[TriLUG] Debian 10 (Buster) on Brand-New OptiPlex 3070 Installer is Glacial

[David Both via TriLUG]

Seems like a pretty low end box for "some VirtualBox VMs." That i3-9100 
CPU is 4 cores with no hyperthreading and a max of only 16GB of RAM. 
However, that is probably a side issue.

The cuplrit is more likely to be the network -- either the internal NIC 
or your connection to the Internet. The Dell specs for this computer say 
only that it has an "RJ45" connector and I do not see a speed associated 
with that.

Can you try booting to a live image of something like Fedora, install 
(on the live image) speedtest.py, and run it to see what your overall 
network speed is? You should also look at the specs for the onboard NIC 
and see if it is 1Gb. If your network speed is slow, regardless of where 
the fault lies, the installation will behave as you describe. You could 
also try a complete installation image instead of the network one. Did 
you choose the network install because it takes so long to download a 
full installation image? That right there would indicate a slow network 
connection.

You might also find that the Intel on-chip GPU is slowing down the 
display rendering but this would probably be a minor factor compared to 
the network.

Good luck and keep us informed.


On 8/23/19 5:10 PM, Brian Henning via TriLUG wrote:
> Friends,
>
> We just got a brand new Dell OptiPlex 3070 to serve as a host for some VirtualBox VMs.  It's to replace an almost-10-year-old machine.  I downloaded the netinst image, applied it to a USB stick, and everything about the process on the new hardware is slower than chasing molasses uphill.  From the grub prompt, if I choose the graphical installation option, it's minutes before the GUI appears.  Then minutes again while it detects hardware to find the installation media.  Then more minutes to detect network hardware.  It boggles my mind that this could be so slow.
>
> Does this sound familiar to anyone?  Is there anyone out there thinking, "oh gosh yes, if you don't do this and this and this, the installer runs at a snail's pace!"
>
> For the time being, I'm just suffering through it, fearing that I'll wait an hour for each thing to finish, only to find out, say, it doesn't see the NVME storage medium or something.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Thanks,
> -Brian

-- 

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David P. Both
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The value of any software lies in its usefulness
not in its price.

— Linus Torvalds
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