On 08/12/13 14:07, Bev Nicolson wrote:

I get the impression that it takes longer for this machine to boot than it used to when I had to use Windows because I was still unsure how to install Ubtunu. Advised that HTOP would be a good choice I have installed it. Now, how do I use? Can someone explain it to me? What would a problem figure be for example, and how would I deal with it? Ta.

htop and also top, show what the machine's currently doing. I'm not sure how they would help you diagnose start-up delays, as the machine needs to be running an provide you with a prompt in order to use it.

htop and top both provide you with a list of running processes, and the total amount of processor "thinking-power" being used, and for each process, how much processor time it's getting, and lists of other resources. You can see which process is using the most processor time as follows in htop. Start htop in a window Press F6 to sort by. Press up or down until you highlight CPU% then press enter. The list will then be sorted by processor usage.

I'm not sure if it'll help much though. If you can start it early enough after a boot, you might be able to see something running and think "Why's that running?"

Perhaps you should ask whoever told you to install it why they told you to install it?

I'd have thought that pybootchartgui and bootchart would be a better bet. Install both, reboot, and it provides a graph of what was executed during the boot-up process. You can then examine this and work out if there was anything taking longer than expected, or any unexpected processes running. I don't recall where it puts the .png graph files, but I'm sure you can find them or google for where they will be. Trouble is it will list all sorts of things that you probably won't know what they are or if they're needed. I used to run it too and I didn't know half of what was running.

I think it's more useful as a sort of long term thing. Compare boot up speeds now with that from a few months ago and see if there's much difference.

As with Windows, the standard reasons for delayed boot up are: Unnecessary programs or processes starting at boot-up. Running out of disk space Insufficient (RAM) memory.

I'd suggest you check if there's plenty of free disk space. Also, check what's set to start up automatically - either by just looking at what gets listed on the running programs bars, or hunt through the menus for places where programs are started automatically. You could also try looking for programs you could install to check this - the amusingly named Boot Up Manager (BUM) springs to mind!

Hope that helps a bit.

Bear in mind though if you do install PyBootChart and Bootchart, they will produce boot data and images and I don't think they automatically delete them - you'll have to manage their disk usage.

Steve