[Bug 1823327] Re: booting cloud images on a Multipass Windows hosted enviroment is slow in the initramfs stage due to font setup / framebuffer issues

[Steve Langasek]

/etc/default/console-setup has:
ACTIVE_CONSOLES="/dev/tty[1-6]"
and /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/init-top/console_setup iterates over these active consoles.

This is not work that should be done in the initramfs (and I actually
don't see an equivalent setup from the rootfs, which implies we
currently don't get the font setup at all on an initramfsless-booted
system).  In the initramfs we should be initializing at most one VT.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to console-setup in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1823327

Title:
  booting cloud images on a Multipass Windows hosted enviroment is slow
  in the initramfs stage due to font setup / framebuffer issues

Status in cloud-images:
  New
Status in console-setup package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Booting an azure kernel Cosmic cloud image with multipass on Windows
  10 pro takes a long time. Using systemd-analyze 25 seconds in kernel
  boot time is reported. Digging into this, the kernel boot time is
  actually ~5 seconds, the other 20 seconds before systemd init is
  exec'd is actually in the initramfs. I've instrumented the kernel to
  record the exec and exit times of each process in the kernel and the
  top offending processes in initramfs during boot are:

  Duration PID process
  14.86832 262 /scripts/init-top/console_setup
  2.48749 263 /bin/setfont
  2.45357 268 /bin/setfont
  2.44657 291 /bin/setfont
  2.44392 286 /bin/setfont
  2.43545 279 /bin/setfont
  2.43161 274 /bin/setfont
  1.19233 255 /scripts/init-top/framebuffer

  console_setup is calling setfont 7 times and each time setfint is
  taking more than 2.4 seconds to complete. Also the framebuffer program
  is taking over a second to run.

  For Disco with azure kernel:

  Duration PID process
  14.19028 275 console_setup
  2.39020 276 setfont
  2.34020 281 setfont
  2.32915 293 setfont
  2.32389 289 setfont
  2.32319 285 setfont
  2.32178 297 setfont
  1.11417 268 framebuffer

  For Xenial with generic kernel:

  Duration PID process
  15.01832 232 console_setup
  2.52273 233 setfont
  2.50960 238 setfont
  2.48476 250 setfont
  2.46333 256 setfont
  2.46289 262 setfont
  2.44667 268 setfont
  1.07674 225 framebuffer

  For Xenial with azure kernel:
  15.00529 260 console_setup
  2.49699 261 setfont
  2.47591 292 setfont
  2.47443 266 setfont
  2.47131 286 setfont
  2.46812 280 setfont
  2.45780 274 setfont
  1.07095 253 framebuffer

  so it seems to occur across releases with generic and azure kernels.

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/cloud-images/+bug/1823327/+subscriptions