Slow boot - "a start job is running for dev-disk-by..."
I don't recall when the issue started to occur but it's likely when I moved my VMWare Ubuntu image to an external SSD so that I can use the OS on any of my PCs. There aren't many links on Google about the issue but the ones that appear talk about fstab
. For example, Slow boot - What is "A start job is running for dev-disk-by..." ? - OpenSUSE Forum.
Mentions having to delete the swap partition and creating it again.
I can try to do this with Gparted but my main concern is losing my current set up in Ubuntu as I'm not entirely sure what will happen if I mess with swap as suggested in the thread. Anyone able to help?
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You may want to clone your SSD and then you can knock yourself out :) (Try CloneZilla for this)– GrammargeekDec 18, 2015 at 20:51
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Hah yeah, I guess I can do that. I'll wait till I'm back home from the holidays so I can move it to something where I have more space– cpd1Dec 18, 2015 at 21:04
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1I ended up fixing this. I don't think there was ever a swap if I go by Gparted. I ended up creating one and changing the entry in fstab. That worked and no more 90 second boot– cpd1Dec 30, 2015 at 17:38
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1if you solved your own problem, make your own answer and click the check to mark it as solved :)– GrammargeekDec 30, 2015 at 23:07
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1Makes sense...I've added it– cpd1Dec 31, 2015 at 1:56
15 Answers
If you get
A start job is running for dev-disk-by...
followed by a 90 second delay during each boot, complete the following steps:
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Install GParted using the Software Center
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Open GParted and see what partitions Ubuntu is currently using
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Edit the fstab file using the line below.
sudo -H gedit /etc/fstab
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If you have a device that you are not currently using, insert a
#
and a space at the beginning of that line comment it out. -
If you have an external device configured to automount (usually with a
nofail
option in it), add this to the option to the device:x-systemd.device-timeout=1ms
. This sets the wait time of the device to be mounted on boot time to 1ms of the default 90 seconds. Example:
/dev/sdg1 /media/backup jfs nofail,x-systemd.device-timeout=1ms 0 0
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Save the fstab file (it would be nice to save a backup beforehand). Test your fstab file by running
mount -a
. If any syntax error occurs, it would be shown by this command. -
Reboot and the start job shouldn't appear again.