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It takes about 10 minutes to see the Grub loader with Ubuntu 14.04. Once the Grub loader shows up, it loads up with normal speed.

Also, the keyboard and touchpad on the laptop has stopped working (USB mouse and keyboard work though) at the same time when this started happening. This issue started coming up after the laptop had been put on suspend and it had hung up on resume and then was powered off through the power button.

Haven't seen anyone facing this particular combination of problems but tried different fixes individually like doing Grub repair and updating xserver input but without any effect.

The laptop's still fully functional with external keyboard and mouse but I do not want to wait 10 minutes to startup and then carry around the extra keyboard. Any help on this would be appreciated!

@heynnema, these are the results

sudo blkid & cat /etc/fstab

/dev/sda1: UUID="64df4980-6d62-4e20-93a0-6e98baf3fc21" TYPE="ext2" 
/dev/sda3: LABEL="Data" UUID="c278cefa-5363-490d-8942-74b5fdafa59d" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sda5: UUID="6eed7aa5-edf0-4569-8443-9e5e950a2219" TYPE="ext4" 


# /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/sda5 during installation 
UUID=6eed7aa5-edf0-4569-8443-9e5e950a2219 /   ext4    errors=remount-ro  0  1

free -h

total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        7.7G       1.6G       6.1G       111M       118M       868M
    -/+ buffers/cache:       623M       7.1G
Swap:           0B         0B         0B

The results from Disks

The results from Disks 2

heynnema
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kaushikwho
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    Does it take 10 minutes to see the GRUB menu, or 10 minutes to get to the Ubuntu login prompt? Can you get into Ubuntu? If so, in terminal type sudo blkid and cat /etc/fstab and and free -h, edit that output into your question with copy/paste and I'll take a look. Start comments directed to me with @heynnema or I may miss them. – heynnema May 20 '17 at 22:43
  • If you can start the Disks app, select the disk in the left pane, go to the "hamburger" icon and select "SMART Data & Tests", and review the data, and run the tests. Report back. – heynnema May 20 '17 at 22:46
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    @heynnema, it takes 10 minutes to see the GRUB menu, even to see the laptop splash screen (Lenovo, in this case). I've posted the results above within my question. Thanks! – kaushikwho May 21 '17 at 13:55
  • Thanks for the info. The only thing that I see wrong there is that there's no swapfile or swap partition. We'll work on that later. I still suspect a possible disk problem. Show me sudo fdisk -l and a current-window-only screenshot of gparted. I'll also put together a partial answer for you to follow and report back. What was the "Grub repair" that you did? – heynnema May 21 '17 at 14:13
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    Sounds like your motherboard might be having issues or some sort of hardware problem with your system if it takes 10 minutes till you even see your laptop splash screen. Try a power reset to see if that helps. Unplug all power from the laptop, and remove the battery. Press the power button a few times. Plug all power back in. Try booting up again. Beyond that, I am thinking it might need hardware tech support. – Terrance May 21 '17 at 15:49
  • @heynnema, Grub repair gives this output: The boot files of [The OS now in use - Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS] are far from the start of the disk. Your BIOS may not detect them. You may want to retry after creating a /boot partition (EXT4, >200MB, start of the disk). This can be performed via tools such as gParted. Then select this partition via the [Separate /boot partition:] option of [Boot Repair]. (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootPartition) – kaushikwho May 22 '17 at 18:21
  • Could you please [edit] your post, when you want to add information? Especially file or program output listings (with the help of the {} button in the editor toolbar) will be much more readable there; alternatively you can use a pastie service for longer listings and include the link of your pastie in your question. Overall it’s best to have everything relevant in one place. Additionally, comments may be deleted for various reasons. Thanks. – David Foerster Jun 11 '17 at 23:34

1 Answers1

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Partial answer, work in progress...

Update #1:

The computer has hardware problems. I recommend disconnecting the laptop's internal keyboard and touchpad to see if that resolves the slow boot times.

Step #1:

Lets first check your file system for errors.

To check the file system on your Ubuntu partition...

  • boot to the GRUB menu
  • choose Advanced Options
  • choose Recovery mode
  • choose Root access
  • at the # prompt, type sudo fsck -f /
  • repeat the fsck command if there were errors
  • type reboot

Update: If for some reason you can't do the above...

  • boot to a Ubuntu Live DVD/USB
  • start gparted and determine which /dev/sdaX is your Ubuntu EXT4 partition
  • quit gparted
  • open a terminal window
  • type sudo fsck -f /dev/sdaX # replacing X with the number you found earlier
  • repeat the fsck command if there were errors
  • type reboot

Step #n:

Lets recreate a swap partition (not complete)...

  • gparted
  • sudo mkswap /dev/sdaN
    • copy new UUID to the clipboard
  • gksudo gedit /etc/fstab

Add the following two lines to /etc/fstab...

# swap was on /dev/sdaN during installation
UUID=correct_UUID_here    none    swap    sw    0    0
  • gksudo gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume
    • replace existing UUID with paste from clipboard
  • swapon -a
  • sudo update-initramfs -u
  • reboot
heynnema
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  • Thanks for the info but couldn't do Step #1, as laptop or USB keyboard is not working in GRUB (tried a bunch of things to get laptop keyboard working when Ubuntu eventually starts up, but in vain). Did the other option - resume file wasn't there so created one (resume=UUID=). I've assumed the "correct_UUID_here" is the new one in the resume file. – kaushikwho May 22 '17 at 18:19
  • I've updated Step #1 with another way to do it. The swap Step #n: wasn't completed yet... but maybe you figured out the gaps. Does the laptop keyboard never work, or it works when you finally get into Ubuntu? Same with the USB keyboard? – heynnema May 22 '17 at 18:56
  • Laptop keyboard never works. USB keyboard works when Ubuntu finally loads up. – kaushikwho May 22 '17 at 20:03
  • Did you try the reset as suggested by Terrance? If your keyboard NEVER works, then you're going to have to get that fixed first. Then you still have problems. Can't even get into the BIOS with it, yes? – heynnema May 22 '17 at 20:22
  • USB Keyboard works in BIOS, laptop keyboard doesn't. Tried what Terrance said but without any effect - didn't pull out the battery though as that's in-built. @heynnema, tried fsck with live usb, but no headway with the problem. BTW, live USB also takes 10 minutes to come up. Can it be something is wrong with the BIOS, since that is taking so long to boot up? I'll try restoring the BIOS or upgrading it. – kaushikwho May 23 '17 at 05:38
  • You have some hardware problems with your computer. You could try disconnecting the laptop keyboard and touchpad to see if that also effects the slow boot times. It's very possible. – heynnema May 23 '17 at 13:07