On a Dell Latitude d830 I made the diagnostic tests from Bios.
Memory is perfect.
I know the latest Bios is 2013’s A17.
Nowadays, Dell does not support anything but Win 8 and 10 therefore no help is available from them.
The problem on this Dell Latitude d830 is the slowness.
I was on Win 7 and it was slugish.
Over it, I isntalled Mint, Trisquel, Debian and all were slow.
What is wrong ?
My question is :
Does installing a Linux distro completely cleans a 120Gb disk ?
When I have done this I have found-
During install you have to choose where your setup goes on the disc. 3 or 4 options, one of which is wipe everything and all past files are GONE. Back up first, so you can do clean install and load what you want off the external storage. Hope this helps
I am not confident enough to choose the disc options and use new partition, so go for clean install.
is the option I always chose.
Does that clean a disk ?
Yes, I found it clears all the stuff slowing things down. I was pleased it did that!!
It doesn’t really work like this.
However, if you do a fresh installation on the entire disk, it is free of any clutter which might have been left by previously installed operating systems.
Still, the speed you might be looking for, may not be achievable on a dual core computer with 1 or 2 GB of RAM. In that case, check out the link I posted in
Well on the Dell Latitude d830 it does not make the boot time shorter nor the CPU go faster.
Here is what the /var/log/boot.log says :
/dev/sda1: clean, 207339/1222992 files, 1640457/4882432 blocks
/dev/sda1: clean, 207448/1222992 files, 1674141/4882432 blocks
/dev/sda1: clean, 207453/1222992 files, 1674259/4882432 blocks
And look at the disk :
Is it normal ?
Also, please take note :
12:41:08 I I stat the computer
12:43:50 I see the screen
12:47:30 I see icons on desktop.
so is ~ 6 minutes normal for a
4096 Mb memory
120 Gb disk
I don’t think so.
No, that’s not normal. On my only slightly better equipped laptop this takes about 20 seconds. Something’s severely wrong…
Would you mind posting the first lines of output of systemd-analyze blame?
Certainly so, dear @Mina.
8.579s dev-sda1.device
7.026s lvm2-monitor.service
6.951s systemd-journal-flush.service
5.852s systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
4.503s udisks2.service
4.442s NetworkManager.service
4.144s systemd-sysctl.service
3.655s ModemManager.service
3.619s networkd-dispatcher.service
3.604s accounts-daemon.service
2.327s thermald.service
2.190s systemd-modules-load.service
2.119s polkit.service
2.056s keyboard-setup.service
1.718s swapfile.swap
1.070s home.mount
903ms lightdm.service
901ms systemd-udev-trigger.service
893ms plymouth-quit-wait.service
807ms kmod-static-nodes.service
794ms grub-common.service
675ms rsyslog.service
643ms systemd-journald.service
530ms user@1000.service
476ms ofono.service
439ms upower.service
383ms systemd-resolved.service
360ms networking.service
334ms apparmor.service
288ms avahi-daemon.service
287ms systemd-backlight@backlight:dell_backlight.service
274ms systemd-random-seed.service
250ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
243ms wpa_supplicant.service
184ms systemd-remount-fs.service
132ms systemd-timesyncd.service
124ms blk-availability.service
121ms dev-mqueue.mount
120ms systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service
118ms dev-hugepages.mount
115ms systemd-logind.service
106ms setvtrgb.service
90ms speech-dispatcher.service
73ms sys-kernel-debug.mount
67ms alsa-restore.service
60ms plymouth-read-write.service
59ms systemd-udevd.service
52ms pppd-dns.service
50ms bluetooth.service
35ms systemd-backlight@backlight:intel_backlight.service
27ms systemd-update-utmp.service
19ms systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service
18ms systemd-user-sessions.service
17ms plymouth-start.service
16ms console-setup.service
14ms ureadahead-stop.service
13ms openvpn.service
9ms systemd-rfkill.service
7ms finalrd.service
5ms sys-kernel-config.mount
5ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount
Many thanks
Are you still running Mint? The reason why I ask is if you’re not and using something like Xubuntu then I’d highly recommend getting rid of Snaps. When we had Snaps in Peppermint OS 9 and 10, we found that it slowed performance down considerably. Also we done something with Systemd, let me find my notes, as I save every bit of documentation that I think is handy. I’ll be back as soon as.
No @clatterfordslim, not on that machine.
If you take a look at the template main color, you will notice the beautiful blue : the sky is blue and the sea too. I like this. That is Trisquel ; but there was the same slowness with Windows 7.
That is why I thought there may be something wrong with the 120 Gb hard disk and my question : Does installing Linux clean a hard disk ?
Now @clatterfordslim tell me, why do you ask about the presence of snap ?
Do you see any traces of snap in the output of the systemd-analyze blame command I posted for @Mina ?
Regards,
Thank you for the output. However, I don’t see anything here that would justify a waiting time of minutes before the system becomes usable. However, I also don’t see any hint that your hard disk might be at fault.
You might want to have a look at journalctl -b -1 (which can be long) and look for errors.
@clatterfordslim Snap packages are not Devil’s Work
Whilst I also prefer traditional packages for installations for a variety of reasons, snaps have a number of advantages, especially for developers and people preparing packages.
It should also be said that the disadvantages of the snaps system are grossly overrated by some members of the community and their fierce opposition is creating a lot of confusion and an unnecessary feeling of insecurity amongst new Linux users.
@R_G…If your Dell is still running a HDD boot drive, then that may
be the issue of your slow boot time, run inxi -Fx for device info in Linux, or use
msinfo32 if you are using Windows.
My Dell laptop has a slow boot time also and the culprit is the HDD, just not
wanting to change the drive to an SSD just to gain a faster boot time.
I do not think the HD was always slow like it is now ; perhaps it is just getting old - like all of us.
I installed Mint, Trisquel, Mint again, now I am trying PClinuxOS.
We will see if it is faster.
@Mina
I ran the journalctl -b -1 command on my every day system
Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: P5KPL-AM EPU v: x.0x
it took 3 minutes 10 seconds to log 1753 lines at last boot.
I do not see error there but I am not certain what you want too look for.
So I am used to slowness.
@R_G I’m sorry, but at the moment I’m out of ideas… 
@R_G…Is your Dell running a HDD or SSD?
Sincerely, I don’t know. @4dandl4
I see at the 6th post above that the display
shows a HITACHI HTS541612J9SA00 and
https://www.cnet.com/products/dell-latitude-d830/
These are specs according to cnet, unless someone has changed the drive.
a simple lsblk -O
tells me that the ROTATION is 1
so it is a HDD.
@R_G…And that HDD is the probable cause of a slower boot time. Just like my Dell
Inspiron 15 laptop when booting W10. Is it worth changing over to an SSD?
In my case it is not worth the change. No…
I’ll just give the D830 to some poor organization.
Regards
