Gnome Slow to load

[ktech11]

I upgraded recently from Fedora 16 to 17 using preupgrade, and I haven't had any real issues except one: slow Gnome loading

My boot times are a little slower, but not terribly (takes about 30 seconds from cold boot to login screen and with a 5400 RPM drive I suppose that isn't too bad).

The biggest problem is that Gnome Shell seems to take forever. Once I hit enter on the login screen it is 30 seconds until the actual shell loads. The system does not freeze and i can move the mouse but can't work. I took a look at systemd-analyze blame and here it is, but that doesn't have anything to do with Gnome (now, if anyone has ideas how to speed up the top two items, I am open to it)

[root@Ktech-Mobile1 Bobby]# systemd-analyze blame
7995ms fedora-storage-init.service
5989ms dkms_autoinstaller.service
4160ms proc-fs-nfsd.mount
3551ms var-lib-nfs-rpc_pipefs.mount
3468ms fedora-loadmodules.service
3224ms udev-settle.service
3151ms systemd-binfmt.service
2738ms fedora-readonly.service
2680ms media.mount
2649ms dev-mqueue.mount
2639ms udev.service
2617ms sys-kernel-debug.mount
2484ms fedora-storage-init-late.service
2482ms proc-sys-fs-binfmt_misc.mount
2367ms lvm2-monitor.service
2318ms dev-hugepages.mount
2204ms udev-trigger.service
1974ms sys-kernel-config.mount
1912ms systemd-vconsole-setup.service
1564ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
1301ms systemd-remount-fs.service
1186ms home.mount
895ms nfs-server.service
832ms NetworkManager.service
765ms systemd-readahead-collect.service
757ms sshd.service
715ms systemd-sysctl.service
689ms systemd-readahead-replay.service
674ms fedora-wait-storage.service
537ms mdmonitor-takeover.service
480ms vboxdrv.service
417ms console-kit-log-system-start.service
352ms avahi-daemon.service
328ms boot.mount
247ms systemd-logind.service
245ms iptables.service
232ms ip6tables.service
229ms dbus.service
215ms auditd.service
191ms udisks2.service
187ms colord-sane.service
181ms acpid.service
178ms abrt-ccpp.service
173ms mcelog.service
164ms irqbalance.service
149ms abrt-vmcore.service
145ms systemd-user-sessions.service
115ms nfs-lock.service
113ms sm-client.service
113ms colord.service
75ms sendmail.service
73ms console-kit-daemon.service
50ms nfs-mountd.service
50ms wpa_supplicant.service
46ms rpcbind.service
37ms nfs-rquotad.service
33ms vboxballoonctrl-service.service
25ms vboxweb-service.service
25ms nfs-idmap.service
20ms accounts-daemon.service
7ms upower.service
3ms rtkit-daemon.service
2ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount
I also attached the Xorg log, but I couldn't see anything in there either (of course there is a good shot that I missed something since I have been looking at them for hours)

[DBelton]

Look in your ~/.xsession-errors file and see if there are errors showing up in there that give some clues to the delay.

[dcharlespyle]

Also, what kind of video card are you using. Is it old AGP or is it PCIe? If PCIe, is it PCIe 2.0 compatible? If your card is ATi and PCIe 2.0 compatible, put the following at the end of your kernel line in /etc/default/grub and rebuild grub.cfg:

radeon.pcie_gen2=1

Make sure that the double-quote mark still is at the end of the line in that file. Follow up the rebuild of grub.cfg with a reboot and see if you don't notice a difference. 3.5.0-2 kernel also will add some zip to your video card in many cases when that parameter is put into grub.

If you don't remember how to rebuild grub.cfg (if you are using Grub2), it is sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg.

[ktech11]

Originally Posted by DBelton

Look in your ~/.xsession-errors file and see if there are errors showing up in there that give some clues to the delay.

Here is the error log, but I haven't looked at this file before so it doesn't mean a lot to me:

GNOME_KEYRING_CONTROL=/run/user/Bobby/keyring-n81uKa
GNOME_KEYRING_CONTROL=/run/user/Bobby/keyring-n81uKa
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/run/user/Bobby/keyring-n81uKa/ssh
GNOME_KEYRING_CONTROL=/run/user/Bobby/keyring-n81uKa
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/run/user/Bobby/keyring-n81uKa/ssh
GPG_AGENT_INFO=/run/user/Bobby/keyring-n81uKa/gpg:0:1
GNOME_KEYRING_CONTROL=/run/user/Bobby/keyring-n81uKa
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/run/user/Bobby/keyring-n81uKa/ssh
GPG_AGENT_INFO=/run/user/Bobby/keyring-n81uKa/gpg:0:1
SELinux Troubleshooter: Applet requires SELinux be enabled to run.
Initializing tracker-store...
Tracker-Message: Setting up monitor for changes to config file:'/home/Bobby/.config/tracker/tracker-store.cfg'
Failed to play sound: File or data not found
Initializing tracker-miner-fs...
Tracker-Message: Setting up monitor for changes to config file:'/home/Bobby/.config/tracker/tracker-miner-fs.cfg'
** Message: applet now removed from the notification area
Starting log:
  File:'/home/Bobby/.local/share/tracker/tracker-miner-fs.log'
Tracker-Message: Setting up monitor for changes to config file:'/home/Bobby/.config/tracker/tracker-store.cfg'
Starting log:
  File:'/home/Bobby/.local/share/tracker/tracker-store.log'
** Message: Stopping applet secret agent because GNOME Shell appeared
** Message: applet now embedded in the notification area
Window manager warning: CurrentTime used to choose focus window; focus window may not be correct.
Window manager warning: Got a request to focus the no_focus_window with a timestamp of 0.  This shouldn't happen!

Just to give you and idea of what I have tried since last night:
Disabled all extensions - 5 second improvement
Stopped running dropbox at start up - 5 second improvement
Still takes 20-25 seconds to load shell
Also re-installed gnome-shell, but that did absolutely nothing to improve it.

---------- Post added at 11:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:14 PM ----------

Originally Posted by dcharlespyle

Also, what kind of video card are you using. Is it old AGP or is it PCIe? If PCIe, is it PCIe 2.0 compatible? If your card is ATi and PCIe 2.0 compatible, put the following at the end of your kernel line in /etc/default/grub and rebuild grub.cfg:

radeon.pcie_gen2=1

Make sure that the double-quote mark still is at the end of the line in that file. Follow up the rebuild of grub.cfg with a reboot and see if you don't notice a difference. 3.5.0-2 kernel also will add some zip to your video card in many cases when that parameter is put into grub.

If you don't remember how to rebuild grub.cfg (if you are using Grub2), it is sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg.

The machine I am using is a laptop with integrated intel video. Thanks for the advice, I will keep that in the back of my mind for other machines I have.

---------- Post added at 11:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:15 PM ----------

I am now thinking about just rebuilding my gnome config. I haven't really done anything to customize it other than load up some extensions. I am thinking of following this:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/56313...o-the-defaults

Thoughts?

[dcharlespyle]

Originally Posted by ktech11

...

The machine I am using is a laptop with integrated intel video. Thanks for the advice, I will keep that in the back of my mind for other machines I have.

OK, is your Intel graphics on your board AGP based? If so, I think there is a kernel parameter you can use for that, too. Let me know.

[fpmurphy]

My experience with GNOME Shell is that it takes 5-10 seconds even on very fast hardware for the top panel to appear after you enter your password. This is one of the areas of GNOME Shell that the GNOME Shell developers need to focus on and improve.

With UEFI direct booting Fedora 17 (no GRUB) on a Lenovo T430, GNOME Shell login is available within 5 seconds but getting to the top panel takes another 7 seconds.

[Gareth Jones]

I find GNOME Shell takes considerably longer in F17 than it did in F16 (about 10 seconds now, on an i7). However the hard-disk is quite active during this time, and I switched from Ext4 to Btrfs when I installed F17, so I'm not sure if it's actually GNOME Shell that's slower to load or just the file-system.

[Dutchy]

Originally Posted by Gareth Jones

I find GNOME Shell takes considerably longer in F17 than it did in F16 (about 10 seconds now, on an i7). However the hard-disk is quite active during this time, and I switched from Ext4 to Btrfs when I installed F17, so I'm not sure if it's actually GNOME Shell that's slower to load or just the file-system.

Does it?
I do not really notice this, but then again all my systems are set up to autologon and immediately lock the screen when the desktop is loaded (so that it still needs my password but there will be no further delay, which indeed is pretty annoying).
Overall I think F17 feels faster than F16.

But on topic again:
It definitely should not take longer than 10 seconds for the shell to load, also on very old/poor hardware.
In your xorglog there is a big jump from ~30 secs to ~50 secs and it looks like it tries to identify the screen and its modes or something like that.
I'm certainly no Xorg wizard but to me it looks like an Xorg or Intel driver problem.
When you search the internet for printing DDC ... you'll see all kinds of problems and bugs indicating that this could be the right direction to look for a fix.

My suggestions:
-Try another kernel (one earlier than 3.5 or a new one from the testing repo's if there is any).
-Make sure you do not boot it with an external monitor connected to it (it's a laptop right).
-Use a different resolution.
-Try the Gnome fallback mode.

[ktech11]

Originally Posted by Dutchy

Does it?
I do not really notice this, but then again all my systems are set up to autologon and immediately lock the screen when the desktop is loaded (so that it still needs my password but there will be no further delay, which indeed is pretty annoying).
Overall I think F17 feels faster than F16.

But on topic again:
It definitely should not take longer than 10 seconds for the shell to load, also on very old/poor hardware.
In your xorglog there is a big jump from ~30 secs to ~50 secs and it looks like it tries to identify the screen and its modes or something like that.
I'm certainly no Xorg wizard but to me it looks like an Xorg or Intel driver problem.
When you search the internet for printing DDC ... you'll see all kinds of problems and bugs indicating that this could be the right direction to look for a fix.

My suggestions:
-Try another kernel (one earlier than 3.5 or a new one from the testing repo's if there is any).
-Make sure you do not boot it with an external monitor connected to it (it's a laptop right).
-Use a different resolution.
-Try the Gnome fallback mode.

So I think you may be right that it isn't necessarily a Gnome issue. I have installed KDE and tried using that (I wanted to see what the whole activities thing was about and to make sure it wasn't Gnome). KDE takes the same amount of time. I appreciate the path to take. I think it may just be an underlying issue with the system. Boot times from cold boot to log on screen are taking longer now as well. I used pre-upgrade to move from 16 to 17 and I have read that causes some issues.

With regards to the type of video card I am using it is the integrated hd3000 graphics that comes with the i5. I may just try re-installing the intel driver.

Since you were so much help with the gnome loading, any ideas on the boot times? The dkms-autoinstaller and the fedora-storage-init service seem to be taking awhile.

[ktech11]

So I booted to an older kernel and re-installed the intel driver, but no luck.

Attached is the current Xorg log. I am running out of ideas. A clean install may be in my future.