desktop very slow to load after nVidia driver install

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Since installing the nVidia driver, the desktop takes about 3 minutes to load completely. I didn’t have this problem when using the nouveau driver and the desktop configuration has not changed.

When I configured my desktop, the setting for “Desktop Session Login and Logout” was set to “restore manually saved session on login” so that I always have the same session when I login.

After login, the desktop wallpaper and the konsole window display reasonably quickly.
http://i.imgur.com/mBZ6nUW.png

However, it takes several minutes before the panels will display and the application menu and system tray become active.
http://i.imgur.com/8Huraeu.png

What can I do to make the desktop load more quickly? In researching this problem, I believe I saw something about using modprobe to change when the display manager loads from run level 1 to run level 3. Is this accurate? or relevant?

Any and all help gratefully accepted. Thanks in advance.

2

No I doubt that is relevant for today’s hardware and OS. Problem with the Internet is that old bad info never dies.

Is this by chance a notebook? If so is it an Optimus graphics set-up? If so you need to uninstall NVIDIA driver and install bumblbee

https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_Bumblebee

3

This is an older desktop - not a notebook. It has been happily running openSuse distros for about 7 years. The nVideo card is a GeForce GT430 - http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-43

As far as I can tell, except for the slow desktop load time, the installation was successful. KInfoCenter reports the correct card and video resolution. Display has been rock solid, with no more “tearing” (or whatever it is called when there is like static on the display), quicker response times, sharper images and better color depth.

Am loath to give up all this and would really like to resolve boot problem. Any further suggestions or links you might offer?](http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-430)
](http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-430)

4

Try another user. Maybe something in your configs are messed up

5

I created another user named user2 (the initial user was user1). The desktop for user2 is much simpler than that of user1.

If I’m starting from a cold boot/restart, then the problems are the same - slow load time for the desktop to display fully.

As with user1, the wallpaper displays first

And then after about 2 minutes the desktop is completely rendered

However, if I’ve been working in openSUSE for a time (1 hour? 2 hours?), then, when I logout of one user’s session and login as the other user, there is no significant delay to render the desktop completely.

What does this mean? Can you explain me what’s going on? Is there some sort of cache that’s created?

I still have the problem of slow desktop rendering if I cold boot. Is there a way to fix this?

Thanks for your continued support. I appreciate it.

6

Got no clue it is not normal but points to slow loading. How old is the hardware??

7

After boot, run

*systemd*-*analyze blame*

in a terminal, and see what takes inordinate amounts of time. At worst you’ll be able to rule out non-desktop system problems, if boot times are normal.

Also do you have the correct nvidia blob installed? Nvidia repo has versions gfxG02, 03 and 04.

8

Here are some commands to check, what is slowing down your boot process:

systemd-analyze

systemd-analyze critical-chain

systemd-analyze blame
9

Also, are you mounting a remote or NAS share?

10

I ran systemd-analyze blame and here’s the output (I didn’t include services further down in the output where the time drops to ms). It doesn’t mean much to me but can you take a look at it and give me your feedback?


         17.564s wicked.service
         11.645s display-manager.service
          9.190s ModemManager.service
          8.675s SuSEfirewall2_init.service
          4.114s dev-sda5.device
          2.162s var-lib-libvirt-images.mount
          2.113s boot-grub2-x86_64\x2defi.mount
          2.021s var-lib-mailman.mount
          2.001s var-crash.mount
          1.991s var-lib-mariadb.mount
          1.901s var-log.mount
          1.877s var-lib-mysql.mount
          1.874s var-lib-named.mount
          1.842s systemd-udev-trigger.service
          1.817s boot-grub2-i386\x2dpc.mount
          1.625s var-tmp.mount
          1.492s srv.mount
          1.439s systemd-journald.service
          1.370s avahi-daemon.service
          1.165s var-opt.mount
          1.163s var-lib-pgsql.mount
          1.102s systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
          1.054s opt.mount
          1.051s usr-local.mount
           958ms wpa_supplicant.service
           935ms systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-

I believe the gfxG03 family is correct for my card. The summary says the installed drivers are for GeForce 8xxx and newer GPUs so I checked this page in wikipedia - List of Nvidia graphics processing units - Wikipedia - that lists info on nVidia’s GPUs. The launch date for most of the cards in the GeForce 8000 series was in 2007. My nVidia card model is GeForce GT430 - http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-43 and it’s launch date was October 11, 2010.

Here’s what got installed (ignore the first line please)

865×299 45.7 KB

Does that look OK to you?

Thanks for your help. Hope to hear back from you.

11

No., (that one was easy to answer)

12

I ran the commands you suggested and am showing the output below. Frankly, it doesn’t mean anything to me, but if it means something to you, please tell me what. Thanks for your help.

systemd-analyze[/CODE
Here's the output:
[i]Startup finished in 4.996s (kernel) + 3.788s (initrd) + 38.803s (userspace) = 47.588s

systemd-analyze critical-chain


Here's the output

The time after the unit is active or started is printed after the “@” character.
The time the unit takes to start is printed after the “+” character.

graphical.target @38.781s
└─multi-user.target @38.781s
└─cron.service @38.781s
└─1;31mpostfix.service @37.901s +877ms0m
└─network.target @37.898s
└─1;31mwicked.service @20.333s +17.564s0m
└─1;31mwickedd-nanny.service @20.319s +12ms0m
└─1;31mwickedd.service @20.280s +36ms0m
└─1;31mwickedd-dhcp6.service @20.218s +55ms0m
└─1;31mSuSEfirewall2_init.service @11.541s +8.675s0m
└─basic.target @10.696s
└─timers.target @10.696s
└─systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer @10.696s
└─sysinit.target @10.696s
└─1;31mapparmor.service @10.114s +580ms0m
└─1;31msystemd-tmpfiles-setup.service @9.010s +1.102s0m
└─local-fs.target @8.996s
└─1;31mhome.mount @8.243s +750ms0m
└─1;31msystemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-a4972947\x2d3516\x2d4045\x2d9102\x2d640322797ad9.service @7.306s +935ms0m
└─dev-disk-by\x2duuid-a4972947\x2d3516\x2d4045\x2d9102\x2d640322797ad9.device @7.305s

systemd-analyze blame


Here's the output. It's a partial list, as I left off most of the services that showed ms load times.


     17.564s wicked.service         11.645s display-manager.service
      9.190s ModemManager.service
      8.675s SuSEfirewall2_init.service
      4.114s dev-sda5.device
      2.162s var-lib-libvirt-images.mount
      2.113s boot-grub2-x86_64\x2defi.mount
      2.021s var-lib-mailman.mount
      2.001s var-crash.mount
      1.991s var-lib-mariadb.mount
      1.901s var-log.mount
      1.877s var-lib-mysql.mount
      1.874s var-lib-named.mount
      1.842s systemd-udev-trigger.service
      1.817s boot-grub2-i386\x2dpc.mount
      1.625s var-tmp.mount
      1.492s srv.mount
      1.439s systemd-journald.service
      1.370s avahi-daemon.service
      1.165s var-opt.mount
      1.163s var-lib-pgsql.mount
      1.102s systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
      1.054s opt.mount
      1.051s usr-local.mount
       958ms wpa_supplicant.service
       935ms systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-a4972947\x2d3516\x2d4045\x2d9102\x2d640322797ad9.service
       903ms sys-kernel-debug.mount
       899ms var-spool.mount
       877ms postfix.service
       867ms systemd-modules-load.service
       769ms nscd.service
       750ms home.mount
13

I think so. It’s exactly the same I have in a desktop with a Nvidia GTX650.

14

Here’s mine, in an i3 desktop running oS 13.2 64-bit KDE:

Startup finished in 1min 1.885s (kernel) + 1.276s (initrd) + **19.590s** (userspace) = 1min 22.752s

Note the difference in userspace time. From the critical chain listing it seems* that your computer is waiting 20s or more for the network. Is it wireless? AFAIK the desktop would keep on loading regardless. Perhaps you have a start-up application that blocks the desktop** until it gets a connection?

*disclaimer: I’m using systemd-analyze only for the second time today, never needed it, so I’m not sure I know what I’m talking about. Besides, your total time is less than mine.
**wildly speculative. You may want to wait for someone more knowledgeable in this subject. :stuck_out_tongue:

15

Just remembered, the output above was for a boot after an UPS overload, systemd ran fdisk in a bunch of HDs. I just rebooted and got:

:~> systemd-analyze
Startup finished in 2.085s (kernel) + 895ms (initrd) + 19.699s (userspace) = 22.679s

Actual boot time from “welcome to GRUB” text message to usable KDE desktop was ~ 30s. But this computer boot from a SSD.

16

My mini-desktop is a Sony Vaio model VGC-RA840G. Over 10 years old but I forget exactly when I got it. It is liquid cooled - totally silent - which I really like. It’s been upgraded some over the years.

PROCESSOR
Intel Pentium D Processor 820 (2.80GHz, 2MB L2 Cache) - dual core

FRONT SIDE BUS SPEED
800 MHz

MEMORY - RAM
2.9 GiB - PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM

INTERNAL HARD DRIVE
250 GB 7200rpm SATA (Western Digital)
I have a 500 GB external drive that I use also.
It has bay space for an additional internal drive

VIDEO CARD
nVidia GeForce GT 430 (96 CUDA cores and 1GB of memory)

AUDIO
5.1 Channel - Intel High Definition Audio
Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller

NETWORKING
1000Base-T gigabit Ethernet
no built-in wireless or bluetooth, but I have USB dongles for that

EXTERNAL SPEAKERS
came with 5.1 surround sound speaks that I don’t use
just have stereo speakers on it

MISCELLANEOUS OTHER STUFF
DVD +RW, CD-RW
6 USB2 ports
2 Firewire (IEEE 1384) ports
and - wait for it - a working 3.5" floppy drive

17

Hi, just a different hint since I occasionally see something similar on my test laptop, 2007 vintage, dual core, 800 MHz FSB, spinning disk.
When using BTRFS, these boxes just have slow access to disk when dealing with highly fragmented journal files, or when dealing with a nearly full /root partition filled up with snapshots.

My guess is that 30-60 s boot times are normal for such machines, but I witnessed as high as 3-5 minutes occasionally, like the original post suggests, when the journal file in active use was big (say, more that 30MB before rollover to a new file) or when snapshots nearly filled the /root partition.
The update to the Nvidia driver might just have triggered a number of snapshots and/or growing journal files.

Look for system.journal or user-1000.journal (or whatever user number experiences delays) files in /var/log/journal/<some numbers>/
Look also for free space on /root and possibly clean up unneeded snapshots.
BTW, nobody booting from an SSD is likely to witness such things.

18

Your system’s boot time according to your ‘systemd-analyze’-results look pretty reasonable, comparable to those of my system.

Just my guess:
You could try another wallpaper for your desktop and change your system settings concerning desktop and workspace appearance to default values,
since you told about problems with rendering the desktop background right after booting.
System settings -> hardware -> screen /monitor has settings for the compositor, that could also have an effect.

19

If a kernel update happens then the boot can take a while since the kernels need to be sorted out. Sometimes a long boot happens. Also if a corrupted or improper closed file system is detected fsck is run to correct problems and that can take time. But these things happen before the desktop.

If you have auto-login set turn it off since it can hide problems

.