Very Slow Start-Up (Virtualbox already purged)

[CoffeeBean]

I've been using the OS for a while with very little issue but after a recent update the start up sequence has slowed down dramatically, I have purged Virtual Box as a general recommendation pointed out in other post of this forum but with little effect.

This is the systemd-analysis blame read out:
1min 7.737s apt-daily-upgrade.service
        36.799s nmbd.service
        34.953s samba-ad-dc.service
        34.157s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
        34.081s dev-sdb5.device
        21.775s console-kit-log-system-start.service
        20.624s ubiquity.service
        20.523s systemd-user-sessions.service
        20.507s rsyslog.service
        20.431s alsa-restore.service
        18.055s apparmor.service
        15.455s motd-news.service
        15.118s ModemManager.service
        14.141s ufw.service
        12.388s NetworkManager.service
        11.860s accounts-daemon.service
        11.730s systemd-udevd.service
          9.372s networking.service
          8.649s lvm2-monitor.service
          8.052s gpu-manager.service
          7.588s thermald.service
          6.762s lightdm.service
          6.631s upower.service

Any recommendations as to how to cut down the start-up times?

[TheDead]

Hi!

If you have 4G and running from hard disk, I'm sure this is something software but just in case it's flaky, check that it's "SMART  status" is Healthy.
Also, which I doubt you have, deactivate your antivirus (I am not a Linux master so can't tell if it's in your list. ).

Good luck!

[CoffeeBean]

Hi!

If you have 4G and running from hard disk, I'm sure this is something software but just in case it's flaky, check that it's "SMART  status" is Healthy.
Also, which I doubt you have, deactivate your antivirus (I am not a Linux master so can't tell if it's in your list. ).

Good luck!

Thank you for the prompt response.  I used Disk Utility and ran SMART self tests (Short) on all the drives and all come back as being OK.  It is not a deal breaker as the computer is a sort of test bench for me to experiment with Linux (at which I'm am a complete noob) but it is somewhat strange that it used to start-up fairly quickly and now it bogs down several minutes just to get to desktop.

No antivirus to speak up either.  Which one would you recommend for this distro?

[TheDead]

I don't use an antivirus myself.
Someone in the forums mentionned Sophos but the installation was said to be not so simple.

Looking at your description I see Pentium4, 4GB with a GTX 960 video card and running on Linux 32bits 3.8?
Anyhoo, I think maybe a Single core processor 'could' be a problem.
A Celeron/Sempron CPU will be awfully slow in many scenarios... Pentium 4 should be a little faster but still, from 13+ years ago.
Unfortunately, the Pentium 4's were not a good CPU architecture, even first generation Core i3 were faster the the best P4 3.8GHz.https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/In...1003vsm132
Also, the GeForce 960GTX came out in 2015. Even the GeForce 2x0 were said to bottle neck the Pentium 4.... so it's overkill in the system.

Anyhoooo2. If the slowness is not related to the prehistoric hardware ... I had an idea to check your CPU temp? If a CPU gets hot, it will slow down.
So, if a CPU heatsink is loose and not in full contact with the CPU surface, this will take just a few seconds and it will crawl and cry.CPU temp should be about 70c or below.https://www.hipatic.com/2008/12/cpu-temp...ntium.html

[johnausten13]

My observation is first, you have a very slow HDD to blame. I suggest you check first with this command in the Terminal:

Code:

systemd-analyze critical-chain

I would also look into some start-up processes such as apt-daily, nmbd, network -xxx-xxxx-online, motd, modem manager, accounts daemon, to consider disabling or masking if you don't use them at all.
       
       

[CoffeeBean]

I don't use an antivirus myself.
Someone in the forums mentionned Sophos but the installation was said to be not so simple.

Looking at your description I see Pentium4, 4GB with a GTX 960 video card and running on Linux 32bits 3.8?
Anyhoo, I think maybe a Single core processor 'could' be a problem.
A Celeron/Sempron CPU will be awfully slow in many scenarios... Pentium 4 should be a little faster but still, from 13+ years ago.
Unfortunately, the Pentium 4's were not a good CPU architecture, even first generation Core i3 were faster the the best P4 3.8GHz.https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/In...1003vsm132
Also, the GeForce 960GTX came out in 2015. Even the GeForce 2x0 were said to bottle neck the Pentium 4.... so it's overkill in the system.

Anyhoooo2. If the slowness is not related to the prehistoric hardware ... I had an idea to check your CPU temp? If a CPU gets hot, it will slow down.
So, if a CPU heatsink is loose and not in full contact with the CPU surface, this will take just a few seconds and it will crawl and cry.CPU temp should be about 70c or below.https://www.hipatic.com/2008/12/cpu-temp...ntium.html

Indeed the computer is a bit of a Frankenstein's monster system.  Got it second hand for dirt cheap, CPU and RAM wise it is as far as it is going to go because the motherboard only supports single core 32bit CPUs and 4GB max RAM - so I did the most sensible thing I could do with that in mind and turned it into a dual boot Linux Lite and Windows XP Retro Gaming machine.  I threw that overkill of a GPU only because it was my previous card on my main computer and as it turns out the 960 was the last card that Nvidia released with WinXP support. I installed in an SSD for game installs and with that in mind it works like a charm, been playing a lot of late 90's to late 2000's games on it and considering the limitation of a single core CPU it actually does really well. 

As for whether the CPU overheating, that is a non issue as I installed a big block Arctic cooler on it since I noticed that the CPU was overheating way too much with the stock one.  Now it doesn't get even go above 55ºC even under heavy load.  Anyway I checked the recommendation from johnauten13 and that did the trick, the start-up time is far more manageable now.

[CoffeeBean]

My observation is first, you have a very slow HDD to blame. I suggest you check first with this command in the Terminal:

Code:

systemd-analyze critical-chain

I would also look into some start-up processes such as apt-daily, nmbd, network -xxx-xxxx-online, motd, modem manager, accounts daemon, to consider disabling or masking if you don't use them at all.
       
     

I disabled the apt-daily related services and timers and that helped a lot.  Thanks.

[TheDead]

Real nice!
Glad you got some help! (I also bookmarked the thread since I deal with old computers too )

Don't forget to "Thank" johnausten13 and mark the thread as solved.