Slow boot times since 18.04 installation on Dell D630

Question

Since I have upgraded my Del D630 laptop to Ubuntu 18.04 , boot times became "impossible". It literally take many minutes just to get a login screen, and then still one minute or more to have working icons on a desktop. This for both X11 and Wayland sessions.

I ran systemd analyse tools and I saw that the different snap and systemd services are causing a huge delay in booting.

Does anyone have any idea how to overcome this or how to remove them without further breaking breaking my system?

$ systemd-analyze blame
1min 31.794s dev-loop8.device
1min 31.790s dev-loop9.device
1min 31.675s systemd-backlight@backlight:intel_backlight.service
1min 31.144s systemd-rfkill.service
1.408s dev-sda1.device
822ms fwupd.service
789ms dev-loop7.device
689ms dev-loop6.device
658ms dev-loop3.device
634ms dev-loop1.device
629ms dev-loop5.device
626ms dev-loop0.device
601ms dev-loop4.device
562ms dev-loop2.device
529ms networkd-dispatcher.service
522ms systemd-udev-trigger.service
491ms ModemManager.service
490ms accounts-daemon.service
437ms udisks2.service
409ms NetworkManager.service

---

$ systemd-analyze critical-chain
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 @1min 33.705s
└─multi-user.target @1min 33.703s
└─systemd-user-sessions.service @1min 33.620s +8ms
└─network.target @1min 33.617s
└─NetworkManager.service @1min 33.206s +409ms
└─dbus.service @1min 33.119s
└─basic.target @1min 32.981s
└─sockets.target @1min 32.979s
└─snapd.socket @1min 32.961s +15ms
└─sysinit.target @1min 32.935s
└─apparmor.service @1min 32.710s +222ms
└─local-fs.target @1min 32.686s
└─home.mount @1.695s +22ms
└─systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-79ea6e09\x2dcdf7\x2d4447\x2d9041\x2d6abffceb9e50.s ervice @1.641s +47ms
└─dev-disk-by\x2duuid-79ea6e09\x2dcdf7\x2d4447\x2d9041\x2d6abffceb9e50.d evice @1.635s

Thanks for any help or tips.

Solution 1

I may have found a work-around; my boot time got reduced from over 4 minutes back to about 50 seconds (Wayland session) by doing:

1. sudo vi /etc/default/grub
2. I changed the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT boot parameter to: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="video=SVIDEO-1:d"
3. Save and exit vi
4. sudo update-grub
5. sudo reboot

br, Koen.

Solution 2

Regarding the time spent loading snap packages on boot (dev-loopN.device), it is possible to replace them in Software Center with their versions from universe bionic repo instead of the pre installed versions from Snap Store. Just a few seconds can be saved, however, making real difference only if there are too many snap packages installed on your system

Comments

[Thomas Ward]

How is this going to resolve OP's "slow boot" problem?

[Organic Marble]

@ThomasWard OP states "I saw that the different snap...services are causing a huge delay in booting". I took them at their word. If snap is causing a huge delay and you don't need it, remove it.

[WinEunuuchs2Unix]

I think what @ThomasWard is referencing is the systemd analyze-blame output doesn't show any substancial CPU cycles or wait time attributed to snap. It is a good idea to remove snap in the first place though if you don't believe in it.

[WinEunuuchs2Unix]

Glad to hear you fixed the problem. Can you click the check mark next to your answer so others know it works? Thanks.

[Fernando Cappi]

Actually, seems like that Ubuntu 18.04 is having some issues when the notebook is not connected to power cord.

[Fabby]

Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! ;-) Thank you for pointing out that this question was a duplicate. Once you reach 15 rep, you'll be able to flag them as a duplicate! Keep up the good work!