Kernel 6.5.3 vs 6.4.16 - considerable slower boot time due to plymouth-quit.service

Support Kernel
1

Since switching to 6.5 my system has been experiencing much slower boot times compared to when running 6.4.16.

On 6.5.3 systemd-analyze blame showed plymouth-quit.service taking ~20 seconds of the boot time.
On 6.4.16 plymouth-quit.service + plymouth-quit-wait.service combined takes about 7 seconds.

I can reliable reproduce by switching/booting between 6.4 and 6.5 kernels.

What could be causing this?

inxi -v7azy

System:
Kernel: 6.5.0-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.1
clocksource: tsc available: hpet,acpi_pm
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.5-x86_64
root=UUID=c2c92475-3f6d-43c2-9ed5-ce58e4c5b93f rw quiet splash
udev.log_priority=3 amd_pstate=active amdgpu.ppfeaturemask=0xffffffff
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.7 tk: Qt v: 5.15.10 wm: kwin_wayland vt: 1
dm: SDDM Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: B450 TOMAHAWK MAX (MS-7C02) v: 1.0
serial: UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: 3.D0
date: 04/01/2022
Battery:
Message: No system battery data found. Is one present?
Memory:
System RAM: total: 32 GiB available: 31.27 GiB used: 5.15 GiB (16.5%)
RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
Info: model: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 3+ gen: 4
level: v3 note: check built: 2022 process: TSMC n6 (7nm) family: 0x19 (25)
model-id: 0x21 (33) stepping: 2 microcode: 0xA201205
Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 8 tpc: 2 threads: 16 smt: enabled cache:
L1: 512 KiB desc: d-8x32 KiB; i-8x32 KiB L2: 4 MiB desc: 8x512 KiB L3: 32 MiB
desc: 1x32 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 3185 high: 3599 min/max: 550/4702 scaling:
driver: amd-pstate-epp governor: powersave cores: 1: 3599 2: 3545 3: 3594
4: 3585 5: 3590 6: 3592 7: 3564 8: 550 9: 3558 10: 3584 11: 550 12: 3556
13: 3519 14: 3500 15: 3516 16: 3563 bogomips: 108824
Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm adx aes aperfmperf apic arat avic avx avx2 bmi1
bmi2 bpext cat_l3 cdp_l3 clflush clflushopt clwb clzero cmov cmp_legacy
constant_tsc cpb cpuid cqm cqm_llc cqm_mbm_local cqm_mbm_total
cqm_occup_llc cr8_legacy cx16 cx8 de decodeassists erms extapic
extd_apicid f16c flushbyasid fma fpu fsgsbase fsrm fxsr fxsr_opt ht
hw_pstate ibpb ibrs ibs invpcid irperf lahf_lm lbrv lm mba mca mce
misalignsse mmx mmxext monitor movbe msr mtrr mwaitx nonstop_tsc nopl npt
nrip_save nx ospke osvw overflow_recov pae pat pausefilter pclmulqdq
pdpe1gb perfctr_core perfctr_llc perfctr_nb pfthreshold pge pku pni popcnt
pse pse36 rapl rdpid rdpru rdrand rdseed rdt_a rdtscp rep_good sep sha_ni
skinit smap smca smep ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 stibp succor
svm svm_lock syscall tce topoext tsc tsc_scale umip v_spec_ctrl
v_vmsave_vmload vaes vgif vmcb_clean vme vmmcall vpclmulqdq wbnoinvd wdt
x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveerptr xsaveopt xsaves
Vulnerabilities:
Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
Type: l1tf status: Not affected
Type: mds status: Not affected
Type: meltdown status: Not affected
Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
Type: retbleed status: Not affected
Type: spec_rstack_overflow mitigation: safe RET, no microcode
Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
prctl
Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
sanitization
Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW,
STIBP: always-on, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
Type: srbds status: Not affected
Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Navi 10 [Radeon RX 5600 OEM/5600 XT / 5700/5700 XT]
vendor: Sapphire driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: RDNA-1 code: Navi-1x
process: TSMC n7 (7nm) built: 2019-20 pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
ports: active: DP-1 empty: DP-2,DP-3,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 28:00.0
chip-ID: 1002:731f class-ID: 0300
Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.8 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.0
compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
unloaded: modesetting,radeon alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: radeonsi
gpu: amdgpu display-ID: 0
Monitor-1: DP-1 res: 1920x1080 size: N/A modes: N/A
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 23.1.6-2 renderer: AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (navi10
LLVM 15.0.7 DRM 3.54 6.5.0-1-MANJARO) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: AMD Navi 10 HDMI Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4
speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 28:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:ab38 class-ID: 0403
Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
bus-ID: 2a:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487 class-ID: 0403
Device-3: Texas Instruments PCM2902 Audio Codec
driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid type: USB rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s
lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 3-1:2 chip-ID: 08bb:2902 class-ID: 0300
API: ALSA v: k6.5.0-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
Server-1: PipeWire v: 0.3.78 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: pipewire-media-session status: active 3: pipewire-alsa
type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
lanes: 1 port: f000 bus-ID: 22:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp34s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac:
IP v4: type: noprefixroute scope: global broadcast:
IP v6: type: noprefixroute scope: link
WAN IP:
Bluetooth:
Message: No bluetooth data found.
Logical:
Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 3.23 TiB used: 1.27 TiB (39.3%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Reletech model: M.2 SSD 1024GB
size: 953.87 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s
lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: fw-rev: ECFM32.1 temp: 27.9 C
scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 maj-min: 259:3 vendor: Lexar model: SSD NM620 1TB
size: 953.87 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s
lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: fw-rev: V1.23 temp: 36.9 C scheme: GPT
ID-3: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Seagate model: ST1000DM010-2EP102
size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
tech: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: fw-rev: CC43 scheme: MBR
ID-4: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Crucial model: CT500MX500SSD1
size: 465.76 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
tech: SSD serial: fw-rev: 022 scheme: GPT
Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 857.7 GiB size: 843.16 GiB (98.31%)
used: 349.14 GiB (41.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
label: N/A uuid: c2c92475-3f6d-43c2-9ed5-ce58e4c5b93f
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
used: 312 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1 label: N/A
uuid: 4A19-EA19
ID-3: /mnt/data raw-size: 858.48 GiB size: 843.93 GiB (98.31%)
used: 266.47 GiB (31.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme1n1p1 maj-min: 259:4
label: DATA uuid: 74423f52-a944-4f61-9500-f4bc683c2cef
ID-4: /mnt/storage raw-size: 833.85 GiB size: 833.85 GiB (100.00%)
used: 681.93 GiB (81.8%) fs: ntfs dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 label: STORAGE
uuid: B0A0696BA069394C
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 10 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: yes
compressor: zstd max-pool: 20%
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
file: /swapfile
Unmounted:
ID-1: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 size: 97.66 GiB fs: ntfs label: BACKUP
uuid: 2028757C28755230
ID-2: /dev/sdb1 maj-min: 8:17 size: 529 MiB fs: ntfs label: Recovery
uuid: AC98EB3A98EB01A6
ID-3: /dev/sdb2 maj-min: 8:18 size: 100 MiB fs: vfat label: N/A
uuid: A8EF-469B
ID-4: /dev/sdb3 maj-min: 8:19 size: 16 MiB fs:
label: N/A uuid: N/A
ID-5: /dev/sdb4 maj-min: 8:20 size: 79.88 GiB fs: ntfs label: MAIN_SSD
uuid: 5C828893828872F6
ID-6: /dev/sdb5 maj-min: 8:21 size: 331.05 GiB fs: ntfs label: DATA_GAMES
uuid: FC8038908038537E
USB:
Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 10 rev: 2.0
speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
class-ID: 0900
Hub-2: 1-1:2 info: Realtek RTS5411 Hub ports: 5 rev: 2.1
speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 0bda:5411
class-ID: 0900
Device-1: 1-8:3 info: SONiX USB DEVICE type: keyboard,mouse
driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s)
lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 power: 100mA chip-ID: 320f:500c class-ID: 0301
Device-2: 1-9:4 info: A4Tech XL-730K / XL-750BK XL-755BK Mice
type: keyboard,mouse driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 2 rev: 1.1
speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 power: 100mA
chip-ID: 09da:9090 class-ID: 0301
Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1
speed: 10 Gb/s (1.16 GiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-2x1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
class-ID: 0900
Hub-4: 2-1:2 info: Realtek Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.2
speed: 5 Gb/s (596.0 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 chip-ID: 0bda:0411
class-ID: 0900
Hub-5: 3-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 4 rev: 2.0
speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
class-ID: 0900
Device-1: 3-1:2 info: Texas Instruments PCM2902 Audio Codec type: audio,HID
driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid interfaces: 4 rev: 1.1
speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 power: 100mA
chip-ID: 08bb:2902 class-ID: 0300
Hub-6: 4-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1
speed: 10 Gb/s (1.16 GiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-2x1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 33.0 C mobo: 32.0 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 41.0 C
mem: 40.0 C
Fan Speeds (rpm): fan-1: 517 fan-2: 495 fan-3: 0 fan-4: 883 fan-5: 0
fan-6: 0 gpu: amdgpu fan: 0
Info:
Processes: 366 Uptime: 45m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 253 default: graphical
tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 13.2.1 clang: 15.0.7 Packages: pm: pacman
pkgs: 1477 libs: 455 tools: pamac pm: flatpak pkgs: 0 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16
running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.29

2

It is impossible to say - could be anything - what is 7s of the rest of your life :slight_smile:

:slight_smile: don’t worry, be happy :slight_smile:

What is your milage with 6.1 LTS?

6.4 is marked EOL on kernel.org and 6.5 is the stable kernel now and it may improve, given further iterations.

3

That was one of the things that made me ditch the 6.5 kernel in its current form. I don’t remember if was exactly that service and it was 3-4 seconds in my case…but that was not the only problem.

4

Not yet checked the systemd-analyze blame for 6.1. Will do that later/early tomorrow.

But 6.1 LTS has issues on my machine regarding GPU stability on my 5600XT.
The ring gfx_0.0.0 timeout crashes and GPU reset/recovery issues. And it lacks the amd p-state driver improvements from 6.2 onward.

Too bad 6.4 is EOL. Was the most stable and responsive kernel after 6.2* on my system.
Subjectively 6.5 feels less responsive and I have had some odd amdgpu GPU resets lately again with odd freesync behavior. Although this also started occurs on 6.4.x.
Perhaps I’ll make a new support topics on this.

5

My inner :nerd_face: requires me - for the time being - to build linux-next - it works remarkably well - for my system.

 $ inxi -Sxxxc0
System:
  Host: tiger Kernel: 6.6.0-rc2-next-20230918-1-next-git-05912-g7fc7222d9680
    arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.1 clocksource: tsc
    Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.8 tk: Qt v: 5.15.10 wm: kwin_wayland vt: 1
    dm: SDDM Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
6

I do not expect this to help with plymouth issue:
consider updating BIOS - B450 TOMAHAWK MAX | Motherboard | MSI Global

users could try this to determine how significant a 7 second delay is for them

sleep 7; /usr/bin/firefox

IMO more immediate question is what would be preferred in current circumstances:
Either a splash screen with a delay Or no splash screen and no delay

If the latter, would it be viable as a temporary workaround to change GRUB splash option to nosplash?

(asking on behalf of an inner child newbie)

7

I dived once more into it gathering some more data, comparing 6.1.53 to 6.5.3/6.6rc1. The main differences on my Jasper Lake Pentium N6000 seem to be the security mitigations. Theoretically there should be multithreading performance improvements, but i do not see any. On simple tests like sysbench performance is the same. This time i could not reproduce the slower start (well, it is in the margin of error - 24 vs. 25 seconds).

The really interesting thing is running spectre-meltdown-checker and comparing the output and the time it takes. On 6.1. it takes 4 seconds, on 6.5+ … 40+seconds! It stutters on the Spectre v1 checks. The diff shows that besides one new check the real difference in the results is in the mitigation of Spectre2:

[1;34mCVE-2017-5715 aka 'Spectre Variant 2, branch target injection'e[0m
* Mitigated according to the /sys interface: e[42me[30m YES e[0m (Mitigation: Enhanced IBRS, IBPB: conditional, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected)
* Mitigation 1
  * Kernel is compiled with IBRS support: e[42me[30m YES e[0m
    * IBRS enabled and active: e[42me[30m YES e[0m (**Enhanced flavor, performance impact will be greatly reduced**)
  * Kernel is compiled with IBPB support: e[42me[30m YES e[0m

It even says the 6.1 is with eIBRS and thus with less performance impact and 6.6 with IBRS.

8

Got around to test 6.1 and systemd-analyze blame showed it was a bit “faster” then 6.4 and 6.5.
My earlier slowdown on 6.5 seemed to have been some fluke, on this current boot it did not occur or differ that much from 6.4. Bit odd. Anyway, case closed

9

Also plymouth is entirely unnecessary.
If you dont want or need it … remove the associated packages and entries in mkinitcpio.conf.

10

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