How to get a simpler (text only?) startup sequence?

[Chris Green]

On Sun, Dec 09, 2012 at 05:29:07PM +0000, Colin Law wrote:
> On 9 December 2012 16:56, Chris Green <cl at isbd.net> wrote:
> > On Sun, Dec 09, 2012 at 04:42:57PM +0000, Colin Law wrote:
> >> On 9 December 2012 16:17, Chris Green <cl at isbd.net> wrote:
> >> > ...
> >> > There are still the long delays caused by plymouth waiting for a
> >> > network that's not there (the hardwired interface) on my laptop.  What
> >> > I see is 20 seconds or so of nothing, then a dozen lines or so
> >> > of starting/stopping information, then:-
> >> >
> >> >     Waiting for network configuration
> >> >     Waiting for up to 60 more seconds for network configuration
> >> >
> >> > These are new, never used to happen, and add a couple of minutes or more
> >> > to the boot time.
> >>
> >> Do you have an obsolete entry in /etc/network/interfaces?
> >>
> > Well, yes and no.
> >
> > There's an entry for the hardwired ethernet interface but I want to use
> > that when it *is* available.  When I'm at home I plug the laptop into my
> > LAN using the RJ-45.  The trouble is that when there isn't a cable
> > plugged in it still waits two minutes for the interface.
> 
> Normally one would only have the two lines for lo, I believe.  By
> having eth0 there you are forcing it to wait until it comes up, rather
> than just letting it come up in its own time, I think.
> 
You're dead right, thank you.  Simply deleting the lines:-

    # The primary network interface
    auto eth0
    iface eth0 inet dhcp

>From /etc/network/interfaces has fixed the problem. No delay at start-up
and the laptop uses the hard-wired interface if available and, if not,
uses WiFi.

I think the trouble is that the above lines are added to /etc/network/interfaces
at installation time, I certainly didn't put them there.

Thanks again!  :-)

-- 
Chris Green