LXDE Forums

Hi,

As often happens, last I got bored with Ubuntu and decided to switch back to Lubuntu, which I used for years before some (now ofrgotten) tech issue persuaded me to switch to Ubuntu 12.4.

I run it on two lap tops, one for work and one for home. The work one is fine (as fine as a laptop with a barely functioning fan can be). Lubuntu has been on that one for months and presents no problems.

With the home laptop, however, the boot is really slow. Initially I switched to Lubuntu 12.4 or 12.10 (or something) and it seemed fine. Last week, I upgraded up to 13.10. Now booting is a drag. BIOS appears as normal, then the disc light stops flashing and nothing happens for about 30 seconds. Then a bit of text appears on screen, the light starts flashing and boot continues as normal. All up, it probably takes a minute of so to get to the desktop - and while that is super fast compared to my wife's lumbering Windows blighted laptop, it is far slower than Lubuntu should be, and completely alien to my experience of previous incarnations of this fine OS.

So, what is happening in that 30 seconds of dead time during boot, and how can we stop it happening?

Welcome to the LXDE forum. When you say that you have upgraded to Lubuntu 13.10, was it an upgrade (from 12.04 to 12.10 to 13.04 to 13.10) 0r was it a new install of Lubuntu 13.10?

Originally, it was an switch I refuse to call it a downgrade) from Ubuntu 12.04 to Lubuntu 12.04. Then I updated to Lubuntu 13.10. None were new installs.

I suspect that there are a number of programs on the auto-start list under Ubuntu 12.04, Lubuntu 12.04, etc are being started at boot of your current OS. Pare those down. I use Lubuntu as well and am looking forward to the release of Lubuntu 14.04 early next month. I am in the habit of doing a clean install with the release of each new version after two diasaterous attempts at upgrading. Others have been upgrading without incident for years. I guess I am not holding my mouth right.

I have continued to try to solve tthis issue, with assistance from the main Ubuntu forum. My efforts are recorded here.

I finally resorted to replacing Lubuntu with Ubuntu 12.04, which means I have to put up with Unity - but the system boots swiftly, without the minute+ of nothing happening. Also, a secondary issue I'd noticed, unresponsive USB ports, does not occur with Ubuntu 12.04. As part of ,my experimentations, I tried fresh installs of Slitaz and Lubuntu 14.04 - both experienced the boot lag. But now I'm back on Ubuntu Precise, everything is fine. Apart from Unity, I mean ...

This suggests whatever was causing the problem is related to the operating system and not (as I had suspected) my hardware giving up the ghost. Might be something to be investigated, as it is frustrating. I much prefer Lubuntu to Ubuntu, but find too many of these little glitches marring the system.

Ah well. I'm sure I'll get bored with Ubuntu in about six months.

i know you were talking about another laptop here, but i couldn't help noticing:

lurgee wrote:(as fine as a laptop with a barely functioning fan can be)

have you tried cleaning the fan?
open the lid and blow compressed air from the inside out (if you're not sqeamish, you can just blow with your mouth, but close your eyes) - has worked wonders more than once.

i also read in your other thread on UF that you have an external fan that gets power from usb?
maybe the kind of gadget that might fry your usb's power supply?
(but i did not read all 3 pages, so this might be totally besides the point now)

The laptop with the barely functioning fan is a Compaq Presarion that was shipped with a fauly in the BIOS that meant the fan was not working properly. Can't remembering if it was working too much or not enough, but it stopped working at some stage and the motherboard cooked. Compaq said they wouldn't replace it as we were a month out side the (oh so generous) 2 year special warranty they had allowed; but eventually fixed it. It still functions, just about. Looking forward to the day it explodes in a classroom full of students ...

The external USB fan is on the laptop that I'm using just now - an emachines 625 of doubtful character. It doesn't seem to be causing any issues now on Precise Ubuntu, so probably not the culprit with my Lubuntu woes.

Incidentally, I notice that dmesg on Ubuntu indicates there is still an error associated with the USB ports. I'm still getting the 'usb 1-10: device descriptor read/64, error -110' error but (important bit) Ubuntu seems to identify the problem and just move on, whereas Lubuntu sat there and scratched its head for over a minute, trying to figure it out. And my integrated webcam is still not working in Ubuntu - nothing seems to be detecting it - and I am wondering if this might be the true underlying cause of it all.

Ho hum. One of them mysteries that will likely never be solved.