Long KDE boot time (~10 mins) on Debian Etch

alyoshak19 · 11-04-2007, 03:35 AM

Hello, this is my first post, so please let me know if you need more information.

I'm running Debian Etch (4.0) on a PIII 1GHz w/ 256MB RAM and I have recently switched to using KDE (version 3.5.5) for my desktop (from Gnome, which worked fine). I mainly want to use KDE because I can get Amarok running fine from there. However, it is taking me FOREVER to load up KDE, on the order of 10 minutes. I went and ate breakfast once, came back and it still hadn't loaded, not kidding. Once KDE is up, it's running quite well (though using all but 7MB of my RAM).

I have read extensively (4 hrs of googling) about various startup problems, and the main culprit seems to be networking difficulties (some DNS lookups timing out). I run an iptables firewall on this system and I have a two-computer LAN (just using a crossover cable). I run Samba (the other box is WinXP) and I have a crappy little USB ADSL modem (the Speedtouch 330), which took some work to set up. I've done most of this manually, so I certainly could have messed something up. This is my first Linux box, so I'm quite a newbie.

Any help you can provide would be really appreciated. This is driving me nuts! Thanks in advance.

Pearlseattle · 11-04-2007, 05:41 AM

After I changed in the file "/etc/conf.d/hostname" the value...

Code:

HOSTNAME="localhost"

...to something different than "localhost", X used to take 30 seconds longer to boot returning after waiting a message like "Host XXXX not found" or something similar. Perhaps you have this kind of problem?
Don't know if "/etc/conf.d/hostname" is specific only for my distribution (Gentoo)... .

alyoshak19 · 11-04-2007, 11:45 AM

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, /etc/conf.d doesn't even exist on my system. I have tried various permutations of hostname, 127.0.0.1, 192.168.1.1 (the local net addr for this box) in the /etc/hosts file, and I've checked that loopback is running (it is), but none of these seem to make a difference.
Is there some sort of diagnostic tool I can run (or even an error log I can look at) which might help me out? Thanks.

AlyoshaK · 11-05-2007, 04:27 PM

Anyone? Please help!

Pearlseattle · 11-07-2007, 12:20 PM

And what happens if you just type in the shell

Code:

hostname

? And if you try to ping what you get back, does it ping to it quickly?

alyoshak19 · 11-08-2007, 02:07 AM

Thanks for the reply. Here's what happens:

Code:

$hostname
LINUX
$ping hostname
ping unknown host hostname
$ping LINUX
ping LINUX (192.168.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data ... (Ctrl-C)
--- LINUX ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 3010 ms

LINUX is my very uncreative name for this box. My /etc/hosts file is:

Code:

127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.1.1 LINUX server
192.168.1.2 WINXP

The WINXP is, well, just my WinXP machine. My iptables -L command returns the following (I've substituted **** for my IP address)

Code:

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination
ACCEPT     udp  --  anywhere             anywhere            udp spt:domain dpts:1024:65535
ACCEPT     icmp --  anywhere             *******             icmp echo-reply state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT     icmp --  anywhere             LINUX               icmp echo-reply state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT     tcp  --  anywhere             anywhere            state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT     0    --  192.168.1.0/24       anywhere
LOG        0    --  anywhere             anywhere            LOG level warning prefix `Dropped In '
DROP       0    --  anywhere             anywhere

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination
ACCEPT     tcp  --  anywhere             WINXP               tcp spts:1024:65535 dpt:3724 state NEW
ACCEPT     tcp  --  anywhere             WINXP               tcp spts:1024:65535 dpt:6112 state NEW
ACCEPT     0    --  anywhere             anywhere            state NEW,RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT     0    --  anywhere             anywhere            state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
LOG        0    --  anywhere             anywhere            LOG level warning prefix `Dropped Fwd '
DROP       0    --  anywhere             anywhere

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination
ACCEPT     udp  --  anywhere             anywhere            udp spts:1024:65535 dpt:domain
ACCEPT     tcp  --  anywhere             anywhere            state NEW,RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT     icmp --  *******              anywhere            icmp echo-request state NEW,RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT     icmp --  LINUX                anywhere            icmp echo-request state NEW,RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT     0    --  anywhere             192.168.1.0/24
LOG        0    --  anywhere             anywhere            LOG level warning prefix `Dropped Out '
DROP       0    --  anywhere             anywhere

alyoshak19 · 11-08-2007, 02:34 AM

I should also say that I've run "top" while KDE is loading and CPU usage is at about 0.3% (99.7% free) for the whole ten minutes. So, I highly suspect a networking problem.

Pearlseattle · 11-08-2007, 12:43 PM

You might be right.
You have 100% packet loss when trying to ping your hostname (LINUX).
It might be that your X client is trying to reach your X server using the the hostname you set (LINUX), which cannot be reached internally using the ip number you set (192.168.1.1 - does ifconfig return that IP number for your eth device?).
On the other side, by typing ifconfig you should see 127.0.0.1 for your "lo" device.

So, try to change in your /etc/hosts file the entry...

Quote:

127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.1.1 LINUX server
192.168.1.2 WINXP

...to...

Quote:

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 LINUX server
192.168.1.2 WINXP

...and see afterwards if pinging LINUX works. If it does, see if you still experience the delay.
Hope it helps - sorry, don't know much about networking...

alyoshak19 · 11-09-2007, 08:09 AM

Thanks, Pearlseattle. I do get the 192.168.1.1 address from my eth0 device after running ifconfig. But I realized that I don't have a lo device! I had one earlier, but not now. There's also something funny with my iptables setup which is not permitting me to ping 127.0.0.1 (consequently, changing the /etc/hosts file in the way you suggested didn't work), so I've moved my questions to the networking forum (since it's clear this is no longer about KDE!). Thanks again for helping.

Edit: That new thread is here