[HN Gopher] Extreme Pi Boot Optimization
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Extreme Pi Boot Optimization
        
       Author : todsacerdoti
       Score  : 76 points
       Date   : 2024-09-01 21:36 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (kittenlabs.de)
 (TXT) w3m dump (kittenlabs.de)
        
       | abraae wrote:
       | Very impressive. I've toyed with using the Pi for an intelligent
       | trail camera. Startup time is critical - a PIR sensor detects an
       | animal passing and you want to be taking photos ASAP so every
       | second counts.
       | 
       | Lowering the power usage is awesome too.
        
       | gigel82 wrote:
       | 3.5s is cool, but if the entire scenario was really connecting to
       | WiFi and uploading an image every couple of minutes, an ESP32
       | would've been a much better choice for power consumption (unless
       | the camera module you need for Pi has some specific features that
       | none of the esp32-cam compatible cameras does)
        
         | teamonkey wrote:
         | ESP32 only supports up to 4MB of PSRAM while a single RPi HQ
         | Camera still is 18MB.
        
       | nyanpasu64 wrote:
       | I was thinking that Circle (https://github.com/rsta2/circle)
       | might be faster to boot than a kernel, but it doesn't seem to
       | support MIPI cameras.
        
       | ocean_moist wrote:
       | I wonder if booting the OpenBSD kernel would be faster. Although,
       | the OpenBSD init system is notoriously slow.
       | 
       | Also I feel (but don't know for sure) most of the time before
       | executing the user space program would be spent by systemd.
        
         | jmclnx wrote:
         | >Although, the OpenBSD init system is notoriously slow.
         | 
         | Is this on the PI where it is slow. On my T420 it seems fine,
         | but the re-linking of various daemons does add time. But that
         | is done for security so I am fine to live with it.
         | 
         | Me, I want fast power down time so I can get out the door fast.
         | And so far NetBSD, OpenBSD and Linux seems to meets that need
         | :)
        
       | Avamander wrote:
       | IMHO boot times of Linux distros in general are rather sad, which
       | is then significantly amplified on weak(er) hardware such as
       | this. I've gone through similar efforts with the MQ-Pro SBC. One
       | can also really feel this on laptops (except Macbooks I guess).
       | Annoying.
        
         | lionkor wrote:
         | It very much depends what you define as "boot time". For
         | example, Windows optimizes for time to fist UI, meanwhile
         | everything else continues to load and the PC stays unusable for
         | multiple seconds after "boot".
        
           | layoric wrote:
           | Exactly my experience as well. I moved away from Windows (10)
           | earlier this year, and login times (waiting for the user
           | desktop to come up after putting in credentials) took ~10
           | seconds. Sometimes it was faster after a fresh install, but
           | it never lasted, even when regularly managing what services
           | and apps were loaded on startup.
        
       | jtrueb wrote:
       | Just stay booted and use a lower power microcontroller ... 105mA
       | ... that's not the right order of magnitude
        
       | phoronixrly wrote:
       | You really should look into using the right hardware for the
       | purpose instead. (Disclamer - I despise Raspberry and their
       | overpriced closed devices, and also HN maniacally trying to use
       | them for stuff they the wrong choice for)
        
       | Sarkie wrote:
       | Was expecting to see different governors tested.
       | 
       | Is that not a thing on a pi?
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2024-09-01 23:00 UTC)