clicks and keystrokes take way too long to register, though the mouse moves around normally. The whole thing started yesterday after my system shut down because of a power cut. I was not upgrading or installing anything.

While looking for clues as to what went wrong, on rebooting, I pressed the arrow keys a bit and this took me to a logging screen (?) listing a bunch of (boot?) tasks and their status.

There were a bunch of
```
* xyz task                                                      [ok]
```
followed by:
```
* Starting load fallback graphics devices                       [fail]
```
Followed by more [OK]s, followed by:
```
* Starting SMB/CIFS file and active directory server            [fail]  
```
After a few more [OK]s the system boots, and there I have the slowdown problems described above.

I am dual booting this on my desktop along with windows 7. The entire Linux mint system is on a different hard disk, as is my windows installation.

My PC specifications include:

a core i7 processor. 8GB RAM. a Nvidia GTX 670 Graphics Card.
- Warwick almost 10 years
  
  How did your system shut down after the power cut? Was it a controlled shutdown due to a battery draining, or UPS sending a shutdown signal, or was it an instant loss of power giving the system no time to perform any graceful shutdown tasks?
- kchak almost 10 years
  
  It was an instant loss of power due to circumstances way beyond my control.
Warwick almost 10 years

It is a good idea. If you backup each startup script first, then it isn't so dirty. Then once the system is all good again, the scripts can be restored.
kchak almost 10 years

I did do this, but I couldn't figure out what to do next. Previously, when everything was fine, all the processes were booting so fast, that one never gets to see them being logged. But now each process loads extremely slow for some reason. I'll try running fsck again. Is there anything specific I should look out for?
scbickle almost 10 years

The speed may be due to a problem with the disk, you could try the disk test/management tools in a rescue cd or live distro