Re: GRUB LUKS support is slow?

[Chris Marusich]

Clément Lassieur <address@hidden> writes:

> Ludovic Courtès <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> Hello Guix,
>>
>> I have an encrypted root.  When GRUB asks me for my passphrase, it takes
>> 5–10 seconds after I hit enter before it displays the menu; then, once
>> I’ve selected an entry, it takes another 5 seconds or so to boot.
>>
>> It’s always been this way for me (that’s on UEFI), but I’m sufficiently
>> annoyed to write this message today.  :-)
>>
>> Are others experiencing this as well?  Any hints?
>
> I experience the same, and it's very annoying.  I thought it was because
> of Libreboot, I'm glad to know it's not (assuming you don't use
> Libreboot).

There may also be a Libreboot-specific problem legitimately slows down
the boot process:

https://notabug.org/libreboot/libreboot/issues/197

When I boot on a machine that does not use Libreboot, I see a few
seconds' delay while the GRUB payload opens the LUKS volume.  As
explained by Tobias, this is probably expected behavior.

However, on a machine with Libreboot, I find that about 1 or 2 MINUTES
of time is required before any progress is made, during which the HDD
light is constantly illuminated, as if the drive is being heavily
accessed.  I suspect it might be related to the bug linked above.  In
addition, after that time passes, Libreboot spits out a bunch of errors
about how it couldn't find various devices.  Nevertheless, pressing a
button like the "up arrow" on my keyboard takes me to the next phase of
the bootstrap process, which is the Guix-installed GRUB menu.  From
there on out, it's smooth sailing.

Anyway, I have no reason to suspect that's a GuixSD issue.  I just
wanted to mention that there may be other Libreboot-specific delays when
using the GRUB payload to boot.  At least it boots reliably, if slowly.

-- 
Chris

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