Beginners • Why does it take the Pi 15 seconds to load the kernel? I'm so lost. Suggestions are appreciated.

Hello, I'm looking for a way to speed up the boot process. SystemD can't help: it's already doing its best. I may need to tinker at U-Boot and even recompile the kernel. I'm honestly not sure. Here's what I have, so far.

At 0.0 seconds, the device is powered on.
By 14.8 seconds, the kernel has been successfully loaded. The next 3.8 seconds are spent 'in the kernel', according to the SystemD documentation.
At 18.6 seconds, SystemD starts.
At 20.0 seconds, the GUI is viable & usable.

The hardware is a Raspberry Pi Zero 2WH. The OS is an older Raspbian, based on Debian Buster. It uses the stock Raspbian kernel and initramfs.

Is it normal for a Pi to take this long to load the kernel and the initramfs?

I tried replacing the standard initramfs with https://gitlab.com/DarkElvenAngel/initramfs-splash but it shaved only a couple of seconds off the load time. Perhaps I can reduce the kernel's load time by compiling one of my own, stripping out or modularizing any unnecessary functionality.

Please, would the readers who know more than I do — okay, that's most of you — offer some suggestions? Thank you.

Statistics: Posted by PetG — Wed Sep 11, 2024 6:41 am

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