Booting Linux Faster

krony writes "IBM's DeveloperWorks explains how to decrease boot times for your Linux box. The concept is to load system services in parallel when possible. Most surprising to me is the use of 'make' to handle dependencies between services." The example system shown is able to cut its boot time in half, but the article stresses the effectiveness can vary widly from machine to machine.

in soviet russia

[phaetonic]

windows boots faster

Yeah, right!

[rocjoe71]

Like any Linux user is gonig to reset their uptime just to see if they can boot faster!

I don't have a computer to boot...

[Atmchicago]

you insensitive clod!

Booting Linux Faster...

[Kedisar]

Sounds like something MS wants you to do...

The Real Question

[rowanxmas]

Because it must be asked....

How much time is saved when booting up a beowulf cluster?

Re:boot?

[Anonymous Coward]

Recompile the kernel?

REBOOT!

HA HA HA HA, say goodbye to your precious 192-day uptime!

Re:Another way to speed up booting Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

If Douglas Adams is so damn smart, why is he dead?

Re:Predicted response

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup.. just keep talking about that and wonder why Linux never becomes mainstream.

Because mainstream means rebooting every day! Twice on Sundays.

Re:LONG LIVE IBM!

[Sphere1952]

What? You don't have a battery?

Geeze. How the Hell do you set the clocks in your house? Call time?

Re:Just use Jiffies

[CausticWindow]

Remember to turn back the uptime when you sell your computer.

Re:Make?

[svu]

Visio?! Easy! You take Visio 2003. Generate XMI. Then - apply some XSLT stylesheet to create build.xml for the ant tool. Then use ant instead of make as startup tool. So you got visual design for you startup sequence!

Re:Another way to speed up booting Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

42

Very Discriminating My Friend

[tds67]

JIFFIES

This is an extremely simple patch for the 2.4 kernel. It creates a read/writable entry /proc/sys/kernel/jiffies, where you can get and set the current jiffies. To fake your systems uptime, write the required number of jiffies to this file :

# echo 100000 > /proc/sys/kernel/jiffies

Nice way to solve this problem. You really must have a refined sense of good taste, because only choosy mothers choose jiffies.

Re:Predicted response

[ftzdomino]

What really sucks is the 497.1 day uptime rollover bug. Apparently it has been fixed, but that doesn't help us who booted before it.

Re:Predicted response

[bluGill]

I'd show you the uptime of my mailserver, but it is loaded enough already. Anyone care to guess how long it takes for a 386 with loads > 8, to respond to an uptime request? It ain't pretty I'll warn you in advance.

That machine has been due for retirement since before anyone mainstream worried about y2k, but I've never got around to it and the 80MB harddrive hasn't crashed yet.

Re:Make?

[Dr. Photo]

If you were to drop someone with no knowledge of electricity into a room with a switch, and they flicked that switch, they'd be surprised when the light comes on, despite it being "obvious".

And if the light were a nice bright halogen lamp, it might even be blindingly obvious!

(Terribly sorry.. couldn't resist...)