Enabling rc_parallel=YES in OpenRC? I am not sure, if it is working?

Debuser2018 · 2020-07-30 10:06:19

I have following options enabled in /etc/rc.conf on a Beowulf 3.0 with OpenRC-0.42-1. Boot time is around 39 seconds from rEFIt menu to gdm3 login screen. Honestly, I don't really feel any reduction in time taken. But, just curious if these options being enabled is safe and OK?

rc_parallel="YES"
rc_logger="YES"
rc_loopsolver_enable="YES"
rc_loopsolver_warnings="YES"
rc_tty_number=12
rc_send_sighup="YES"
rc_timeout_stopsec="YES"
rc_send_sigkill="YES"

This is the /var/log/rc.log:

https://paste.debian.net/1158276/

Last edited by Debuser2018 (2020-07-30 10:06:53)

Debuser2018 · 2020-07-31 04:50:19

I did not feel any speed benefit. Reverted back to original configuraiton, that is:

rc_loopsolver_enable="YES"
rc_loopsolver_warnings="YES"

Head_on_a_Stick · 2020-07-31 07:16:31

Debuser2018 wrote:

I did not feel any speed benefit

Devuan already uses the startpar package to parallelise sysvinit and I think it may also work with OpenRC.

Debuser2018 wrote:

if these options being enabled is safe and OK?

Take note of the warning given by the OpenRC developers:

https://github.com/OpenRC/openrc/blob/m … rc.conf#L7

Debuser2018 · 2020-07-31 07:37:55

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Debuser2018 wrote:
I did not feel any speed benefit
Devuan already uses the startpar package to parallelise sysvinit and I think it may also work with OpenRC.
Debuser2018 wrote:
if these options being enabled is safe and OK?
Take note of the warning given by the OpenRC developers:
https://github.com/OpenRC/openrc/blob/m … rc.conf#L7

Better to go with default values in /etc/rc.conf. Never heard about startpar. But, when I measured the boot time, both are equal (almost). No significant difference in boot time.

Geoff 42 · 2020-08-02 09:20:18

I had noticed the warnings, but I have tried running OpenRC with parallel turned on and have not had any real problems with it. The only difficulty I noticed was the logging gets untidy as the messages from different parts get interleaved. I had not noticed any great increase in the boot speed. While I have been looking at using openrc-init as PID 1, I turned off the parallelism to make the logging clearer. There is also a small problem where some blocks of logging output get duplicated. I have not been able to track this down, but may be related to the early logging getting stored somewhere in memory and then copied to disk later.

Geoff

Debuser2018 · 2020-08-02 19:49:31

@Geoff 42: Yeah. When parallel enabled, the boot messages are messed up. But, I heard we can use lighter init software with openRC. Like runit. Not sure whether these are any better, though.