Ubuntu 24.04 Dual Boot (Windows 11) – 2–3 Minute Delay After Startup, Programs Respond Slowly After Booting

Support and Help
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Ubuntu Version:
24.04.3 LTS (dual boot with Windows 11)

Desktop Environment:
GNOME (default)

Problem Description:
I am using Ubuntu and Windows in a dual boot setup. When I boot into Ubuntu, the desktop appears, but programs and applications take around 2–3 minutes before they actually start responding.
During this time, I cannot properly launch programs or use the system. After this delay, everything works normally.

Relevant System Information:

  • Laptop with NVMe SSD
  • Windows Fast Startup disabled
  • NTFS storage partitions also mounted on Ubuntu

Screenshots or Error Messages:
No direct error messages, but here are some logs:

Output of systemd-analyze blame:
6.551s plymouth-quit-wait.service
5.485s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
1.774s snapd.seeded.service
1.683s snapd.service
1.073s docker.service
// etc…

What I’ve Tried:

  • Disabled Windows Fast Startup and hibernation
  • Checked disks with chkdsk on Windows
  • Looked at systemd-analyze blame and noticed plymouth-quit-wait.service and NetworkManager-wait-online.service cause delays

Screen Capture

image
image858×579 219 KB

Still not sure what is safe to disable and how to optimize properly

2

Welcome to Ubuntu Discourse :slight_smile:

Are the NTFS partitions auto-mounted at startup?

Please show us the output of this command:

cat /etc/fstab

Thanks

3

Nice to meet you, thank you…

The output looks like this:

image2
image21348×425 210 KB

As you can see, the NTFS partition (/mnt/Storage) is listed with noauto and x-systemd.automount.
So it should not block the boot process, since it only mounts on first access.

4

Cold start > Boot > Press Esc
This should show text output and, hopefully, provide a clue?

5

Are you running xorg or Wayland? See Bug #2042301 “Windows are slow to open shortly after login under...” : Bugs : nvidia-graphics-drivers-535 package : Ubuntu for xorg delays causing these sorts of problems.

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@tea-for-one, There has been no change…

7

Thanks for pointing me in that direction. I just checked with

image

and the output is x11.

So it seems my current Ubuntu 24.04 session is running under Xorg, not Wayland.

I installed Ubuntu with the default settings, so I assumed it might be Wayland, but apparently Xorg was chosen in my case (likely because of the GPU/driver setup).

I’ll try logging into a Wayland session from the login screen and compare the behavior (whether the 2–3 minute delay after startup still occurs). If the delay goes away on Wayland, then it probably matches the bug report you mentioned.

I’ll report back with the results once I’ve tested both sessions.

1 Like
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@ubfan1 I tried switching to Wayland, but the problem persists… What’s more, it used to take 2-3 minutes, but now it takes 4-5 minutes! I guess the drivers aren’t supported or something else is causing it!

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Running out of ideas here but willing to give it another shot :slight_smile:

What GPU setup do you have, Nvidia?

When you reboot, at the GRUB menu press e to edit and add nomodeset after quiet splash then F10 to continue the boot process.

Maybe we can isolate if this is a graphic issue?

Have you tried an older kernel, does the issue reproduce?

After logging in are you able to open a terminal and run journalctl -f to identify what is causing this?

If not, switch to tty3 and run the command.

Once the freeze stops you can return to the normal desktop.

10

Pressing Esc was not intended to change anything.
It should reveal text output when the boot process stalled/hesitated.
Was there nothing significant in the output?

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Thank you @rubi1200, @tea-for-one, @ubfan1 and everyone who helped!

Initially, my GNOME desktop loaded quickly, but all programs were slow to respond for several minutes. Reviewing systemd-analyze blame revealed substantial delays caused by plymouth-quit-wait.service and NetworkManager-wait-online.service. My laptop uses an NVMe SSD, Windows Fast Startup is disabled, and I have NTFS partitions mounted in Ubuntu.

Here are the technical steps that fixed my issue:

# Check if Secure Boot is enabled; Secure Boot can prevent proprietary drivers from loading properly. Disable it in BIOS if enabled.
sudo mokutil --sb-state                 # Check Secure Boot status

# Automatically install all recommended proprietary drivers, including the NVIDIA driver.
sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall         # Install recommended drivers

# Update package lists and upgrade all installed packages to the latest versions to ensure system is fully updated.
sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y && apt-get full-upgrade -y && apt-get dist-upgrade -y

# Install the Hardware Enablement (HWE) kernel for Ubuntu 24.04 to get newer kernel support and improved hardware compatibility.
sudo apt install linux-generic-hwe-24.04

# Install latest firmware packages and microcode updates for Intel/AMD CPUs to improve hardware stability and performance.
sudo apt install linux-firmware intel-microcode amd64-microcode

# Update the initial RAM filesystem to include all necessary drivers and firmware at boot.
sudo update-initramfs -u

# Install CPU frequency utilities to manage CPU scaling governors.
sudo apt install cpufrequtils

# Set the CPU scaling governor to 'performance' to improve responsiveness by running CPU at higher frequency.
echo 'GOVERNOR="performance"' | sudo tee /etc/default/cpufrequtils

# Restart the CPU frequency management service to apply the new governor setting immediately.
sudo systemctl restart cpufrequtils

I updated to the recommended NVIDIA driver (580-open) and set the graphics mode using PRIME:

# Select NVIDIA as the primary graphics device to ensure high-performance GPU is used.
sudo prime-select nvidia

# Reboot system to apply the driver changes and graphics configuration.
sudo reboot

I confirmed NVIDIA was active using:

# Verify that the NVIDIA GPU is being used as the OpenGL renderer.
glxinfo | grep "OpenGL renderer"

Now, the system reports:
OpenGL renderer string: NVIDIA ...

With these driver, firmware, and power management updates, the startup lag disappeared. Programs launch instantly, and the desktop is responsive as soon as it appears. Delays in both plymouth-quit-wait.service and network initialization were reduced to minimal levels. Additionally, mounting NTFS disks with optimized options further improved boot reliability.

Thanks again to everyone for your support. For anyone facing similar dual-boot performance issues on hybrid machines, I recommend confirming the graphics driver is correctly installed, firmware and microcode updates are applied, and PRIME is set to the dedicated graphics card. The commands above solved my problems.

Thanks again!

2 Likes
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Note that you should re-consider this change if you actually care about your battery life, that using performance makes your system more responsive is mostly a myth stemming from olden days where you had single core CPUs that didnt do threading etc …

nowadays the ondemand cpu scaling should be performant enough to not notice it (it might still be measurable in the area of fractions of nanoseconds though)

1 Like
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@ogra Thank you for your advice, but I don’t really care about it because my laptop’s battery life has already shortened to only 30 minutes, and I now use it almost like a desktop computer, dependent on the charger…

If it’s important to others, they can try this instead:

# Check which GPU is active
prime-select query

# On-demand (recommended hybrid) mode
sudo prime-select on-demand
2 Likes
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