Slow boot possibly related to firmware

For the past few months booting my system (Windows-Ubuntu dual boot) has taken way too long (~3 min). I'm trying to fix it right now and I'm having very little luck.

The symptoms

From turning on the computer until Grub appears takes about 1 minute. From Grub to the login screen for Ubuntu it takes about 1.5 minutes.

What I've tried

I've run systemd-analyze time which output:

Startup finished in 1min 22ms (firmware) + 3.807s (loader) + 1min 7.203s (kernel) + 1min 30.475s (userspace) = 3min 41.508s
graphical.target reached after 11.713s in userspace

I've run systemd-analyze plot which showed that dev-fuse.device takes orders of magnitude longer than everything else. The red bar goes all the way off the screen to the right.

Based on some googling this lead me to believe that my /etc/fstab file is using an incorrect UUID for my swap, but I don't think that is the case. This is my /etc/fstab:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sdb6 during installation
UUID=0e0a0e10-243f-4be1-b285-f231826bf1bc / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sdb2 during installation
UUID=5EC7-7108 /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1
# /home was on /dev/sdb7 during installation
UUID=8226e8a2-cb20-438f-9192-f8100a06c172 /home ext4 defaults 0 2
# swap was on /dev/sdb5 during installation
UUID=b492987e-be36-43a5-97cc-39779d160353 none swap sw 0 0

And this is what I get for sudo blkid | grep swap:

/dev/sdb5: UUID="b492987e-be36-43a5-97cc-39779d160353" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="98261e45-3e1b-4ca5-828a-f413cfcbf251"

Based on comments it seems that swap is not the issue. Here is some more diagnostic output.

caleb@pangea:~$ free -h total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 15Gi 4.6Gi 6.9Gi 327Mi 4.0Gi 10Gi
Swap: 18Gi 0B 18Gi

caleb@pangea:~$ sudo lshw -C memory
[sudo] password for caleb: *-firmware description: BIOS vendor: American Megatrends Inc. physical id: 0 version: P1.00 date: 04/25/2014 size: 64KiB capacity: 16MiB capabilities: pci upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect socketedrom edd int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer acpi usb biosbootspecification uefi *-memory description: System Memory physical id: b slot: System board or motherboard size: 16GiB *-bank:0 description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (0.6 ns) product: CT51264BD160B.M16F vendor: Conexant (Rockwell) physical id: 0 serial: E33A9D3C slot: ChannelA-DIMM0 size: 4GiB width: 64 bits clock: 1600MHz (0.6ns) *-bank:1 description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (0.6 ns) product: F3-12800CL9-4GBXL vendor: Fujitsu physical id: 1 serial: 00000000 slot: ChannelA-DIMM1 size: 4GiB width: 64 bits clock: 1600MHz (0.6ns) *-bank:2 description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (0.6 ns) product: CT51264BD160B.M16F vendor: Conexant (Rockwell) physical id: 2 serial: E33A9E22 slot: ChannelB-DIMM0 size: 4GiB width: 64 bits clock: 1600MHz (0.6ns) *-bank:3 description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (0.6 ns) product: F3-12800CL9-4GBXL vendor: Fujitsu physical id: 3 serial: 00000000 slot: ChannelB-DIMM1 size: 4GiB width: 64 bits clock: 1600MHz (0.6ns) *-cache:0 description: L1 cache physical id: d slot: CPU Internal L1 size: 256KiB capacity: 256KiB capabilities: synchronous internal write-back configuration: level=1 *-cache:1 description: L2 cache physical id: e slot: CPU Internal L2 size: 1MiB capacity: 1MiB capabilities: synchronous internal write-back unified configuration: level=2 *-cache:2 description: L3 cache physical id: f slot: CPU Internal L3 size: 6MiB capacity: 6MiB capabilities: synchronous internal write-back unified configuration: level=3

caleb@pangea:~$ sysctl vm.swappiness
vm.swappiness = 60

caleb@pangea:~$ ls -al /var/crash
total 8
drwxrwsrwt 2 root whoopsie 4096 Apr 24 15:49 .
drwxr-xr-x 14 root root 4096 Jul 31 2020 ..
caleb@pangea:~$ ls -al /boot
total 134305
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Apr 24 15:46 .
drwxr-xr-x 20 root root 4096 Dec 31 00:21 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 248245 Mar 25 16:35 config-5.8.0-49-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 248245 Apr 12 12:47 config-5.8.0-50-generic
drwx------ 3 root root 1024 Dec 31 1969 efi
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Apr 17 06:12 grub
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 Apr 16 11:46 initrd.img -> initrd.img-5.8.0-50-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 52898024 Apr 22 11:48 initrd.img-5.8.0-49-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 52897830 Apr 24 15:46 initrd.img-5.8.0-50-generic
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 Apr 16 11:46 initrd.img.old -> initrd.img-5.8.0-49-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 182704 Aug 18 2020 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 184380 Aug 18 2020 memtest86+.elf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 184884 Aug 18 2020 memtest86+_multiboot.bin
-rw------- 1 root root 5531453 Mar 25 16:35 System.map-5.8.0-49-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 5531453 Apr 12 12:47 System.map-5.8.0-50-generic
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 Apr 16 11:46 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-5.8.0-50-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 9786496 Mar 25 18:13 vmlinuz-5.8.0-49-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 9785696 Apr 12 14:17 vmlinuz-5.8.0-50-generic
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 Apr 16 11:46 vmlinuz.old -> vmlinuz-5.8.0-49-generic

caleb@pangea:~$ snap list
Name Version Rev Tracking Publisher Notes
android-studio 4.1.3.0 101 latest/stable snapcrafters classic
bottom nightly 219 latest/stable kz6fittycent -
core18 20210309 1997 latest/stable canonical✓ base
core20 20210319 975 latest/stable canonical✓ base
discord 0.0.14 122 latest/stable snapcrafters -
gnome-3-28-1804 3.28.0-19-g98f9e67.98f9e67 145 latest/stable canonical✓ -
gnome-3-34-1804 0+git.3556cb3 66 latest/stable/… canonical✓ -
gtk-common-themes 0.1-52-gb92ac40 1515 latest/stable/… canonical✓ -
snap-store 3.38.0-59-g494f078 518 latest/stable/… canonical✓ -
snapd 2.49.2 11588 latest/stable canonical✓ snapd
spotify 1.1.55.498.gf9a83c60 46 latest/stable spotify✓ -
vlc 3.0.12.1 2103 latest/stable videolan✓ -

caleb@pangea:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/loop0: 2.31 MiB, 2412544 bytes, 4712 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop1: 925.54 MiB, 970485760 bytes, 1895480 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop2: 925.55 MiB, 970493952 bytes, 1895496 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop3: 2.31 MiB, 2412544 bytes, 4712 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop4: 55.48 MiB, 58159104 bytes, 113592 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop5: 55.46 MiB, 58142720 bytes, 113560 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop6: 61.65 MiB, 64626688 bytes, 126224 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop7: 61.74 MiB, 64720896 bytes, 126408 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/sda: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD10EZEX-00E
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 7944FAED-B542-495B-A438-0D0B7C6B6F1B
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 1953523711 1953521664 931.5G Microsoft basic data
Disk /dev/sdb: 465.78 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk model: Samsung SSD 850
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: CBFA4ACC-57CD-47C4-8D54-A64557D9E931
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 1023999 1021952 499M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sdb2 1024000 1228799 204800 100M EFI System
/dev/sdb3 1228800 1261567 32768 16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sdb4 1261568 490891263 489629696 233.5G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb5 490891264 529952767 39061504 18.6G Linux swap
/dev/sdb6 529952768 647139327 117186560 55.9G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb7 647139328 976771071 329631744 157.2G Linux filesystem
Disk /dev/loop8: 76.73 MiB, 80437248 bytes, 157104 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop9: 75.7 MiB, 79360000 bytes, 155000 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop10: 162.89 MiB, 170778624 bytes, 333552 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop11: 217.92 MiB, 228478976 bytes, 446248 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop12: 65.1 MiB, 68259840 bytes, 133320 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop13: 32.28 MiB, 33841152 bytes, 66096 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop14: 295.32 MiB, 309661696 bytes, 604808 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop15: 179.46 MiB, 188170240 bytes, 367520 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop16: 32.28 MiB, 33841152 bytes, 66096 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop17: 49.8 MiB, 52203520 bytes, 101960 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop18: 290.45 MiB, 304545792 bytes, 594816 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop19: 51.4 MiB, 53522432 bytes, 104536 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop20: 64.79 MiB, 67915776 bytes, 132648 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop21: 179.58 MiB, 188289024 bytes, 367752 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop22: 218.102 MiB, 229629952 bytes, 448496 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

System information below. My system has a HDD and an SSD but both Windows and Ubuntu live on the SSD. My motherboard is an ASRock H97M Pro4.

OS: Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS x86_64
Kernel: 5.8.0-50-generic
Uptime: 2 hours, 5 mins
Packages: 2072 (dpkg), 13 (snap)
Shell: bash 5.0.17
Resolution: 1920x1080, 1920x1080
DE: GNOME
WM: Mutter
WM Theme: Canta-dark
Theme: Canta-dark [GTK2/3]
Icons: Canta [GTK2/3]
Terminal: gnome-terminal
CPU: Intel i5-4570 (4) @ 3.600GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760
Memory: 5155MiB / 15946MiB 

Screenshot of SMART Data & Self-Tests in Disks application for HDDScreenshot of SMART Data & Self-Tests in Disks application for SSD

I'm at my wits end of what could be causing the slow boot. Any help would be appreciated.

1 Answer

BIOS

ASRock H97M Pro4

Your BIOS is very old at version 1.0 from 04/25/2014. There's a newer BIOS available, version 2.30, from 03/13/2018, and can be downloaded from here.

Note: Check that I have the correct web page for your motherboard.

Note: Have good backups before updating the BIOS.

SSD firmware

Samsung SSD 850

Download the Samsung Magician here, and check for newer firmware for your SSD.