New OS boot times
Okay, so over the last few days I decided to do a Gentoo install on my laptop. It's been a while, so I went with a stage 3 install rather than a stage 1 and 2. For those who don't know what that means, basically you start with very little components, and build them up yourself. Stage 2 and 1 installs start with sequentially less components and build even more of the operating system yourself.
The benefit of this is that when you buy Windows and other pre-compiled software, the code is optimized for a huge range of options and hardware. This means you have a lot more code that needs to run on your computer than actually needs to be run, which slows down responsiveness and computational times. Compiling it all on your system means you can optimize it for your hardware specifically, and only include the options you want included.
anyways, on to the times. These are inaccurate times, as basically I was just using the terminal on my desktop to hit date over and over again as it hit certain stages. give or take a second or two on each stage.
cyb3r@archon:~$ date
Thu Aug 14 15:26:24 PDT 2008 <- pressed the power button
cyb3r@archon:~$ date (nothing I can do about these, this is the BIOS loading)
Thu Aug 14 15:26:34 PDT 2008 <- bootloader kicked on
cyb3r@archon:~$ date (Start of actually loading the operating system) [26 seconds]
Thu Aug 14 15:26:50 PDT 2008 <- X started (this is where my command line login would happen)
cyb3r@archon:~$ date (X loading) [10 seconds]
Thu Aug 14 15:27:00 PDT 2008 <- GUI login screen (basically the only login screen you'd see if this was windows)
cyb3r@archon:~$ date (This is just making sure date was up on the konsole. no indication of my typing speed)
Thu Aug 14 15:27:27 PDT 2008 <- hit enter at the login screen
cyb3r@archon:~$ date (Basically, after all the programs in the task bar load, etc) [7 seconds]
Thu Aug 14 15:27:34 PDT 2008 <- the loading icon on the mouse stopped bouncing (computer was fully loaded and usable)
Basically, 46 seconds from pressing the button to logon screen. 36 seconds from when the OS starts loading.
To put this in perspective, windows usually takes a minute (completely new system) to 2 minutes (average systems). While you may say "Well this is a completely new system," it's not really. I've got a full suite of software on it from Office programs, network troubleshooting tools, internet apps (browser, IM client, skype, etc), etc.
Anyways, I'm proud. I think there still might be some kernel tuning things I can do, but I'm gonna use the system for a week or two, see how it runs and what I can optimize.
The benefit of this is that when you buy Windows and other pre-compiled software, the code is optimized for a huge range of options and hardware. This means you have a lot more code that needs to run on your computer than actually needs to be run, which slows down responsiveness and computational times. Compiling it all on your system means you can optimize it for your hardware specifically, and only include the options you want included.
anyways, on to the times. These are inaccurate times, as basically I was just using the terminal on my desktop to hit date over and over again as it hit certain stages. give or take a second or two on each stage.
cyb3r@archon:~$ date
Thu Aug 14 15:26:24 PDT 2008 <- pressed the power button
cyb3r@archon:~$ date (nothing I can do about these, this is the BIOS loading)
Thu Aug 14 15:26:34 PDT 2008 <- bootloader kicked on
cyb3r@archon:~$ date (Start of actually loading the operating system) [26 seconds]
Thu Aug 14 15:26:50 PDT 2008 <- X started (this is where my command line login would happen)
cyb3r@archon:~$ date (X loading) [10 seconds]
Thu Aug 14 15:27:00 PDT 2008 <- GUI login screen (basically the only login screen you'd see if this was windows)
cyb3r@archon:~$ date (This is just making sure date was up on the konsole. no indication of my typing speed)
Thu Aug 14 15:27:27 PDT 2008 <- hit enter at the login screen
cyb3r@archon:~$ date (Basically, after all the programs in the task bar load, etc) [7 seconds]
Thu Aug 14 15:27:34 PDT 2008 <- the loading icon on the mouse stopped bouncing (computer was fully loaded and usable)
Basically, 46 seconds from pressing the button to logon screen. 36 seconds from when the OS starts loading.
To put this in perspective, windows usually takes a minute (completely new system) to 2 minutes (average systems). While you may say "Well this is a completely new system," it's not really. I've got a full suite of software on it from Office programs, network troubleshooting tools, internet apps (browser, IM client, skype, etc), etc.
Anyways, I'm proud. I think there still might be some kernel tuning things I can do, but I'm gonna use the system for a week or two, see how it runs and what I can optimize.