Ubuntu 24.04/24.10 slow at boot up and slow opening programs

Support and Help
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1

Ubuntu Version:
Ubuntu 24.04/24.10

Desktop Environment (if applicable):
GNOME

Problem Description:
After switching from windos 10 to ubuntu 24.04 and later 24.10 i noticed very slow boot up when starting my laptop much slower then on w10 and this goes for both 24.04 and 24.10.

opening programs take a very long time and this differs from program to program forexample ff takes nearly 10 seconds to start the terminal takes like 5 seconds etc

my nightlight button i turn on but it doesnt activate until after using the computer for a couple hours.

i note all of this here because i thought maybe there is a connection?

Relevant System Information:

@n-HP-EliteBook-6930p
              .',:clooo:  .:looooo:.           ----------------------
           .;looooooooc  .oooooooooo'          OS: Ubuntu oracular 24.10 x86_64
        .;looooool:,''.  :ooooooooooc          Host: HP EliteBook 6930p (F.20)
       ;looool;.         'oooooooooo,          Kernel: Linux 6.11.0-18-generic
      ;clool'             .cooooooc.  ,,       Uptime: 3 hours, 4 mins
         ...                ......  .:oo,      Packages: 1926 (dpkg), 21 (snap)
  .;clol:,.                        .loooo'     Shell: bash 5.2.32
 :ooooooooo,                        'ooool     Display (SEC4E42): 1280x800 @ 60Hzooooooooooo.                        loooo.    
'ooooooooool                         coooo.    DE: GNOME 47.0
 ,loooooooc.                        .loooo.    WM: Mutter (Wayland)
   .,;;;'.                          ;ooooc     WM Theme: Yaru-dark
       ...                         ,ooool.     Theme: Yaru-dark [GTK2/3/4]
    .cooooc.              ..',,'.  .cooo.      Icons: Yaru-dark [GTK2/3/4]
      ;ooooo:.           ;oooooooc.  :l.       Font: Ubuntu Sans (11pt) [GTK2/3/4]     .coooooc,..      coooooooooo.    
         .:ooooooolc:. .ooooooooooo'           Cursor: Yaru (24px)
           .':loooooo;  ,oooooooooc            Terminal: GNOME Terminal 3.54.0
               ..';::c'  .;loooo:'             Terminal Font: Ubuntu Sans Mono (13pt)
                                               CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo     P8700 (2) @ 2.53 GHz
                                               GPU: Intel Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [Integrated]
                                               Memory: 1.86 GiB / 3.35 GiB (56%)
                                               Swap: 165.50 MiB / 3.66 GiB (4%)
                                               Disk (/): 52.07 GiB / 109.47 GiB (48%) - ext4

What I’ve Tried:
tried different Ubuntu flavours

Thank you in advance for your help.

Kind regards

Nemo

1 Like
2

There is a known issue with Core2 CPUs, the next UWN includes the following

Intel Core 2 CPUs Have Been Affected By An Annoying Linux Kernel Bug For 5+ Years

Michael Larabel reports of a fix for Intel Core 2 processors’ system stalls and slow boot in the 6.14 kernel. The reason for the long standing affect is disclosed with the fix expected to be back-ported to stable series soon.

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-Core-2-Stalls-Boot-Fix

See Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 881

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS currently uses the 6.8 kernel (if using GA), or 6.11 (if using HWE), with Ubuntu 24.10 using 6.11; neither of which have the fixes yet mentioned in that article (as not security related; I’d not expect it until 24.04 upgrades to the 6.14 HWE kernel if you’re using HWE; 24.10 users will get it when they release-upgrade to 25.04 where the 6.14 HWE kernel will come from)

Ubuntu flavors all use the standard Ubuntu base at boot; the differences beyond that are mostly superficial or set by your install media (ie. flavor media may install with either GA or HWE kernel; controlled by ISO used to install), thus I’d expect them to be essentially identical (some flavor ISOs allow a snapd free install which may make boot & login a tad faster, but its still a minor difference in my opinion)

If what you’re talking is something else though (either related to a config or other package option) you were vague, I felt, with details so I’ve responded based on a Core2 detail in your paste which is a known value.

2 Likes
3

Thank you for your quick reply.

I didnt mean to be vague what more info do you need ?

Also what about the very frustratingly slow start up of apps ? is that connected?

4

What hardware are you running? Some laptops still have spinning drives. If you have a M.2 drive if it overheats it can slow down to spinning drive speeds.

1 Like
5

I have a ssd.

I also tried snaps debs and flatpacks they are all tediously slow but at varying degree flatpacks where a lil faster then the others for some reason but not by much.

thank you for the quick reply.

See the info for the specs below.

6

What I talked about relates to booting only; with apps that is more involved.

When it comes to apps; I’ll talk about what I’d consider, as I don’t have a specific example to work with.

Package type

Some packages are stored on disk compressed, which means they’ll be saving disk space, but need to be decompressed prior to use, thus will have a slower start. Snap packages are stored as squashfs which can be an example; they’ll take a little longer to get running the first time they’re run in your session.

deb packaged apps are not [usually] stored compressed in comparison, but our apps may exist in deb format, snap, flatpak, appimage and other formats too; so package type plays a part. So can our file-system & other details I’ll ignore.

RAM & resources available

If I start an app now on my running system, I’ll have a number of resources already available in RAM; currently I’m using the Lubuntu/LXQt desktop thus some Qt6 libs/resources will already be in RAM as they’re being used by the LXQt desktop I’m using. I’m also running hexchat for IRC, an app I start usually pretty soon after I start a session, meaning some GTK2 resources will be available.

When I start a new app; what resources will it use? If it will need the Qt6 resources that I’m already using (due to my desktop choice), those additional GTK2 resources I’m using (available to my IRC app choice), those won’t need to be loaded & that app will start faster. If however requirements aren’t in RAM, those will need to be loaded into RAM meaning I need to have RAM available (will something I have in RAM need to be swapped out to make room) etc. As many apps these days are GTK4; the Qt6 & GTK2 libs won’t help; other older apps maybe GTK3 etc.

The box I’m using now has plenty (16GB) of RAM (plenty for what I do with it anyway), my data is stored on an m.2 ssd (not spinning rust drive), so wait times won’t be as long as my secondary PC which has only 8GB of RAM and spinning rust drive.

On devices with less than 6GB, I really consider what’s in RAM carefully (esp. with 4GB of less) as I want my machines to perform well (meaning fast) so I won’t start a new app until I consider what resources it’ll need to execute, and if those resources are already in RAM or where they’re not how much RAM is available or I’ll cause the machine to need to swap stuff out of RAM as that causes a hit in speed/performance. The apps & libraries they’ll use are what I consider here.

Startup configuration

We can influence startup time by having processes start on login or boot, once the machine is going it’ll be faster, but we’re making the choice of slower startup so subsequent execution is faster. I don’t know what changes you’ve made, what you’ve installed (that can make changes for you), so can’t help here.

I also wonder if you’re comparing rather different things, Modern Windows is rarely booting a system these days, as Microsoft realized users didn’t like waiting, so modified their system to use fastboot which really is just a form of wake from hibernate. When you apply updates to your system, it re-creates the fastboot (hibernate) file that will be used. A default GNU/Linux (Ubuntu) system doesn’t do this.

FYI: I still use devices with as little as 1GB of RAM on occasion, but how I use those devices varies significantly to this box with 16GB of RAM. I’m always doing head calculations/estimates of what’s in RAM before starting apps, or when planning the order I do things when resources (esp. RAM) are limited.

I’ve also noted differences due to CPU too, but that’s more complex. I have found older kernels can actually perform better myself on really old hardware (opcodes used at compile time I gather), eg. I still prefer 20.04 on an old thinkpad using c2d-t6570 with only 2GB of RAM, but with that release reaching EOSS very soon, I’ve got to decide how I upgrade that system myself. I tend to prefer the lighter desktops on older hardware, but the graphics hardware I’ve found matters here too in what’s best for a specific device.

This was written yesterday when you first posted, but I wasn’t happy with it, so didn’t ‘post’… and it’s sat here a day for me to ‘review’ & post

1 Like
7

Thank you for your reply.

I typically only use 1 app at a time forexample firefox and i have 4gb ram while stationary ubuntu uses araund 850mb ram with ff open it will increase to about
1.3 gb i should more then enough ram for my usage there ?
oh and the ff is a snap.

I tried snaps and debs and flatpaks its all the same thing tedious slow start up one slightly faster then the other but this seems to me a os problem?

Its also not 1 one time its every single time so if i start up the laptop and then open ff i wait and if i shut down ff and then later reopen it again i wait … i looked on youtube and see people open up snaps and firefox normally sure they have modern hardware but even videos of people using shittier hardware then mine they open normally its got me scratching my head.

am i going to have to ditch ubuntu and anything with a ubuntu base?

8

Surely not, but you need to keep in mind that 4GB is the absolue bare minimum to run the default Ubuntu desktop, so you are likely hit by the RAM limits here.

For a machine like this, you should perhaps consider one of the lighter desktops of one of the various Ubuntu flavours like Xubuntu, Lubuntu or budgie that are focused on low end machines like yours …

3 Likes
9

I can assure you i am not reaching any ram limit i checked because i used to have this problem with w10 seeing as it was a bloated mess.

what else can it be ?

also i remember one more thing when i first installed ubuntu i couldnt open the app center and update programs after asking in the ubuntu chat it turned out there was something about my graphics that dint like opengl so i had to turn that off in the settigns for the app center.

I also already tried kubuntu same thing?

10

Yes, same RAM requirements, which is why I explicitly did not list it above…

2 Likes
11

With Your CPU: Intel(R) Core™2 Duo P8700 you can’t hope for much in terms of performance

1 Like
12

I noticed the same laggy situation while starting up, together with lots of Gnome issues after upgrading from jammy

OS: Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS x86_64 
Host: 300V3A/300V4A/300V5A/200A4B/200A5B 0.1 
Kernel: 6.8.0-55-generic 
Uptime: 19 mins 
Packages: 2755 (dpkg), 81 (snap) 
Shell: bash 5.2.21 
Resolution: 1366x768 
DE: GNOME 46.0 
WM: Mutter 
WM Theme: Adwaita 
Theme: gnome-professional-40.1-dark [GTK2/3] 
Icons: Yaru [GTK2/3] 
Terminal: tmux 
CPU: Intel i7-2670QM (8) @ 3.100GHz 
GPU: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family 
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX 
Memory: 3308MiB / 7854MiB
13

But ubuntu is much lighter than windos 10 and w10 ran just fine on my computer it did consume alot of ram though often i would come close to the limit.

with ubuntu it is faster smoother its just the apps that open frustratingly slow but once open they run fine and dont consume much ram i can even run multiple programs and still wouldnt reach max ram really amazing however i dont do this just for testing i mostly just use firefox or just vlc so one program at a time.

14

I dont understand why i need to run a lighter de for les ram usage,
Ubuntu/gnome rarely reaches 2gb on my laptop?
but i will try and see if there’s a difference thanks

15

Try a live USB, that won’t really say anything about boot speed (since the live images have a completely different boot process than an install), but should show if/how the rest of the system operates, my guess would be that once booted the desktop will be snappier, even when running off USB

1 Like
16

Oke so i downloaded the deb. balena etcher and tried to flash xubuntu but i get an error message

[Something went wrong. If it is a compressed image, please check that the archive is not corrupted"]

i have been searching the web for god knows how long but i cant get it to work?

people will tell you how easy linux is compared to windows but they dont tell you how frustrating it is to relearn an entire os where even simple things give you a headache hahaha

Edit: my usb wont show up anymore like its not detected? but when i insert it i do hear a biep like it reconizes it ? but it doesnt show up. I also just restarted the laptop but nothing ?

ready to pull my hair out…

17

How did you download the ISO? Have you verified its integrity? (P.S. this is something you should do with all downloaded ISOs, including Windows ones)

2 Likes
18

I downloaded the iso from the ubuntu site as a direct download.

I dont know what that means verified its integrity ?

19

The instructions here are easy to follow:

3 Likes
20

so i am stuck at step 4 when i enter the command in the terminal i get the following message

n@n-HP-EliteBook-6930p:~$ gpg --keyid-format long --verify SHA256SUMS.gpg SHA256SUMS
gpg: can’t open ‘SHA256SUMS.gpg’: No such file or directory
gpg: verify signatures failed: No such file or directory
n@n-HP-EliteBook-6930p:~$

but if i dont have it should look like this

gpg: Signature made Thu Apr  5 22:19:36 2018 EDT
                    using DSA key ID 46181433FBB75451
gpg: Can't check signature: No public key
gpg: Signature made Thu Apr  5 22:19:36 2018 EDT
                    using RSA key ID D94AA3F0EFE21092
gpg: Can't check signature: No public key

according to the site personally i cant make heads nor tails of this