Ubuntu
grub2 package

degraded performance of update-grub 1.99-2ubuntu1 and higher

Bug #787461 reported by syscon-hh
6
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
grub2 (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Medium
Colin Watson
Ubuntu oneiric-alpha-1
Oneiric
Fix Released
Medium
Colin Watson
Ubuntu oneiric-alpha-1

Bug Description

Binary package hint: grub2

The time to procede a "sudo update-grub" during an installation or deinstallation a kernel is not acceptable long. This happens since update to version 1.99-4ubuntu1. Additionally the CPU is running at 100% the whole time.

Output terminal during deinstallation:

laura@ONEIRIC-4GDM32:~$ sudo apt-get purge linux-headers-2.6.39-2 linux-image-2.6.39-2-generic
[sudo] password for laura:
Paketlisten werden gelesen... Fertig
Abhängigkeitsbaum wird aufgebaut
Statusinformationen werden eingelesen... Fertig
Die folgenden Pakete werden ENTFERNT:
  linux-headers-2.6.39-2* linux-headers-2.6.39-2-generic*
  linux-image-2.6.39-2-generic*
0 aktualisiert, 0 neu installiert, 3 zu entfernen und 1 nicht aktualisiert.
Nach dieser Operation werden 214 MB Plattenplatz freigegeben.
Möchten Sie fortfahren [J/n]?
(Lese Datenbank ... 190179 Dateien und Verzeichnisse sind derzeit installiert.)
Entfernen von linux-headers-2.6.39-2-generic ...
Entfernen von linux-headers-2.6.39-2 ...
Entfernen von linux-image-2.6.39-2-generic ...
Examining /etc/kernel/postrm.d .
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/initramfs-tools 2.6.39-2-generic /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/zz-update-grub 2.6.39-2-generic /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-generic
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-3-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.39-3-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic
done
The link /vmlinuz.old is a damaged link
Removing symbolic link vmlinuz.old
 you may need to re-run your boot loader[grub]
The link /initrd.img.old is a damaged link
Removing symbolic link initrd.img.old
 you may need to re-run your boot loader[grub]
Löschen der Konfigurationsdateien von linux-image-2.6.39-2-generic ...
Examining /etc/kernel/postrm.d .
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/initramfs-tools 2.6.39-2-generic /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/zz-update-grub 2.6.39-2-generic /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-generic
laura@ONEIRIC-4GDM32:~$

The times of the example are:

- until "Generating grub.cfg ..." = 45 sec

- time to provide first pair of kernelimages = 2:30 min

- time topprovide second pair of kernelimages = 1:30

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: grub-pc 1.99-4ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.39-3.9-generic 2.6.39
Uname: Linux 2.6.39-3-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue May 24 11:47:15 2011
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=de_DE:en
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: grub2
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

Revision history for this message
syscon-hh (syscon-kono) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel) wrote :

Thanks for your report. I can confirm the performance loss between grub 1.99~rc1-13ubuntu3 and 1.99-2ubuntu1.

1.99-4ubuntu1
00:00.00 Generating grub.cfg ...
00:24.83 Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-3-generic
00:24.90 Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.39-3-generic
00:33.85 Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-generic
00:33.91 Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.39-2-generic
00:34.07 Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-1-generic
00:34.12 Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.39-1-generic
00:34.26 Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic
00:34.31 Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic
00:46.87 Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
00:50.42 Found Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sda1
00:59.42 Found Windows Recovery Environment (loader) on /dev/sda2
01:08.37 done

1.99-2ubuntu1
Same results than with 1.99-4ubuntu1

1.99~rc1-13ubuntu3
00:00.00 Generating grub.cfg ...
00:02.87 Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-3-generic
00:02.93 Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.39-3-generic
00:04.01 Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-generic
00:04.07 Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.39-2-generic
00:04.24 Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-1-generic
00:04.29 Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.39-1-generic
00:04.42 Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic
00:04.48 Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic
00:05.86 Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
00:09.43 Found Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sda1
00:10.48 Found Windows Recovery Environment (loader) on /dev/sda2
00:11.66 done

Changed in grub2 (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Medium
status: New → Confirmed
Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)
summary: - sudo update-grub takes extremely time
+ degraded performance of update-grub 1.99-2ubuntu1 and higher
Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

I'm not seeing any particular reason for it while diffing the debug output, but 'grub-probe --target=device /' (say) does seem to have roughly halved in performance for me. (I'm on an SSD so a difference in the magnitude of slowdown is to be expected.)

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

Ah - under strace, I see it doing things like trying to successively open /dev/disk/by-id/ata-INTEL_SSDSA2M080G2GC_CVPO003401FW080BGN1 up to 9999. Not ideal!

Colin Watson (cjwatson)
Changed in grub2 (Ubuntu Oneiric):
status: Confirmed → In Progress
assignee: nobody → Colin Watson (cjwatson)
milestone: none → oneiric-alpha-1
Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

2011-05-09 Vladimir Serbinenko <email address hidden>

       * grub-core/kern/emu/hostdisk.c (linux_find_partition): Don't abort
       on first non-existant partition.

The problem isn't easily reproducible with a plain upstream build, but that's mainly because Ubuntu patches do extra probing to arrange for LVM and RAID to work when /boot/grub/device.map doesn't exist.

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

(Also, my figure of halving in performance was bogus; I was looking at user time, not wallclock time. 7 seconds versus 43 seconds is more like what I'm seeing.)

Colin Watson (cjwatson)
Changed in grub2 (Ubuntu Oneiric):
status: In Progress → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package grub2 - 1.99-4ubuntu2

---------------
grub2 (1.99-4ubuntu2) oneiric; urgency=low

  * Give up scanning partitions after ten consecutive open failures
    (LP: #787461).
 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Fri, 27 May 2011 14:07:30 +0100

Changed in grub2 (Ubuntu Oneiric):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
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