"On those infrequent occasions when you need to reboot Linux, you may find that the process takes longer than you'd like. Jack Wallen shares a number of tricks you can use to reduce boot times." While these tips are intended to shorten Linux boot times, some can also increase the security of your system. Speed and security in ten tips, both well-known and obscure.
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Member since:2005-07-06
[q#7: Avoid dhcp: This one I was wondering what the heck was the author thinking? The answer to dhcp requests arrives in milliseconds (unless there's something terribly wrong with your system) and it allows for much more flexibility. [/q]
On my systems it takes sometimes a few seconds to get an address, especially wirelessly. If it fails to get an address (for whatever reason), it may take 30 seconds or so before it gives up. Depending on the OS/Distro, if these task are done serially that can be a significant slowdown.
To me, the biggest speed-up is for most of these tasks to be done in parallel - thus our case of a failed dhcp request wouldn't matter.
Member since:2006-02-15
On my systems it takes sometimes a few seconds to get an address, especially wirelessly. If it fails to get an address (for whatever reason), it may take 30 seconds or so before it gives up. Depending on the OS/Distro, if these task are done serially that can be a significant slowdown.
To me, the biggest speed-up is for most of these tasks to be done in parallel - thus our case of a failed dhcp request wouldn't matter.
Hmm, well, I haven't tried too many different distros but Mandriva does dhcp in the background and so does Ubuntu (not that I use the latter one..). The whole point is that _if_ it happens to take some time to get a response then the process can just idle in the background, it does not need to be blocking other services from starting up. Especially since it consumes virtually no CPU time.
Member since:2006-05-28
To me, the biggest speed-up is for most of these tasks to be done in parallel - thus our case of a failed dhcp request wouldn't matter.
If you are using something like ifplugd then this isn't an issue
Edited 2008-07-31 07:08 UTC
Member since:
2006-02-15
#2: Disable unnecessary kernel modules:
Most distros ship with those kernel modules compiled as modules, not built-in, so they don't make booting time any worse or better. The system just checks if it needs a module for some hardware and initializes that module, it doesn't load all of them!
#7: Avoid dhcp:
This one I was wondering what the heck was the author thinking? The answer to dhcp requests arrives in milliseconds (unless there's something terribly wrong with your system) and it allows for much more flexibility.
#6: Use an OpenBIOS:
There's a saying "Don't fix what isn't broken". Especially when it's the bios. If OpenBIOS doesn't work on your motherboard or if the flash procedure goes hayways then you're fscked. I wouldn't have included this in the list, even though it will boost boot-up time _if_ it works.