ThinClientFasterStartup
Launchpad Entry: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/thinclient-faster-startup
Created: Date(2005-10-31T22:27:58Z) by OliverGrawert
Contributors: OliverGrawert
Packages affected:
- initramfs-tools
- debootstrap/ltsp-client
- ltsp-server (for ltsp-build-client)
- various bootscripts from various packages
- syslogd
Summary
Speed up the Thin Client bootprocess for LTSP
Rationale
Ubuntu 5.10 thin clients take ages to boot. Some of the generic startup time improvements will also apply to thin clients, but we should specifically optimize the thin client startup process as well. Thin clients are usually low-spec hardware and need this more than most.
Use cases
Matthew gives a class on usability at university where uses LTSP in his class, if he's te first in the class for the day he needs to plan extra time for booting the Thin Clients for the pupils.
Scope
The bootprocess of LTSP Thin Clients as well as the default bootstrapping of the thin client chroot environment.
Design
- Rip out the unneeded services from Thin Clients
- Fix the delay of nfs mounting in klibc
- Compare the list of started services between LTSP 4.1 and breezy LTSP
- Remove the "sleep 3" from the initramfs nfs script
- start LDM as early as possible in the bootprocess
- find the slowing down part in syslogd (strace) and fix it
- run a ntpd on the ltsp server and make the thin client pull its time from there
- make ltsp-build-client's debootstrapping install only the bare minimum needed (probably introduce a thin client mode)
- drop module-init-tools from the bootprocess
- find any silent scripts that run and might slow down the bootprocess
Implementation
Cutting down the list of started services in rcS.d on the Thin Client to the following gains us 30 seconds:
- S02mountvirtfs
- S04udev
- S32ltsp-client-setup
- S40hotplug
- S40networking
- S50alsa-utils
- S70xorg-common
This seems to be the bare minimum of needed bootscripts. The bootprocess still needs ~60 seconds from hitting the powerbutton (which includes BIOS indeed) to being able to log in at the loginmanager (which is about as much as a normal ubuntu workstation installation), mostly caused by initramfs and hotplug which should be sped up by changes Scott will make to the initramfs/hotplug architecture.
Code
Changes in ltsp-build-client are required to remove the unneeded startup scripts. The initramfs and hotplug changes are covered in other specs. The ltsp-client startscript should move up to the top of rc2.d Giving readahead-list a list of files to preload on boot.
Data preservation and migration
Breezy users will either need to rebuild their chroot environment (recommended, since the initramfs/hotplug changes will gain the most speedup) but we could at least provide a script that disables the unneeded services.
Outstanding issues during development
Examine the initramfs/hotplug speedup that can be done.
Examine the gain of the inclusion of readahead-list in the bootprocess.
Examining debootstrap for things that dont need to be installed (having a ltsp mode for debootstrap)