1-second kernel

[john wendel]

NiftyFedora Mitch wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 20, 2008 at 11:43 PM, Tim <ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
>> Tim:
>>>> Five seconds is probably ambitious, but I still like how my old Amiga
>>>> would COLD BOOT in 13 seconds, warm boot was 11 seconds.  That's from
>>>> off, to fully working system.
>> g:
>>> also, think about how much memory you had and was it 8 bit. hard drives?
>> No, not 8 bits.  ;-)  But there was an efficiency about it that isn't
>> around these days:  You didn't make something multi-megabyte unless you
>> had to.  You don't run a server unless you have to (right now, or at
>> all).  Such as print servers if you don't need them, nor until you
>> actually go to print.
> 
> Interesting discussion....
> There are two places to pay critical attention to first:
> 
>   A.  hardware initialization.
> 
> For a system to boot all hardware has to be known in advance.
> NO probes that time out for this and that...  SCSI timers are LONG...
> No probe of USB this and that.
> 
> To that end building a kernel with "your" devices built in it
> can help. Exclude any driver that you do not have hardware for.....
> Keep a vanilla kitchen sink kernel everything kernel as a safety net.
> Perhaps on a USB or LiveCD.
> 
>   B. Network timers.
> 
> Network timers are much longer than we all expect... Ensure that
> all name servers and network knowledge that can be "hardwired" is. No DHCP no
> discovery of name servers.   Snoop the net (dumb hub, second machine) and
> watch for timeouts and other traffic you do not expect.
> 
> As others indicated most but not all services can be disabled....
> and started later.   "sudo service cups start" can be run long after
> you login.
> 
> For example X11 takes a lot longer to start than I expect.. in part because the
> window manager desktop has all sorts of live buttons and widgets.   Clean up as
> much as you can without X11 i.e. login on a simple text window... and
> use 'startx'...
> 
> It is possible to use 'find' to discover all the files that have been
> accessed (opened)
> do an audit and find out why for each of them... all libs all programs...
> 
> Profile anything that might run prior to a shell prompt you can in isolation.
> 
> Simplify all that you can.
> 

I really surprised that no one has mentioned this work here ...

        http://lwn.net/Articles/299483/

5 second boot is coming soon!

Regards,

John