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« More Carnivals! | Main | New Rules (best evah) »

How to make your Linux computer boot faster

Posted on: November 9, 2008 5:15 AM, by Greg Laden

Your computer probably boots with grub, and in a grub configuration file, there is a "timeout" value that you can reduce. It is not recommended that you let it be less than 2, but if it is three or more, go ahead and change it.*

I'll make it real simple for you, if you are running Gnome. Copy and paste the following into a terminal window:

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

You will (probably) be prompted for the password, enter it, and "gedit" will open up an editable version of the file.

Search for "timeout" and change the number as you wish. Save the file.

Perhaps you are only reducing a '3' to a '2' but that one second every day or so will add up. Just make sure you read this post really fast and carry out the instructions real fast or it won't be as worth it!



* Nothing is guaranteed to work. If you take my advice and mess with your computer, FSM help you.
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Comments

1

//and "getit" will open up//

That would be "gedit"...
And its probably easier to reduce the bootup time by switching off some boot-up services you dont need every time,such as bluetooth or power management...

Im feeling cheritable tonight,so here's "New Rules" from Friday :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHu4p-yb0pc&feature=related

Posted by: clinteas | November 9, 2008 6:44 AM

2

clinteas: You're ruining for everyone. One tip at a time. We're doing one tip at a time, and bluetooth is on the list.

Saying It's "easier" to switch off bluetooth than to reduce delay time is like saying to get to the grocery store faster it is better to drive faster than to leave now rather than later. You should do both!

Thanks for the funny link.

Posted by: greg laden | November 9, 2008 9:21 AM

3

Hmm... My timeout is already set to 0, which the comments say means 1 second. This is with Xandros, on an Asus EEE PC, stock configuration. The boot time is pretty short already.

Posted by: RSG | November 9, 2008 10:55 AM

4

If you are using a Red Hat based distribution (Red Hat Enterprise, Fedora, CentOS) then the correct file to edit is: /boot/grub/grub.conf

Posted by: Benjamin Franz | November 9, 2008 11:27 AM

5

Ben: tuftai!

Posted by: greg laden | November 9, 2008 2:12 PM

6

Sorry. I couldn't figure out what 'tuftai' means.

Posted by: Benjamin Franz | November 9, 2008 2:45 PM

7

Another great way to speed up the booting process is to add "profile" to the kernel arguments in grub the first time you boot. Simply go to the menu entry of the kernel you want to boot, press e, go to the second line, press e again, add 'profile' (sans quotes) to the end of the line, press b, press b again, and the system will automatically scan what files are loaded at boot and place them together. The next time you boot it should be noticeably faster.

Posted by: deBeuk | November 9, 2008 3:00 PM

8

Yay! Now I can pay attention to these posts, and maybe they'll start meaning something to me!

Posted by: JanieBelle | November 9, 2008 3:12 PM

9

For a very in-depth look at the process, check out:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-boot.html

The DeveloperWorks area is a great resouce for all sorts of things.

For the very, very, very, brave check out the initng home page. http://www.initng.org/ Nothing like completely replacing the boot manager to make the ol' heart race. :)

Posted by: Bob | November 10, 2008 10:30 AM

10

This is the most effective way!

Posted by: Charles Peng | November 10, 2008 9:18 PM

11

If you are really serious about this you should check out the way a five second boot has been achieved

http://lwn.net/Articles/299483/

Posted by: Jim | November 12, 2008 3:18 PM

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