Xubuntu Boot Slow on Startup. Applications Slow on Initial Opening

Question

I wanted to learn more about using linux systems and set up my laptop to dual-boot Xubuntu after having tried some linux virtual machines for a while.

I assumed Xubuntu would run much faster than Windows but currently that doesn't seem to be the case. I am having issues with speed on two fronts.

To clarify:

-Boot up time is slow. Here are the results from systemd-analyze blame.

          6.849s dev-sdb9.device
          6.319s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
          4.423s NetworkManager.service
          4.044s ModemManager.service
          3.943s accounts-daemon.service
          3.777s networking.service
          3.583s preload.service
          3.396s lm-sensors.service
          3.333s grub-common.service
          3.044s apparmor.service
          2.988s gpu-manager.service
          2.926s plymouth-read-write.service
          2.799s polkit.service
          2.141s systemd-cryptsetup@cryptswap1.service
          2.138s snapd.service
          1.895s systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-4208\x2d230E.service
          1.820s keyboard-setup.service
          1.528s avahi-daemon.service
          1.515s systemd-modules-load.service
          1.514s systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
          1.476s systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-d325b9ad\x2d72b1\x2d4ad3\x2da9
          1.319s thermald.service
          1.237s resolvconf.service
          1.087s user@1000.service
           888ms systemd-rfkill.service
           864ms systemd-udevd.service
           860ms vpnagentd.service
           778ms dev-hugepages.mount
           731ms dev-mqueue.mount
           731ms sys-kernel-debug.mount
           669ms upower.service
           627ms rsyslog.service
           504ms systemd-sysctl.service
           464ms systemd-resolved.service
           449ms systemd-journald.service
           435ms setvtrgb.service
           406ms ufw.service
           399ms bluetooth.service
           371ms home.mount
           333ms lightdm.service
           331ms plymouth-quit-wait.service
           320ms boot-efi.mount
           301ms kmod-static-nodes.service
           293ms systemd-backlight@backlight:intel_backlight.service
           276ms irqbalance.service
           250ms systemd-update-utmp.service

-Everything is slow when it first opens, even when the laptop has been running for awhile. This is especially obvious with R markdown files in RStudio. When I first open a file, it takes quite a while to load. Subsequent files load quite quickly even if I've closed RStudio and any files that were already open in it. Firefox, the terminal, and the startup menu are also noticeably slow when I first open them, but are usually quick to open afterwards. Occasionally they will still hiccup and open slowly, but the first time is always slow.

Any ideas? Did I go wrong somewhere with my installation?

Edit:

Output from sudo fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sda: 22.4 GiB, 24015495168 bytes, 46905264 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x74f02dea

Device     Boot Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sda1        2048 46903295 46901248 22.4G 73 unknown


Disk /dev/sdb: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: A60B118A-A9C4-4349-A026-5216417DB9A9

Device          Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sdb1        2048    2050047    2048000  1000M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sdb2     2050048    2582527     532480   260M EFI System
/dev/sdb3     2582528    4630527    2048000  1000M Lenovo boot partition
/dev/sdb4     4630528    4892671     262144   128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sdb5     4892672 1237063679 1232171008 587.6G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb6  1874814976 1927243775   52428800    25G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb7  1927243776 1953523711   26279936  12.5G Windows recovery environment
/dev/sdb8  1237063680 1268314111   31250432  14.9G Linux swap
/dev/sdb9  1268314112 1317142527   48828416  23.3G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb10 1317142528 1874814975  557672448 265.9G Linux filesystem

Partition table entries are not in disk order.


Disk /dev/mapper/cryptswap1: 14.9 GiB, 15999696896 bytes, 31249408 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes

Output from free -h:

              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           7.7G        898M        5.8G        100M        1.0G        6.5G
Swap:           14G          0B         14G

Output from swapon -s:

Filename                Type        Size    Used    Priority
/dev/dm-0                               partition   15624700    0   -1

Output from sudo blkid:

/dev/sda1: PARTUUID="74f02dea-01"
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="WINRE_DRV" UUID="647805AC78057E54" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="958cee58-c55f-42c3-874c-e7f0e0546cd0"
/dev/sdb2: LABEL="SYSTEM_DRV" UUID="4208-230E" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI system partition" PARTUUID="4c6a560c-5a4a-45c5-84f1-246b0ec72768"
/dev/sdb3: LABEL="LRS_ESP" UUID="520B-D1D6" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="ee90f060-1cd1-4baa-b835-e5abe0a5dec3"
/dev/sdb4: PARTLABEL="Microsoft reserved partition" PARTUUID="f8733595-73d8-4577-96b6-10802f98d03a"
/dev/sdb5: LABEL="Windows8_OS" UUID="16520F24520F0867" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="b6f4a650-125f-4572-9d5d-a5f516dcc58f"
/dev/sdb6: LABEL="LENOVO" UUID="762EC6FC2EC6B481" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="4784a048-5e2b-4af6-a579-65e7453a8717"
/dev/sdb7: LABEL="PBR_DRV" UUID="848E12EB8E12D590" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="c67b416c-36e4-4f3d-af35-b1ee9f971db5"
/dev/sdb8: UUID="420659b5-1054-4c55-b182-1e72fc913781" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="8c8be854-6d0b-43c1-a161-dcdf14e952e9"
/dev/sdb9: UUID="714498ed-b999-46c1-a2f6-95d010bfeb28" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="f04127f4-a9dc-4cf3-87d6-66e317b28683"
/dev/sdb10: UUID="d325b9ad-72b1-4ad3-a954-081f05b66d1f" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="d170b378-bcf8-4ec9-b639-2b1e4661df1f"
/dev/mapper/cryptswap1: UUID="1438bafc-ee9d-44b5-bca8-801225646e14" TYPE="swap"

Output from cat /etc/fstab:

# /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/sdb9 during installation
UUID=714498ed-b999-46c1-a2f6-95d010bfeb28 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sdb2 during installation
UUID=4208-230E  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
# /home was on /dev/sdb10 during installation
UUID=d325b9ad-72b1-4ad3-a954-081f05b66d1f /home           ext4    defaults        0       2
# swap was on /dev/sdb8 during installation
#UUID=420659b5-1054-4c55-b182-1e72fc913781 none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/mapper/cryptswap1 none swap sw 0 0

Output from sudo hdparm -t /dev/sdb:

/dev/sdb:
 Timing buffered disk reads: 326 MB in  3.01 seconds = 108.41 MB/sec

Output from sudo parted:

GNU Parted 3.2
Using /dev/sdb
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) print                                                            
Model: ATA ST1000LM024 HN-M (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  1050MB  1049MB  ntfs            Basic data partition          hidden, diag
 2      1050MB  1322MB  273MB   fat32           EFI system partition          boot, hidden, esp
 3      1322MB  2371MB  1049MB  fat32           Basic data partition          hidden
 4      2371MB  2505MB  134MB                   Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 5      2505MB  633GB   631GB   ntfs            Basic data partition          msftdata
 8      633GB   649GB   16.0GB  linux-swap(v1)
 9      649GB   674GB   25.0GB  ext4
10      674GB   960GB   286GB   ext4
 6      960GB   987GB   26.8GB  ntfs            Basic data partition          msftdata
 7      987GB   1000GB  13.5GB  ntfs            Basic data partition          hidden, diag

All of them aligned

Output from Disks: Disks Results

This really sounds like a machine with slow disks but a reasonable amount of RAM. Ubuntu keeps files read from the disk in a RAM cache if it thinks it could need them later again, which is why reading them the second time might be much faster if you have enough RAM available. Would you confirm my assumptions by telling us your RAM size and checking your disk read speeds using the command sudo hdparm -t /dev/sdb (assuming that sdb is the disk Ubuntu is installed on)? — Byte Commander, Oct 01 '17 at 19:22
You didn't give us much to go on. Edit your question with the terminal output of sudo fdisk -l and free -h and swapon -s and sudo blkid and cat /etc/fstab. Ping me at @heynnema when you have this info. — heynnema, Oct 01 '17 at 19:30
@ByteCommander Should I use that command on the sdb where root was installed? — Thessentials, Oct 01 '17 at 19:54
Yes, the disk where your system is installed, which seems to be sdb: sudo hdparm -t /dev/sdb — Byte Commander, Oct 01 '17 at 20:02
@ByteCommander It's a Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P with 8GB ram and a 1TB HDD — Thessentials, Oct 01 '17 at 20:03
Okay. Well, depending on your standards, ~100MB/s is not that slow for a traditional HDD... — Byte Commander, Oct 01 '17 at 20:08
Start the Disks app, select the disk in the left pane, then select SMART Data & Tests from the hamburger icon. Review the data, run the tests. Also, in terminal, do sudo parted, print, align-check optimal 1{-10} and check for partition alignment problems. — heynnema, Oct 01 '17 at 20:08
@heynnema From my limited understanding, everything seems to be okay. — Thessentials, Oct 01 '17 at 20:46
You did the wrong drive. You did sda and you should have done sdb. Let me clarify my instructions. sudo parted /dev/sdb and print, and align-check optimal 1, and align-check optimal 2 - 3/4/5... - align-check optimal 10. — heynnema, Oct 01 '17 at 22:09
Everything looks normal... except I'm not 100% sure about your swap. Did you have an unencrypted swap, and then change over? I see two swap partitions, and a commented out line in /etc/fstab. Is your home folder encrypted? — heynnema, Oct 02 '17 at 00:41
@heynnema Yes, you are correct. I started with an unencrypted swap and then allowed encryption upon installation of xubuntu. I then realized the encryption was rather annoying, especially since I wanted to change my username and corresponding user folder in home, so I followed these steps (https://askubuntu.com/questions/4950/how-to-stop-using-built-in-home-directory-encryption) to unencrypt my user folder. However, I had the same problems prior to following those steps. — Thessentials, Oct 02 '17 at 16:57
@Thessentials just for testing purposes, it would be interesting to comment out the swap in /etc/fstab, reboot, and see if things sped up. — heynnema, Oct 02 '17 at 18:22
@heynnema Commenting out /dev/mapper/cryptswap1 did not change anything. Commenting in the original swap results in the system prompting me for a key on start up, but it doesn't seem to matter what I punch in because it eventually boots to the normal login page. At this point, I'm thinking that I should just delete the linux partitions and reinstall without encryption since I don't have anything important on this system yet and see if that fixes my problems. — Thessentials, Oct 03 '17 at 19:58
That certainly makes it simpler, and maybe faster. Unless you have a specific reason to do so, instead of a separate / (root) and separate /home, I'd recommend the standard / (root, which contains /home) and swap. Good luck. — heynnema, Oct 03 '17 at 22:20
@heynnema Thanks! Really appreciate all of your help/advice. Will definitely combine root and home this time. — Thessentials, Oct 04 '17 at 15:58

Xubuntu Boot Slow on Startup. Applications Slow on Initial Opening

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