Why is boot-loader installation so slow?

I’ve recently been doing a lot of tests that have required changing the
GRUB2 boot configuration via YaST. I got the impression that the final
step “install boot loader” was a lot slower than I remembered from 13.1
but thought that perhaps my memory was playing tricks. I’ve since had
to extend these configuration experiments to 13.1 and found that my
memory wasn’t playing me false.

The “install boot loader” step takes 15-20 seconds in 13.1 but, for an
identical installation on the same machine, at least 80 seconds in 13.2.

Why is this step taking about 5 times longer than before?


Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks.
openSUSE 13.2-RC1 (64-bit); KDE 4.14.1; AMD Phenom II X2 550 Processor;
Kernel: 3.16.3; Video: nVidia GeForce 210 (using nouveau driver);
Sound: ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)

It has always seemed to take forever for me.

My assumption has been that the main time delay is in generating the “initrd” which seems to be done as part of this step.