Hi,
I assembled a new PC (modern Gigabyte motherboard, Intel quadcore, 2 sata disks, 4GB ram) and installed 11.1
Amazingly the boot time exceeds 2:30 minutes.
I made a bootchart graph and see kthreadd being rediculously busy.
Can some smart soul tell me what is going on here?
Thanks,
Koos
I can’t offer you a solution, but I will suggest that you look at the problem in a different way. You describe
kthreadd being rediculously bus
.
My description would have been that for the first 120 seconds, or so, nothing much happens. kthreadd and init have been started, but there isn’t any disk I/O (why not?) and nothing else has been started. Once everything else starts, things proceed at a reasonable pace, but it is this initial period when nothing much is happening that is the problem.
This would be comprehensible if the system were waiting for, say, lots of disk activity to complete, but it isn’t.
So, why don’t init and kthreadd complete faster? And, hence or otherwise, why aren’t the other things that actually do the disk I/O starting sooner?
Have you already modified start-up scripts? In any case, I would suggest that you look at the start-up scripts to see if there is any explanation for this behaviour.
Don’t know if this helps, but I see you’re running 32bit openSUSE on a 64bit capable system. Why?
The boot time is quite normal, it’s the waiting for disk IO that’s far too long.
I’ve met trouble with 32bit install on 64bit systems, knowing there shouldn’t be, but still. Hence my suggestion you downloading the 64bit version of 11.1, install it and see if slow booting persists.
It took me a while to find the splash=0 boot param. But it was all revealing. It seems to be a kernel bug. The symptoms are exactly the same as this bug
Small difference is that I have Gigabyte EP45-DS5 and 2 sata disks + 1 sata dvd.
I’ll file a bug report and see what gives.
Thanks a bunch.
Koos
The boot time is quite normal, it’s the waiting for disk IO that’s far too long.
Spot on. See my other post
Thanks for the advice.
Koos
> [image: http://scpol.tweakdsl.nl/public/bootchart.png]
i believe this is a bios, motherboard, RAM, CPU, disk controller or
something hardware conflict…
and, it takes 130 seconds for the bios to figure out what needs to
happen, and then it does it quite quickly (looks like SUSE is booting
in about 20 seconds!!)
i think i’d begin by running memtest over night or
go through the bios set up very very carefully…with the motherboard
documentation in hand, open, and each item read and understood (using
a nearby running/connected google to help, if needed)…i’d pay
particular attention to bios setting dealing with RAID… or
unplug everything possible (one hard drive, all USB, floppy, CD/DVD
drive, etc) and see if that helps or
i don’t know, maybe:
have you built a lot systems before?
if you google with terms including the motherboard maker, model number
and linux … do you get loads of problems turning up?
any doing slow boot? and raid?
–
platinum
For those following the thread, the bug is reported here:https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=538777
These are the problematic boot messages:
SCSI subsystem initialized
libata version 3.00 loaded.
ahci 0000:00:1f.2: version 3.0
ahci 0000:00:1f.2: PCI INT B -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
ahci 0000:00:1f.2: AHCI 0001.0200 32 slots 6 ports 3 Gbps 0x3f impl SATA mode
ahci 0000:00:1f.2: flags: 64bit ncq sntf stag pm led clo pmp pio slum part ems
ahci 0000:00:1f.2: setting latency timer to 64
scsi0 : ahci
scsi1 : ahci
scsi2 : ahci
scsi3 : ahci
scsi4 : ahci
scsi5 : ahci
ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xea406000 port 0xea406100 irq 218
ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xea406000 port 0xea406180 irq 218
ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xea406000 port 0xea406200 irq 218
ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xea406000 port 0xea406280 irq 218
ata5: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xea406000 port 0xea406300 irq 218
ata6: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xea406000 port 0xea406380 irq 218
ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
ata1.00: HPA unlocked: 1465147055 -> 1465149168, native 1465149168
ata1.00: ATA-7: SAMSUNG HD753LJ, 1AA01118, max UDMA7
ata1.00: 1465149168 sectors, multi 0: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32)
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
ata2: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
ata2.00: ATA-7: SAMSUNG HD753LJ, 1AA01118, max UDMA7
ata2.00: 1465149168 sectors, multi 0: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32)
ata2.00: configured for UDMA/133
ata3: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
ata4: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
ata5: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
ata5.00: ATAPI: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-216D, 1.08, max UDMA/66
ata5.00: configured for UDMA/66
ata6: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA SAMSUNG HD753LJ 1AA0 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
scsi 1:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA SAMSUNG HD753LJ 1AA0 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
scsi 4:0:0:0: CD-ROM PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-216D 1.08 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
vendor=8086 device=3a46
ahci 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
ahci 0000:03:00.0: AHCI 0001.0000 32 slots 2 ports 3 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode
ahci 0000:03:00.0: flags: 64bit ncq pm led clo pmp pio slum part
ahci 0000:03:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
scsi6 : ahci
scsi7 : ahci
ata7: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m8192@0xea100000 port 0xea100100 irq 19
ata8: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m8192@0xea100000 port 0xea100180 irq 19
ata7: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
ata7: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
ata7: link online but device misclassified, retrying
ata7: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
ata7: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
ata7: link online but device misclassified, retrying
ata7: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
ata7: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
ata7: link online but device misclassified, retrying
ata7: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
ata7: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
ata7: link online but device misclassified, device detection might fail
ata8: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
ata8: softreset failed (device not ready)
ata8: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
ata8: link online but device misclassified, retrying
ata8: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
ata8: softreset failed (device not ready)
ata8: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
ata8: link online but device misclassified, retrying
ata8: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
ata8: softreset failed (device not ready)
ata8: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
ata8: link online but device misclassified, retrying
ata8: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
ata8: softreset failed (device not ready)
ata8: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
ata8: link online but device misclassified, device detection might fail
pata_jmicron 0000:03:00.1: enabling device (0000 -> 0001)
vendor=8086 device=3a46
pata_jmicron 0000:03:00.1: PCI INT B -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
pata_jmicron 0000:03:00.1: setting latency timer to 64
scsi8 : pata_jmicron
scsi9 : pata_jmicron
ata9: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0xb000 ctl 0xb100 bmdma 0xb400 irq 16
ata10: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0xb200 ctl 0xb300 bmdma 0xb408 irq 16
The only change I made in the BIOS settings is moving the disk interface from native IDE to AHCI. The rest is default. I’ll change these and see what gives. Thanks.
Koos
You’re running 32bit to use all memory? That’s exactly the wrong way around: 32bit can only handle up to 3GB, have more, use the pae kernel. But these limitations have never been there for 64bit.
About a 64bit kernel and graphics drivers: no more trouble than on 32bit.
And Koos, I’m serious. Why buy a 64bit system and run 32bit OS? I’ve been running 64bit for years now, apart from the very first start no trouble at all. And yes, I’ve handled machines that ran like crap on 32bit, yet very smooth on 64bit.
I would seriously consider to reinstall and pick the 64bit to get the full out of your machine and OS.
Did you try plugging them into another SATA hookup? Or unplugging one of your drives and just running one?
I would usually leave the BIOS at Default. That’s good enough unless you’re missing features or if you’re a tweak freak. 
If these suggestions don’t work maybe see if your motherboard manufacturer has a BIOS update. Also make sure you’re not running in RAID.
Yes. Removing all but one boot disk gives exactly the same result.
Moving the BIOS from AHCI to native IDE changes the order of which sata channel is problematic. It doesn’t get rid of it.
I promise I will do just that. I’ve read the pro’s and con’s and was too late. Already installed the 32 bit version and went into prouction. As soon as I find the time I’ll swap it around.
Are you saying changing the driver access mode changes the device ID? As in sda1 to sha1? Or something like this?
AHCI should only change access mode, not the order. This is determent where you plug it in. Sata port 1 and 2 would be IDE 1 master, slave… This is my understanding anyways. I did this several times trying to determent what was better and it made no difference to my Linux. Windows had a stroke of the blue kind so i switched it back to native IDE. But Linux had no ill effects.
Try downloading a different distro’s live cd and see does this have the same problem.
Are you running the latest kernel? Try upgrading the system if you’re not.