linux-kernel - RE: Boot-time initiative (SIG) thoughts and next steps

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Message-ID:
 <MW5PR13MB5632276F33CCE4E18D0258E0FD532@MW5PR13MB5632.namprd13.prod.outlook.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2024 00:45:45 +0000
From: "Bird, Tim" <Tim.Bird@...y.com>
To: Brian Masney <bmasney@...hat.com>, Saravana Kannan <saravanak@...gle.com>
CC: "linux-embedded@...r.kernel.org" <linux-embedded@...r.kernel.org>,
        "linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: RE: Boot-time initiative (SIG) thoughts and next steps



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brian Masney <bmasney@...hat.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 5, 2024 5:10 PM
> To: Saravana Kannan <saravanak@...gle.com>
> Cc: Bird, Tim <Tim.Bird@...y.com>; linux-embedded@...r.kernel.org; linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
> Subject: Re: Boot-time initiative (SIG) thoughts and next steps
> 
> On Mon, Oct 28, 2024 at 03: 33: 29PM -0700, Saravana Kannan wrote: > On Sun, Oct 27, 2024 at 6: 30 PM Bird, Tim
> <Tim. Bird@ sony. com> wrote: > > > On Fri, Oct 25, 2024 at 11: 18 AM Bird, Tim <Tim. Bird@ sony. com> wrote: >
> 
> On Mon, Oct 28, 2024 at 03:33:29PM -0700, Saravana Kannan wrote:
> > On Sun, Oct 27, 2024 at 6:30 PM Bird, Tim <Tim.Bird@...y.com> wrote:
> > > > On Fri, Oct 25, 2024 at 11:18 AM Bird, Tim <Tim.Bird@...y.com> wrote:
> > > > > = wiki account =
> > > > > The wiki where we'll be maintaining information about
> > > > > boot time, and about activities of the boot time SIG, is the elinux wiki.
> > > > > The page we'll be focusing on is: https://elinux.org/Boot_Time.
> > > > > If you are interested in helping update and maintain the information there
> > > > > (which I hope almost everyone is), then please make sure you have a user
> > > > > account on the wiki.
> > > > > If you don't have one, please go here:
> > > > > https://elinux.org/Special:RequestAccount
> > > > > I have to manually approve accounts in order to fight spambots.  It might
> > > > > take a few days for me to get to your request.  It's very helpful if you
> > > > > put a comment in one of the request fields about this being related to
> > > > > the boot-time initiative or SIG, so I can distinguish your request from
> > > > > spam requests.
> > > >
> > > > Can we instead keep this all a part of the kernel docs instead of the
> > > > wiki? Couple of reasons for that:
> > >
> > > Ideally, we would put some material in the wiki, and also
> > > produce a document - some kind of "boot-time tuning guide" that can
> > > live in the kernel tree.
> >
> > This is the part I care most about being in the kernel docs. Eg: what
> > configs to use. What commandline params to set. Dos and Don'ts for the
> > drivers, etc. So, good to see that is an acceptable option.
> 
> I'm interested to help contribute to a boot speed document, and I
> suspect some others at Red Hat are interested as well. Personally,
> I would prefer to have a section in the kernel documentation over a
> Wiki
OK - that's at least two votes for an upstream kernel doc.

I think it would be good to have a boot time tuning guide upstream.
I hope to augment that with a tool that will check for various
items or conditions on a machine, and give a list of recommendations.
This could go along with the tuning guide.

However, I would still plan to collect some information on the wiki
that I don't think will be upstreamable.  For example, see this page:
https://elinux.org/Disable_Console

The first few items on that page could be sentences in a kernel tuning
guide, but the data from actual uses I don't think belongs there, as
it will quickly bitrot.  (Indeed the information on that page has already
bitrotted.)

I think it would be useful to gather this results information on a wiki, but its
possible that if reports are sent by e-mail, just a few lore links would
suffice.

> Besides arch-specific recommendations, we can also contribute
> some boot speed improvement techniques that we've done that are
> specific to RT.
That would be great.
 
> In addition to the recommended configs, I think it would also be
> beneficial to list some upstream patches that improve boot speed along
> with the kernel version it was introduced in.
I think this would be good also.

We should discuss what a kernel boot-time tuning guide should look like
and how it should be organized.  Starting this may be one of the first
things the SIG does.  The other one may be a data-gathering tool that
I've been working on, that (of all things) automatically populates a wiki
with boot time data.  I will explain my intentions when I post the script
(likely tomorrow).
 -- Tim