Slow 3 minute + Boot on Ubuntu 18.04

Question

Recently my laptop running Ubuntu 18.04 started taking a very long time boot. I ran the following commands to pinpoint, but not exactly sure what to do with this information. Appreciate any thoughts as to what could be causing this and how to resolve.

systemd-analyze

Startup finished in 12.018s (firmware) + 12.166s (loader) + 12.544s (kernel) + 3min 8.456s (userspace) = 3min 45.185s graphical.target reached after 3min 8.433s in userspace

systemd-analyze blame

    3min 1.217s dev-mapper-ubuntu\x2d\x2dvg\x2droot.device
    3min 312ms dev-loop26.device
    3min 281ms dev-loop28.device
    3min 278ms dev-loop9.device
    3min 278ms dev-loop14.device
    3min 275ms dev-loop18.device
    3min 271ms dev-loop19.device
    3min 265ms dev-loop20.device
    3min 264ms dev-loop17.device
    3min 256ms dev-loop23.device
    3min 252ms dev-loop11.device
    3min 235ms dev-loop13.device
    3min 234ms dev-loop8.device
    3min 227ms dev-loop10.device
    3min 224ms dev-loop12.device
    3min 216ms dev-loop24.device
    3min 205ms dev-loop16.device
    3min 202ms dev-loop15.device
    3min 195ms dev-loop21.device
    3min 187ms dev-loop22.device
    3min 186ms dev-loop25.device
    3min 155ms dev-loop27.device
    3min 148ms dev-loop31.device
    3min 130ms dev-loop30.device
    3min 130ms dev-loop29.device
    3min 111ms dev-loop5.device
    3min 110ms dev-loop7.device
    3min 109ms dev-loop1.device
    3min 102ms dev-loop0.device
    3min 91ms dev-loop32.device
    3min 69ms dev-loop4.device
    3min 67ms dev-loop6.device
    3min 66ms dev-loop3.device
    3min 66ms dev-loop2.device
    1min 30.186s boot-efi.mount
    1min 28.881s binfmt-support.service
    1min 28.869s proc-sys-fs-binfmt_misc.mount
    6.483s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
    3.519s plymouth-quit-wait.service
    1.994s snapd.service
    1.652s tor@default.service
    1.583s snap.ufw.srv.service
    765ms keyboard-setup.service
    579ms fwupd.service
    553ms ufw.service
    478ms systemd-journal-flush.service
    351ms NetworkManager.service
    314ms udisks2.service
    240ms systemd-udevd.service
    219ms networkd-dispatcher.service
    208ms snap-gnome\x2dcharacters-741.mount
    206ms upower.service
    189ms snap-core-13308.mount
    188ms snap-core-12834.mount
    185ms systemd-modules-load.service
    182ms snap-gtk2\x2dcommon\x2dthemes-13.mount
    181ms systemd-rfkill.service
    180ms snap-gnome\x2dlogs-112.mount
    180ms snap-gnome\x2d3\x2d34\x2d1804-77.mount
    178ms snap-gimp-380.mount
    174ms snap-gimp-383.mount
    174ms lvm2-monitor.service
    172ms snap-gnome\x2d3\x2d38\x2d2004-99.mount
    171ms snap-gnome\x2dcalculator-884.mount
    166ms snap-ufw-476.mount
    166ms snap-ufw-501.mount
    162ms snap-gnome\x2d3\x2d34\x2d1804-72.mount
    162ms systemd-timesyncd.service
    161ms systemd-resolved.service
    159ms snap-deja\x2ddup-552.mount
    156ms snap-bare-5.mount
    153ms snap-gnome\x2dlogs-106.mount
    152ms snap-gtk\x2dcommon\x2dthemes-1534.mount
    128ms snap-p7zip\x2ddesktop-220.mount
    127ms lvm2-pvscan@253:0.service
    126ms snap-core20-1434.mount
    125ms snap-gtk\x2dcommon\x2dthemes-1519.mount
    121ms snap-deja\x2ddup-525.mount
    115ms systemd-logind.service
    114ms apparmor.service
    110ms snap-gnome\x2d3\x2d28\x2d1804-145.mount
    105ms snap-gnome\x2dsystem\x2dmonitor-174.mount
    100ms accounts-daemon.service
    100ms snap-gnome\x2dcalculator-920.mount
    96ms snap-gnome\x2d3\x2d28\x2d1804-161.mount
    95ms thermald.service
    95ms ModemManager.service
    92ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
    91ms systemd-udev-trigger.service
    91ms snap-gnome\x2d3\x2d26\x2d1604-104.mount
    90ms snap-core18-2344.mount
    78ms grub-common.service
    72ms snap-gnome\x2dcharacters-761.mount
    72ms avahi-daemon.service
    71ms user@121.service
    71ms snap-gnome\x2dsystem\x2dmonitor-169.mount
    70ms rsyslog.service
    70ms snap-gnome\x2d3\x2d26\x2d1604-102.mount
    66ms gpu-manager.service
    63ms networking.service
    63ms snapd.seeded.service
    62ms wpa_supplicant.service
    62ms snap-core20-1518.mount
    60ms gdm.service
    59ms snap-gnome\x2d3\x2d38\x2d2004-106.mount
    58ms packagekit.service
    56ms user@1000.service
    55ms bolt.service
    55ms systemd-journald.service
    53ms snapd.apparmor.service
    53ms user@1001.service
    49ms tor.service
    49ms snap-core18-2409.mount
    49ms pppd-dns.service
    46ms apport.service
    37ms systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-902B\x2d8ECC.service
    37ms bluetooth.service
    36ms speech-dispatcher.service
    30ms systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service
    29ms colord.service
    25ms systemd-random-seed.service
    24ms dev-mapper-ubuntu\x2d\x2dvg\x2dswap_1.swap
    22ms systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-9a7439b6\x2d9318\x2d4cbe\x2d8bab\x2d4c0448ac9499.service
    22ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
    21ms polkit.service
    18ms systemd-sysctl.service
    15ms sys-kernel-debug.mount
    15ms plymouth-start.service
    14ms dev-hugepages.mount
    14ms blk-availability.service
    13ms kmod-static-nodes.service
    13ms systemd-remount-fs.service
    12ms plymouth-read-write.service
    12ms dev-mqueue.mount
    12ms kerneloops.service
    10ms dns-clean.service
    10ms resolvconf-pull-resolved.service
    8ms openvpn.service
    8ms systemd-backlight@backlight:intel_backlight.service
    8ms boot.mount
    7ms systemd-user-sessions.service
    6ms ureadahead-stop.service
    6ms systemd-update-utmp.service
    5ms resolvconf.service
    5ms systemd-backlight@leds:dell::kbd_backlight.service
    5ms systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service
    4ms sys-kernel-config.mount
    4ms console-setup.service
    3ms systemd-cryptsetup@sda3_crypt.service
    3ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount
    3ms rtkit-daemon.service
    2ms setvtrgb.service
    1ms motd-news.service
    1ms snapd.socket

systemd-analyze critical-chain

graphical.target @3min 8.433s
└─multi-user.target @3min 8.433s
  └─kerneloops.service @3min 8.420s +12ms
    └─network-online.target @3min 8.419s
      └─NetworkManager-wait-online.service @3min 1.935s +6.483s
        └─NetworkManager.service @3min 1.578s +351ms
          └─dbus.service @3min 1.553s
            └─basic.target @3min 1.523s
              └─sockets.target @3min 1.523s
                └─snapd.socket @3min 1.520s +1ms
                  └─sysinit.target @3min 1.501s
                    └─systemd-backlight@leds:dell::kbd_backlight.service @3min 1.625s +5ms
                      └─system-systemd\x2dbacklight.slice @956ms
                        └─system.slice @257ms
                          └─-.slice @254ms

lsblk

NAME                   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
loop0                    7:0    0 113.9M  1 loop  /snap/core/13308
loop1                    7:1    0 110.6M  1 loop  /snap/core/12834
loop2                    7:2    0   724K  1 loop  /snap/ufw/501
loop3                    7:3    0   556K  1 loop  /snap/gnome-logs/112
loop4                    7:4    0   724K  1 loop  /snap/ufw/476
loop5                    7:5    0 248.8M  1 loop  /snap/gnome-3-38-2004/99
loop6                    7:6    0     4K  1 loop  /snap/bare/5
loop7                    7:7    0   2.5M  1 loop  /snap/gnome-calculator/884
loop8                    7:8    0  81.3M  1 loop  /snap/gtk-common-themes/1534
loop9                    7:9    0 162.9M  1 loop  /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/145
loop10                   7:10   0 164.8M  1 loop  /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/161
loop11                   7:11   0   219M  1 loop  /snap/gnome-3-34-1804/72
loop12                   7:12   0 251.5M  1 loop  /snap/deja-dup/552
loop13                   7:13   0   2.5M  1 loop  /snap/gnome-system-monitor/174
loop14                   7:14   0  65.2M  1 loop  /snap/gtk-common-themes/1519
loop15                   7:15   0  61.9M  1 loop  /snap/core20/1434
loop16                   7:16   0   704K  1 loop  /snap/gnome-characters/761
loop17                   7:17   0 140.7M  1 loop  /snap/gnome-3-26-1604/104
loop18                   7:18   0 140.7M  1 loop  /snap/gnome-3-26-1604/102
loop19                   7:19   0 391.3M  1 loop  /snap/gimp/383
loop20                   7:20   0   219M  1 loop  /snap/gnome-3-34-1804/77
loop21                   7:21   0  55.5M  1 loop  /snap/core18/2409
loop22                   7:22   0  61.9M  1 loop  /snap/core20/1518
loop23                   7:23   0 254.1M  1 loop  /snap/gnome-3-38-2004/106
loop24                   7:24   0  55.5M  1 loop  /snap/core18/2344
loop25                   7:25   0   2.5M  1 loop  /snap/gnome-system-monitor/169
loop26                   7:26   0 101.5M  1 loop  /snap/p7zip-desktop/220
loop27                   7:27   0   2.6M  1 loop  /snap/gnome-calculator/920
loop28                   7:28   0   193M  1 loop  /snap/deja-dup/525
loop29                   7:29   0   548K  1 loop  /snap/gnome-logs/106
loop30                   7:30   0   140K  1 loop  /snap/gtk2-common-themes/13
loop31                   7:31   0   277M  1 loop  /snap/gimp/380
loop32                   7:32   0   704K  1 loop  /snap/gnome-characters/741
sda                      8:0    0 238.5G  0 disk  
├─sda1                   8:1    0   512M  0 part  /boot/efi
├─sda2                   8:2    0   732M  0 part  /boot
└─sda3                   8:3    0 237.3G  0 part  
  └─sda3_crypt         253:0    0 237.3G  0 crypt 
    ├─ubuntu--vg-root  253:1    0 236.3G  0 lvm   /
    └─ubuntu--vg-swap_1
                       253:2    0   976M  0 lvm   [SWAP]
sr0                     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom

smartctl -a /dev/sda3

smartctl 6.6 2016-05-31 r4324 [x86_64-linux-4.15.0-188-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     SK hynix SC311 SATA 256GB
Serial Number:    MJ7BN47031120BC3Y
Firmware Version: 70000P10
User Capacity:    256,060,514,304 bytes [256 GB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    Solid State Device
Form Factor:      2.5 inches
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   ACS-3 (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.2, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Tue Jun 28 12:29:34 2022 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x05) Offline data collection activity
                    was aborted by an interrupting command from host.
                    Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      (  24) The self-test routine was aborted by
                    the host.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection:        (   12) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:            (0x51) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                    No Auto Offline data collection support.
                    Suspend Offline collection upon new
                    command.
                    No Offline surface scan supported.
                    Self-test supported.
                    No Conveyance Self-test supported.
                    Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0002) Does not save SMART data before
                    entering power-saving mode.
                    Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                    General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time:    (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:    (  40) minutes.
SCT capabilities:          (0x003d) SCT Status supported.
                    SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
                    SCT Feature Control supported.
                    SCT Data Table supported.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 0
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   166   166   006    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0032   253   253   036    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       1166
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       1117
100 Unknown_Attribute       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       664146
168 Unknown_Attribute       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       5
169 Unknown_Attribute       0x0032   097   097   000    Old_age   Always       -       60
174 Unknown_Attribute       0x0030   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       26
175 Program_Fail_Count_Chip 0x0032   253   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
176 Erase_Fail_Count_Chip   0x0032   253   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
177 Wear_Leveling_Count     0x0032   099   001   000    Old_age   Always       -       23
178 Used_Rsvd_Blk_Cnt_Chip  0x0032   253   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
179 Used_Rsvd_Blk_Cnt_Tot   0x0032   253   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
180 Unused_Rsvd_Blk_Cnt_Tot 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       686
181 Program_Fail_Cnt_Total  0x0032   253   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
182 Erase_Fail_Count_Total  0x0032   253   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
184 End-to-End_Error        0x0032   253   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   253   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
188 Command_Timeout         0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0002   033   013   000    Old_age   Always       -       33 (Min/Max 13/46)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x0032   253   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   253   253   036    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0032   253   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   253   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
204 Soft_ECC_Correction     0x000e   100   001   000    Old_age   Always       -       648
212 Unknown_Attribute       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       15383
233 Media_Wearout_Indicator 0x0032   002   001   000    Old_age   Always       -       99
234 Unknown_Attribute       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       12198856384
241 Total_LBAs_Written      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       11661457212
242 Total_LBAs_Read         0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       8297361734
SMART Error Log Version: 0
No Errors Logged
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
1  Short offline       Aborted by host               80%       952         -
2  Short offline       Aborted by host               80%       762         -
3  Short offline       Aborted by host               90%         5         -
4  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         5         -
5  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         1         -
Warning! SMART Selective Self-Test Log Structure error: invalid SMART checksum.
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 0
Note: revision number not 1 implies that no selective self-test has ever been run
 SPAN             MIN_LBA             MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1                   0                   0  Not_testing
    2                   0                   0  Not_testing
    3                   0                   0  Not_testing
    4                   0                   0  Not_testing
    5                   0                   0  Not_testing
10319  194035862013744762  194035862013810297  Read_scanning was aborted by an interrupting command from host
Selective self-test flags (0xca6e):
  Read-scan of remainder of disk interrupted; will resume 13751 min after power-up.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 13751 minute delay.

What kind of disk is this installed on? Is it possible that the disk is dying? — vidarlo, Jun 28 '22 at 16:14
Can you [edit] your question to include the output of lsblk and smartctl -a /dev/device? Replace device with the name of the device, which can be found in lsblk. If you don't know how to find the device name, that's fine; just post the content of lsblk and we'll assist from there. — vidarlo, Jun 28 '22 at 16:20
It looks like things are waiting on your keyboard backlight, (it's the first thing with 3m in the critical chain, and everything before it is in ms). did you change anything about it recently? — Esther, Jun 28 '22 at 17:27
You have a lot of loop devices. Do you need those as they all are snaps, not .deb versions of applications. Some of these suggestions apply to all versions & flavors: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1284302/is-it-possible-to-make-ubuntu-20-04-boot-faster — oldfred, Jun 28 '22 at 18:49
@Esther on the keyboardbacklight, I didn't change anything that I'm aware of. But that's interesting. — slatica, Jun 28 '22 at 19:54
@oldfred there's no reason I can think of off hand that I would use snaps over deb. I'll check out the resource you linked to. Will report back if there are improvements after making adjustments on the above suggestions. Thank you all — slatica, Jun 28 '22 at 19:54
@oldfred that worked! Per the suggestion in the post you linked to (https://askubuntu.com/a/1284332/830725), I ran removed all snaps sudo apt autoremove --purge snapd and rebooted. Very fast now, thank you! — slatica, Jun 28 '22 at 20:07
Per @Esther observation, I also ran sudo systemctl mask systemd-backlight@leds\:dell\:\:kbd_backlight.service for the keyboard backlight. — slatica, Jun 28 '22 at 20:08
You had a lot of snaps, hope you kept a list. I find I can install most applications with synaptic or terminal without issue. But now with 22.04 Firefox is only a snap, so had to do a work around to use a ppa to get the version that is not a snap. — oldfred, Jun 28 '22 at 21:46
@oldfred yes, I copied and saved the list just in case, and didn't see any applications that I either wasn't using or couldn't be added as non-snap versions. Again appreciate the help, things seem stable. I should I add, I also later ran systemctl disable NetworkManager-wait-online.service to get a little more reduction in boot time. Have not noticed any negative repercussions of doing that. — slatica, Jun 29 '22 at 16:41

Slow 3 minute + Boot on Ubuntu 18.04

1 Short offline Aborted by host 80% 952 -

2 Short offline Aborted by host 80% 762 -

3 Short offline Aborted by host 90% 5 -

4 Short offline Completed without error 00% 5 -

5 Short offline Completed without error 00% 1 -

0 Answers0