VERY lengthy boot time after updating...relates with 'Create Volatile Files and Directories' and /TMP, perhaps?

mark

5/21/23, 11:58 PM

All was well until a recent updating session for 20.04.3 demanded a reboot. Wow - it seemed to be sitting idle, but pressing esc to get details revealed: "A start job is running for Create Volatile Files and Directories."

Searching using variations of those terms brought references to /TMP as well as SWAP. Further refinements of my searching all seemed to point to clearing /TMP with no apps opened BEFORE rebooting as well as this appearing to be some sort of new systemd bug.

I can manually clear /TMP of course, but I also assist several totally non-techie friends and so I wondered if there may be any simple, automated method to have that cleaning done daily at maybe 3AM when it is assured that most PCs are not being actively used at all.

This brought me to tmpreaper - which is mentioned here: https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/focal/en/man8/tmpreaper.8.html

But my searching also brought warnings about using that - so I have not tried it at all.

I also went through this thread: Ubuntu 18.04 Can't boot: Create Volatile files and Directories hangs

Hence my EXACT query: Is there a very dependable, safe method for true end users' PCs to quietly clean /TMP perhaps once per day - as in=> BEFORE any possible boot process might make any repeat of a ridiculously absurd 37+ minute delay whilst waiting for 'systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service' to complete ??

Thanks for any helpful replies & education.

0 + 0

boot

swap

tmp

20.04

matigo

5/22/23, 12:39 AM

The `/tmp` directory is cleared out with every reboot and usually does not require a person to do anything. I have some Ubuntu Desktop systems that see a reboot maybe once a season and have never had an issue like this. What does `systemd-analyze blame` report? I wonder if there's another reason for the sluggish boot ...

mark

5/22/23, 5:46 AM

Here are the 2 long delays - all else was only in MS: 37min 4.966s systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service 1min 4.102s logrotate.service

waltinator

5/22/23, 2:52 PM

Here are a couple ways you get more information: `systemd-analyze blame` and `sudo journalctl -b 0`.

mark

5/23/23, 4:47 AM

Edited OP for clarity & to include that the delay itself is already QUITE clearly 'blamed' - but no solution has yet been proposed here.

mark

6/7/23, 12:57 AM

Additionally - after this (unsolved) problem arose, even as superuser, no file manager can show the contents of /TMP anymore - and getting properties of it is also inoperative. A bug in 20.04.3 perhaps ??

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: VERY lengthy boot time after updating...relates with 'Create Volatile Files and Directories' and /TMP, perhaps?

TH: เวลาบูตที่ยาวนานมากหลังจากอัปเดต ... เกี่ยวข้องกับ 'สร้างไฟล์และไดเร็กทอรีที่ระเหยได้' และ /TMP หรือไม่

RO: Timpul de pornire FOARTE lung după actualizare... se referă la „Creați fișiere și directoare volatile” și /TMP, poate?

RU: ОЧЕНЬ длительное время загрузки после обновления ... возможно, связано с «Созданием непостоянных файлов и каталогов» и / TMP?

VI: Thời gian khởi động RẤT dài sau khi cập nhật...có thể liên quan đến 'Tạo tệp và thư mục dễ bay hơi' và/TMP?

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