#1 2025-07-08 20:27:19

jp734

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Registered: 2019-05-01

Posts: 27

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Fast Boot - From Grub Menu to LogIn Screen - 8.08 secs

Hello everyone. Hope all is well. I just want to ask, what makes BunsenLabs FAST. As the title says, 8.08 seconds from the moment I hit enter on grub menu to log in screen and just another 2 seconds to get a desktop. That's pretty quick compared to other distros. I upgraded my kernel to 6.12.32 but it can't be all about the kernel, could it? And my PC is rather old. I'm using a 3rd gen i5 3570.

I'm really intrigued. LOL

GalacticStone

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From: Oort Cloud

Registered: 2020-07-26

Posts: 129

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Re: Fast Boot - From Grub Menu to LogIn Screen - 8.08 secs

I'm curious as well. I'm using a later i3 with 8GB of memory and Bunsen flies. I have not timed it with a stopwatch, but a rough count for me is about 10-12 seconds after grub for the desktop to open. Even better, shutdown is near instantaneous. I hit "Power Off" and it's off in two seconds. You barely have time to read the system dialogue that briefly appears afterwards.

After years of using a bloated and aging Ubuntu install, Bunsen has been a breath of fresh air. There must be some voodoo going on under the hood. 

---

Linux User #624832 : Chaotic Good Dudeist, retro-PC geek.
Daily Driver : Lenovo Ideapad 3 (8G RAM, 250G SSD, Boron)
Workstation : HP Slim Desktop (4G RAM, 1TB HDD, Boron)
Past hardware : Commodore 64, TRS-80, IBM 8088, WebTV

Sector11

Mod Squid Tpyo Knig

From: Upstairs

Registered: 2015-08-20

Posts: 8,008

Re: Fast Boot - From Grub Menu to LogIn Screen - 8.08 secs

Listen carefully, you'll hear the noises coming from the Bunsen Labs!

{crunch bang}

Gotta be an old member to get that one.

---

Debian 12 Beardog, SoxDog and still a Conky 1.9er

greenjeans

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Registered: 2025-01-18

Posts: 227

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Re: Fast Boot - From Grub Menu to LogIn Screen - 8.08 secs

Tag. I'm super interested too!

jp734

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Registered: 2019-05-01

Posts: 27

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Re: Fast Boot - From Grub Menu to LogIn Screen - 8.08 secs

@Sector11 - Got It!

PackRat

jgmenu user Numero Uno

Registered: 2015-10-02

Posts: 2,611

Re: Fast Boot - From Grub Menu to LogIn Screen - 8.08 secs

Hello everyone. Hope all is well. I just want to ask, what makes BunsenLabs FAST. As the title says, 8.08 seconds from the moment I hit enter on grub menu to log in screen and just another 2 seconds to get a desktop. That's pretty quick compared to other distros. I upgraded my kernel to 6.12.32 but it can't be all about the kernel, could it? And my PC is rather old. I'm using a 3rd gen i5 3570.

I'm really intrigued. LOL

What are the full specs? Type of hard drive etc ...

You can run:

systemd-analyze

to get the startup times (example for CachyOS):

Startup finished in 5.483s (firmware) + 5.709s (loader) + 3.945s (kernel) + 29.966s (userspace) = 45.104s 
graphical.target reached after 29.965s in userspace.

and

systemd-analyze blame

to see all the services and their times to start.

---

You must unlearn what you have learned.
    -- yoda

jp734

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Registered: 2019-05-01

Posts: 27

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Re: Fast Boot - From Grub Menu to LogIn Screen - 8.08 secs

Hey @PackRat - Thanks for the reply. Here are the results of the commands. I'm really blown away with these results. I'm not expecting this from an old PC.

For systemd-analyze:

Startup finished in 105us (firmware) + 93us (loader) + 1.764s (kernel) + 1.758s (userspace) = 3.523s 
graphical.target reached after 1.745s in userspace.

For systemd-analyze blame:

274ms udisks2.service
245ms dev-sda2.device
187ms user@1000.service
129ms boot-efi.mount
118ms e2scrub_reap.service
 97ms systemd-udev-trigger.service
 80ms systemd-journal-flush.service
 79ms NetworkManager.service
 78ms ModemManager.service
 78ms networking.service
 74ms loadcpufreq.service
 69ms upower.service
 65ms systemd-journald.service
 64ms systemd-udevd.service
 62ms systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-3490c31b\x2d53cc\x2d4d50\x2dae74\x2d3088497f8840.service
 60ms lvm2-monitor.service
 57ms smartmontools.service
 48ms systemd-logind.service
 44ms logrotate.service
 41ms systemd-timesyncd.service
 40ms systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-4EEC\x2d196F.service
 40ms systemd-timedated.service
 37ms polkit.service
 36ms cpufrequtils.service
 32ms wpa_supplicant.service
 26ms systemd-update-utmp.service
 24ms alsa-restore.service
 24ms lm-sensors.service
 24ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
 24ms atd.service
 20ms dbus.service
 19ms dev-hugepages.mount
 18ms systemd-sysusers.service
 18ms dev-mqueue.mount
 18ms systemd-random-seed.service
 18ms sys-kernel-debug.mount
 17ms sys-kernel-tracing.mount
 16ms keyboard-setup.service
 16ms systemd-rfkill.service
 16ms kmod-static-nodes.service
 15ms systemd-binfmt.service
 14ms modprobe@configfs.service
 13ms modprobe@drm.service
 13ms systemd-remount-fs.service
 13ms modprobe@fuse.service
 12ms lightdm.service
  9ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
  9ms systemd-modules-load.service
  9ms user-runtime-dir@1000.service
  8ms proc-sys-fs-binfmt_misc.mount
  8ms systemd-sysctl.service
  6ms console-setup.service
  6ms systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service
  6ms systemd-user-sessions.service
  5ms modprobe@dm_mod.service
  5ms modprobe@efi_pstore.service
  4ms modprobe@loop.service
  3ms home.mount
  3ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount
  2ms ifupdown-pre.service
  2ms sys-kernel-config.mount
 21us blk-availability.service

System specs:

Intel i5 3570
4GB Ram
SSD - Samsung model: MZ7KM960HAHP-00005
GPU - NVidia Quadro k620

PackRat

jgmenu user Numero Uno

Registered: 2015-10-02

Posts: 2,611

Re: Fast Boot - From Grub Menu to LogIn Screen - 8.08 secs

That's impressive for an older machine; especially the network times. This computer hardwired to the modem?

Either way, BL is a pretty good fit for your hardware.

---

You must unlearn what you have learned.
    -- yoda

GalacticStone

Member

From: Oort Cloud

Registered: 2020-07-26

Posts: 129

Website

Re: Fast Boot - From Grub Menu to LogIn Screen - 8.08 secs

Cool command. I didn't know about that one. I can't wait to run it the next time I fire up the old Ubuntu machine. I bet it looks a lot different than this current result I get from my Bunsen machine :

Startup finished in 4.542s (kernel) + 6.647s (userspace) = 11.190s 
graphical.target reached after 6.631s in userspace.

Last edited by GalacticStone (2025-07-10 14:52:26)

---

Linux User #624832 : Chaotic Good Dudeist, retro-PC geek.
Daily Driver : Lenovo Ideapad 3 (8G RAM, 250G SSD, Boron)
Workstation : HP Slim Desktop (4G RAM, 1TB HDD, Boron)
Past hardware : Commodore 64, TRS-80, IBM 8088, WebTV

jp734

Member

Registered: 2019-05-01

Posts: 27

Website

Re: Fast Boot - From Grub Menu to LogIn Screen - 8.08 secs

That's impressive for an older machine; especially the network times. This computer hardwired to the modem?

Either way, BL is a pretty good fit for your hardware.

Nope. Also have an outdated router.

Sector11

Mod Squid Tpyo Knig

From: Upstairs

Registered: 2015-08-20

Posts: 8,008

Re: Fast Boot - From Grub Menu to LogIn Screen - 8.08 secs

SLOW BOOT

- and I don't even use NetworkManager!

 2025·07·10 @ 20:21:22 ~
   $ systemd-analyze
Startup finished in 12.315s (firmware) + 4.872s (loader) + 4.620s (kernel) + 22.458s (userspace) = 44.266s 
graphical.target reached after 22.433s in userspace.

 2025·07·10 @ 20:21:32 ~
   $ systemd-analyze blame
16.004s apt-daily.service
 8.221s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
 7.991s e2scrub_reap.service
 5.626s udisks2.service
 5.503s systemd-journal-flush.service
 4.854s dev-sda1.device
 2.677s NetworkManager.service
 1.768s collectl.service
 1.743s apt-show-versions.service
 1.685s man-db.service
 1.378s systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-5be1c1f6\x2d5529\x2d4aa4\x2d8dfa\x2dfc97eaed6b0d.service
 1.083s systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-7ec885aa\x2d375b\x2d4425\x2da748\x2d1f003928074e.service
 1.081s systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-f6e706be\x2d9200\x2d4e41\x2d9664\x2dd331523e9612.service
 1.005s systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-d1f0001c\x2d1bd1\x2d4cbe\x2da29a\x2d26817ac86e72.service
  942ms systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-40CF\x2d0E95.service
  829ms smartmontools.service
  791ms ntpsec.service
  764ms systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-4197d44b\x2dd975\x2d4e00\x2da029\x2db6943d941149.service
  590ms dbus.service
  590ms dbus.service
  545ms systemd-logind.service
  534ms systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-faa4c47c\x2dd3e2\x2d42f6\x2d8c36\x2dae5ae243c731.service
  454ms networking.service
  454ms systemd-modules-load.service
  424ms polkit.service
  417ms systemd-random-seed.service
  409ms systemd-journald.service
  401ms apt-daily-upgrade.service
  354ms wpa_supplicant.service
  346ms lm-sensors.service
  345ms systemd-udev-trigger.service
  324ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
  252ms media-5.mount
  236ms keyboard-setup.service
  235ms systemd-sysusers.service
  231ms boot-efi.mount
  210ms logrotate.service
  209ms systemd-udevd.service
  208ms lpd.service
  185ms dictd.service
  180ms user@1000.service
  173ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
  169ms systemd-sysctl.service
  166ms home.mount
  157ms systemd-remount-fs.service
  151ms kmod-static-nodes.service
  150ms modprobe@drm.service
  127ms dev-hugepages.mount
  127ms dev-mqueue.mount
  126ms sys-kernel-debug.mount
  125ms sys-kernel-tracing.mount
  120ms media-11.mount
  110ms systemd-user-sessions.service
  103ms fstrim.service
   92ms dev-disk-by\x2duuid-d67f9b04\x2d2d7e\x2d47b4\x2da896\x2d89748a4e1065.swap
   88ms ifupdown-pre.service
   87ms upower.service
   87ms alsa-restore.service
   85ms media-BD\x2dH.mount
   84ms sys-kernel-config.mount
   75ms modprobe@fuse.service
   64ms media-BD\x2dR.mount
   62ms systemd-update-utmp.service
   60ms console-setup.service
   55ms systemd-binfmt.service
   49ms media-10.mount
   21ms modprobe@configfs.service
   20ms user-runtime-dir@1000.service
   14ms e2scrub_all.service
   13ms cups.service
   12ms systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service
   11ms proc-sys-fs-binfmt_misc.mount
   10ms dpkg-db-backup.service
    9ms systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service
    8ms modprobe@efi_pstore.service
    7ms modprobe@loop.service
    4ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount
    3ms modprobe@dm_mod.service
    3ms apt-listbugs.service

Then I found this command:

 2025·07·10 @ 20:32:36 ~
   $ systemd-analyze critical-chain
The time when unit became active or started is printed after the "@" character.
The time the unit took to start is printed after the "+" character.

graphical.target @22.433s
└─multi-user.target @22.433s
  └─collectl.service @20.664s +1.768s
    └─network-online.target @20.638s
      └─NetworkManager-wait-online.service @12.416s +8.221s
        └─NetworkManager.service @9.699s +2.677s
          └─dbus.service @9.087s +590ms
            └─basic.target @9.043s
              └─sockets.target @9.042s
                └─uuidd.socket @9.042s
                  └─sysinit.target @9.015s
                    └─systemd-update-utmp.service @8.952s +62ms
                      └─systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service @8.761s +173ms
                        └─local-fs.target @8.705s
                          └─run-credentials-systemd\x2dtmpfiles\x2dsetup.service.mount @8.768s
                            └─local-fs-pre.target @1.934s
                              └─systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service @1.609s +324ms
                                └─systemd-sysusers.service @1.373s +235ms
                                  └─systemd-remount-fs.service @1.177s +157ms
                                    └─systemd-journald.socket @1.131s
                                      └─-.mount @1.109s
                                        └─-.slice @1.109s

I have NO IDEA!

---

Debian 12 Beardog, SoxDog and still a Conky 1.9er

marens

Member

From: World without M$

Registered: 2023-02-02

Posts: 827

Re: Fast Boot - From Grub Menu to LogIn Screen - 8.08 secs

The systemd-analyze time  (or blame) commands are very useful.

There's a good way to find out what the problem is if the startup is slow:

systemd-analyze critical-chain

The lines on the critical chain  are marked in red.
Anything that happens between the two red lines does not affect the system's boot speed.

Example (red lines from my output):

└─kerneloops.service...
    ...
   
        └─NetworkManager-wait-online.service...
         └─NetworkManager.service...
             ...
           
               └─dev-disk-by\...

Notes *
1) Please do not disable services that are part of the critical chain  until you have determined whether it is necessary (and safe)
2) The hardware you have also affects the system's boot speed

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If people would know how little brain is ruling the world, they would die of fear.

jp734

Member

Registered: 2019-05-01

Posts: 27

Website

Re: Fast Boot - From Grub Menu to LogIn Screen - 8.08 secs

This is really cool! I enjoy toubleshooting so I love this stuff.

unklar

Back to the roots 1.9

From: #! BL

Registered: 2015-10-31

Posts: 2,644

Re: Fast Boot - From Grub Menu to LogIn Screen - 8.08 secs

@Sector11

You can limit this to the last 10.

systemd-analyze blame | head

because only these are of interest.

With the help of critical-chain, you can analyze which services are “droning”(tröteln). This will be different with every restart. Whether you use the network manager or not is irrelevant. The services are there and also do things with the tool you use to access the Internet (or the tool needs them).

Edit: In siduction, we analyzed this over a longer period of time.
If, for example, this:

8.221s NetworkManager-wait-online.service

appears again and again as a 'slow candidate', we have then 'masked' it. That didn't really help either.

Edit2:
Who is e.g. collectl.service ?
I don't have this one.
So show me what it does.

systemctl status collectl.service

You don't need to worry about that.

systemctl status apt-daily.service
○ apt-daily.service - Daily apt download activities
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/apt-daily.service; static)
     Active: inactive (dead)
TriggeredBy: ● apt-daily.timer
       Docs: man:apt(8)

I assume apt has just checked for updates. 

Last edited by unklar (2025-07-11 15:21:29)