2.5 minute boot time on GL-AR750 -- how to fix.

Technical Support for Routers
1 
Model = GL.iNet GL-AR750S (NOR/NAND)
Kernel = 5.10.176
Firmware =  4.3.18 release1

I'm struggling with slow boot times of 2.5 minute (160 seconds). The biggest gap seems to be 90 seconds between kmodloader: ["gl_system": "kernel_load"] and
tertf: br-lan registered, add it

Features Required

I use the unit as a travel route here are the only features that i need

  1. wifi & ethernet WAN / uplink support
  2. wifi router support (5ghz lan)
  3. wireguard support

I don't need USB, printer, bluetooth, cellular, file sharing, cloud support. I can turn off nearly every feature in favor of boot time.

[ 40.228000] kmodloader: ["gl_system": "kernel_load"]
[  134.407742] tertf: br-lan registered, add it

I'm very happy with the performance of the unit otherwise.

Workarounds Tried

  1. firmware upgrade to latest
  2. firmware reset all settings
  3. Disabling unused wifi & reducing power settings
  4. testing ethenet uplink

More log context

[   40.215564] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[   40.228000] kmodloader: ["gl_system": "kernel_load"]
[  134.407742] tertf: br-lan registered, add it
[  134.451124] eth0: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
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2

Considering the hardware performance of AR750, like CPU and RAM, it is relatively low at present.

While GL v4.x firmware has added many functions compared with v3.x, which bring a longer system boot time.

Probably unable to optimize the boot time. Or you can remove some software packages you never used, but be careful to remove, or downgrade to v3.x firmware.

4

Maybe it is the first time boot.

If you reboot, the boot time will be reduced.

6

You can also try remove USB moduels from

/etc/modules-boot.d/
7

The last 3.x firmware for the AR750 is version 3.216. However, version 3.218 was released for other routers. The release notes for 3.218 are vague, stating only that it provides fixes for various bugs and security vulnerabilities. This leaves AR750 users wondering what specific security fixes they might be missing out on, if they follow your advice, and downgrade.

8

Maybe it is the first time boot.

there must be a bug because 90s of cpu time would make the unit get very hot. Something must be waiting or timing out.

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9

i don't believe it's cpu-bound b/c the unit is not hot. it seems to be idle for 90s, which makes me believe it's due to a broken timeout or other wait time.

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