My Dell XPS 15 9560 takes 1 minute and 40 seconds to boot after entering the password to unlock the disc to plasma login screen. Is that normal and if not how do I debug that, how do I see what’s taking so long and how do I report it to the KDE Linux devs.
Thank you for any help.
can you run sudo systemd-analyze blame on kde-linux?
Here you go. I ran the command and this is the output I got.
15.222s dev-ttyS2.device
15.222s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-serial8250:0-serial8250:0.2-tty-ttyS2.device
15.200s dev-ttyS1.device
15.200s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-serial8250:0-serial8250:0.1-tty-ttyS1.device
15.198s dev-ttyS0.device
15.198s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-serial8250:0-serial8250:0.0-tty-ttyS0.device
15.190s dev-ttyS3.device
15.190s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-serial8250:0-serial8250:0.3-tty-ttyS3.device
15.140s sys-module-fuse.device
15.140s sys-module-configfs.device
15.041s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dSHGP31\x2d2000GM_ASB7N45261040764T_1\x2dpart1.device
15.041s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:04:00.0\x2dnvme\x2d1\x2dpart1.device
15.041s dev-disk-by\x2dpartuuid-91ce55c6\x2deb68\x2d4905\x2d9071\x2def959567937d.device
15.041s sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:1d.0-0000:04:00.0-nvme-nvme0-nvme0n1-nvme0n1p1.device
15.041s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dSHGP31\x2d2000GM_ASB7N45261040764T\x2dpart1.device
15.041s dev-disk-by\x2ddesignator-esp.device
15.041s dev-nvme0n1p1.device
15.041s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:04:00.0\x2dnvme\x2d1\x2dpart-by\x2dpartnum-1.device
15.041s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:04:00.0\x2dnvme\x2d1\x2dpart-by\x2duuid-3367\x2d8832.device
15.041s dev-disk-by\x2ddiskseq-1\x2dpart1.device
15.041s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dnvme.1c5c\x2d415342374e343532363130343037363454\x2d5348475033312d3230303047>
15.041s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:04:00.0\x2dnvme\x2d1\x2dpart-by\x2dpartlabel-ESP.device
15.041s dev-disk-by\x2dpartlabel-ESP.device
15.041s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:04:00.0\x2dnvme\x2d1\x2dpart-by\x2dpartuuid-91ce55c6\x2deb68\x2d4905\>
15.041s dev-disk-by\x2duuid-3367\x2d8832.device
15.033s dev-gpt\x2dauto\x2droot\x2dluks.device
15.033s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dSHGP31\x2d2000GM_ASB7N45261040764T\x2dpart2.device
15.032s dev-nvme0n1p2.device
15.032s dev-disk-by\x2dpartuuid-ee3ce53e\x2dc17d\x2d4081\x2d92a7\x2db288a8525631.device
15.032s dev-disk-by\x2dpartlabel-KDELinux.device
15.032s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:04:00.0\x2dnvme\x2d1\x2dpart-by\x2duuid-2b7df318\x2d2725\x2d412d\x2d8>
15.032s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:04:00.0\x2dnvme\x2d1\x2dpart-by\x2dpartlabel-KDELinux.device
15.032s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:04:00.0\x2dnvme\x2d1\x2dpart-by\x2dpartnum-2.device
15.032s dev-disk-by\x2ddiskseq-1\x2dpart2.device
15.032s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dnvme.1c5c\x2d415342374e343532363130343037363454\x2d5348475033312d3230303047>
15.032s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dSHGP31\x2d2000GM_ASB7N45261040764T_1\x2dpart2.device
15.032s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:04:00.0\x2dnvme\x2d1\x2dpart2.device
15.032s dev-disk-by\x2ddesignator-root\x2dluks.device
15.032s dev-disk-by\x2duuid-2b7df318\x2d2725\x2d412d\x2d88f3\x2d352ac32b6106.device
15.032s sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:1d.0-0000:04:00.0-nvme-nvme0-nvme0n1-nvme0n1p2.device
15.032s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:04:00.0\x2dnvme\x2d1\x2dpart-by\x2dpartuuid-ee3ce53e\x2dc17d\x2d4081\>
15.023s dev-nvme0n1.device
15.023s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dSHGP31\x2d2000GM_ASB7N45261040764T.device
15.023s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dnvme.1c5c\x2d415342374e343532363130343037363454\x2d5348475033312d3230303047>
15.023s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:04:00.0\x2dnvme\x2d1.device
15.023s sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:1d.0-0000:04:00.0-nvme-nvme0-nvme0n1.device
15.023s dev-disk-by\x2ddiskseq-1.device
15.023s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dSHGP31\x2d2000GM_ASB7N45261040764T_1.device
14.566s sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:02.0-drm-card1-card1\x2deDP\x2d1-intel_backlight.device
3.246s kde-linux-configure-firefox.service
1.177s kde-linux-powertop.service
1.141s initrd-switch-root.service
1.043s NetworkManager.service
942ms ldconfig.service
933ms accounts-daemon.service
917ms kde-linux-bless-userspace.service
603ms systemd-hwdb-update.service
563ms etc-factory.service
557ms dev-zram0.swap
541ms alsa-restore.service
539ms polkit.service
534ms tuned-ppd.service
531ms systemd-hostnamed.service
427ms systemd-udev-trigger.service
403ms tuned.service
380ms avahi-daemon.service
369ms bluetooth.service
358ms switcheroo-control.service
354ms systemd-homed.service
345ms thermald.service
343ms systemd-logind.service
303ms upower.service
244ms systemd-oomd.service
202ms user@1000.service
185ms systemd-boot-update.service
183ms systemd-boot-random-seed.service
170ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev-early.service
120ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
103ms systemd-zram-setup@zram0.service
95ms systemd-nsresourced.service
95ms systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service
90ms lvm2-monitor.service
84ms systemd-resolved.service
84ms systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2ddiskseq-1\x2dpart1.service
83ms systemd-journal-flush.service
77ms systemd-journald.service
77ms systemd-udevd.service
75ms systemd-modules-load.service
67ms initrd-cleanup.service
60ms systemd-timesyncd.service
58ms systemd-vconsole-setup.service
57ms systemd-userdbd.service
53ms udisks2.service
50ms cups.service
50ms systemd-journal-catalog-update.service
48ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
46ms systemd-backlight@leds:dell::kbd_backlight.service
42ms plymouth-switch-root.service
41ms dev-hugepages.mount
40ms dev-mqueue.mount
39ms sys-kernel-debug.mount
39ms sys-kernel-tracing.mount
38ms systemd-backlight@backlight:intel_backlight.service
38ms boot.mount
35ms plymouth-quit-wait.service
34ms plymouth-quit.service
32ms plymouth-start.service
30ms kmod-static-nodes.service
28ms systemd-sysusers.service
26ms sys-kernel-config.mount
26ms systemd-fsck-root.service
25ms rtkit-daemon.service
25ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount
24ms systemd-udev-load-credentials.service
24ms kde-linux-btrfs.service
23ms wpa_supplicant.service
23ms dbus-broker.service
22ms initrd-udevadm-cleanup-db.service
20ms systemd-battery-check.service
19ms systemd-pcrphase-initrd.service
19ms systemd-rfkill.service
18ms plymouth-read-write.service
18ms systemd-user-sessions.service
18ms systemd-sysctl.service
17ms systemd-pcrphase.service
17ms systemd-pcrfs-root.service
17ms systemd-remount-fs.service
17ms systemd-network-generator.service
17ms modprobe@tun.service
17ms kde-linux-sysupdated.socket
16ms systemd-update-utmp.service
15ms systemd-pcrmachine.service
15ms user-runtime-dir@1000.service
15ms systemd-update-done.service
14ms incus-user.socket
14ms systemd-tpm2-setup.service
14ms incus.socket
14ms systemd-pcrproduct.service
13ms kde-linux-bootloader-visibility.service
13ms systemd-random-seed.service
13ms systemd-tpm2-setup-early.service
13ms systemd-pcrnvdone.service
12ms pcscd.socket
11ms systemd-userdb-load-credentials.service
10ms initrd-parse-etc.service
10ms systemd-pcrphase-sysinit.service
8ms tmp.mount
2ms systemd-coredump.socket
1ms polkit-agent-helper.socket
1ms systemd-pcrextend.socket
1ms sshd-unix-local.socket
1ms systemd-pcrlock.socket
816us systemd-bootctl.socket
761us systemd-mute-console.socket
758us systemd-ask-password.socket
715us systemd-factory-reset.socket
694us systemd-sysext.socket
563us systemd-repart.socket
505us systemd-creds.socket
80us dbus.socket
76us avahi-daemon.socket
75us systemd-machined.socket
70us systemd-homed-activate.service
63us systemd-importd.socket
60us systemd-journald-dev-log.socket
49us systemd-resolved-monitor.socket
44us systemd-journald.socket
44us systemd-nsresourced.socket
39us lvm2-lvmpolld.socket
39us systemd-logind-varlink.socket
38us cups.socket
35us dm-event.socket
34us systemd-oomd.socket
33us systemd-resolved-varlink.socket
31us systemd-userdbd.socket
28us systemd-udevd-varlink.socket
25us systemd-mountfsd.socket
25us systemd-hostnamed.socket
22us systemd-udevd-control.socket
19us systemd-journald-audit.socket
17us systemd-rfkill.socket
14us systemd-udevd-kernel.socket
there is a lot going on before you get to your user service … for comparison this is what mine shows up to the start of user service
7.297s systemd-suspend-then-hibernate.service
4.876s systemd-udev-settle.service
4.833s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
1.754s fwupd.service
784ms boot-efi.mount
529ms snapd.seeded.service
497ms systemd-journal-flush.service
444ms snapd.service
442ms NetworkManager.service
426ms smartmontools.service
369ms apt-daily.service
343ms sddm.service
252ms user@1000.service
with all the mention of disks and pci, i would start think about hardware failures.
KDE Linux doesn’t support my 3D legacy NVIDIA card, I wonder if that could be an issue with boot? Smart status for my NVME SSD shows everything is good. As far as the rest of my hardware, as far as I can tell everything is working, unless ram is failing without me knowing, but I don’t think so.
Is that on a VM? It seems to be missing many of the hardware-related things you’d see on bare metal.
Can you try sudo systemd-analyze (without the ‘blame’)? That will show less detail but might tell us something about the missing big chunk. (The 15 seconds in your blame output obviously don’t account for most of the time being spent.)
Ideally not, it should just load the nouveau driver, which shouldn’t particularly cause a delay.
This KDE Linux is running on bare metal. KDE Linux does not support legacy NVIDIA card and the Nouveau has to be manually enabled for legacy NVIDIA devices on KDE Linux, it’s not enabled by default.
I ran that command you suggested.
Startup finished in 8.593s (firmware) + 13.480s (loader) + 1.762s (kernel) + 13.925s (initrd) + 1min 35.525s (userspace) = 2min 13.287s
graphical.target reached after 1min 34.277s in userspace.
sudo systemd-analyze critical-chain
That’s clear 
I was asking the VM question about @skyfishgoo 's install, to understand whether it was a like-for-like comparison with your bare metal.
Right, but once enabled it shouldn’t particularly slow down the boot.
Great, so now we can see that the significant majority of the time is taken in userspace. The command that @xuars suggested should show a bit more about what’s happening there.
FWIW I found the TPM2 service slowing down my boot recently; see TPM2 services slowing down boot (#529) · Issues · KDE Linux / KDE Linux · GitLab . systemd-analyze critical-chain is for sure the right tool to diagnose this.
Here’s the output of sudo systemd-analyze critical-chain
The time when unit became active or started is printed after the "@" character.
The time the unit took to start is printed after the "+" character.
graphical.target @1min 34.277s
└─multi-user.target @1min 34.277s
└─tuned-ppd.service @1min 33.742s +534ms
└─tuned.service @1min 33.335s +403ms
└─network.target @1min 33.330s
└─wpa_supplicant.service @1min 33.306s +23ms
└─basic.target @1min 32.259s
└─dbus-broker.service @1min 32.215s +23ms
└─dbus.socket @1min 32.204s +80us
└─sysinit.target @1min 32.202s
└─systemd-update-done.service @1min 32.186s +15ms
└─ldconfig.service @1min 31.243s +942ms
└─systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service @1min 31.120s +120ms
└─local-fs.target @1min 31.111s
└─boot.mount @1min 31.217s +38ms
└─systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2ddiskseq-1\x2dpart1.service @1min 31.130s +84ms
└─system-systemd\x2dfsck.slice @1min 31.129s
└─system.slice
└─-.slice
Ooh, yes, we’ve seen this in Fedora too, including on Dells:
I don’t think the Dell XPS 15 9560 TPM is compatible with Linux as the Ksysyteminfo says no TPM found. It’s definitely enabled because Windows 11 Pro showed it enabled and I didn’t turn it off before installing KDE Linux.
that’s on bare metal but it’s not the whole output, that other stuff is not taking much time so it’s lower on the list.
is what’s doing you in.
check your SMART stats on the boot disk, or maybe the control chip is failing.
try remaking any physical connections to it that you can.
I opened Kinfo center and copied some information to here. Can you look and see if you see anything? And what do you mean by remaking physical connections? Do you mean taking out my NVME SSD and putting it back in?
smartctl 7.5 2025-04-30 r5714 [x86_64-linux-6.18.9-zen1-2-zen] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-25, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Number: SHGP31-2000GM
Serial Number: ASB7N45261040764T
Firmware Version: 31060C20
PCI Vendor/Subsystem ID: 0x1c5c
IEEE OUI Identifier: 0xace42e
Controller ID: 1
NVMe Version: 1.3
Number of Namespaces: 1
Namespace 1 Size/Capacity: 2,000,398,934,016 [2.00 TB]
Namespace 1 Formatted LBA Size: 512
Namespace 1 IEEE EUI-64: ffffff ffffffffff
Local Time is: Tue Feb 24 14:06:58 2026 MST
Firmware Updates (0x16): 3 Slots, no Reset required
Optional Admin Commands (0x0017): Security Format Frmw_DL Self_Test
Optional NVM Commands (0x005f): Comp Wr_Unc DS_Mngmt Wr_Zero Sav/Sel_Feat Timestmp
Log Page Attributes (0x1e): Cmd_Eff_Lg Ext_Get_Lg Telmtry_Lg Pers_Ev_Lg
Maximum Data Transfer Size: 64 Pages
Warning Comp. Temp. Threshold: 83 Celsius
Critical Comp. Temp. Threshold: 84 Celsius
Supported Power States
St Op Max Active Idle RL RT WL WT Ent_Lat Ex_Lat
0 + 6.3000W - - 0 0 0 0 5 5
1 + 2.4000W - - 1 1 1 1 30 30
2 + 1.9000W - - 2 2 2 2 100 100
3 - 0.0500W - - 3 3 3 3 1000 1000
4 - 0.0040W - - 3 3 3 3 1000 9000
Supported LBA Sizes (NSID 0x1)
Id Fmt Data Metadt Rel_Perf
0 + 512 0 0
1 - 4096 0 0
=== START OF SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
SMART/Health Information (NVMe Log 0x02, NSID 0xffffffff)
Critical Warning: 0x00
Temperature: 36 Celsius
Available Spare: 100%
Available Spare Threshold: 10%
Percentage Used: 1%
Data Units Read: 29,792,556 [15.2 TB]
Data Units Written: 65,376,398 [33.4 TB]
Host Read Commands: 595,432,767
Host Write Commands: 1,219,473,029
Controller Busy Time: 4,033
Power Cycles: 350
Power On Hours: 7,264
Unsafe Shutdowns: 100
Media and Data Integrity Errors: 0
Error Information Log Entries: 0
Warning Comp. Temperature Time: 0
Critical Comp. Temperature Time: 0
Temperature Sensor 1: 29 Celsius
Temperature Sensor 2: 34 Celsius
Error Information (NVMe Log 0x01, 16 of 256 entries)
No Errors Logged
Self-test Log (NVMe Log 0x06, NSID 0xffffffff)
Self-test status: No self-test in progress
Num Test_Description Status Power_on_Hours Failing_LBA NSID Seg SCT Code
0 Short Aborted: Self-test command 0 - - - - -
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0: +42.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0: +40.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
pch_skylake-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +41.0°C
BAT0-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
in0: 12.90 V
curr1: 1000.00 uA
ath10k_hwmon-pci-0200
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1: +33.0°C
dell_smm-isa-00de
Adapter: ISA adapter
fan1: 0 RPM (min = 0 RPM, max = 4900 RPM)
fan2: 0 RPM (min = 0 RPM, max = 4900 RPM)
temp1: +42.0°C
temp2: +36.0°C
temp3: +36.0°C
temp4: +32.0°C
temp5: +37.0°C
temp6: +34.0°C
temp7: +32.0°C
temp8: +34.0°C
temp9: +0.0°C
pwm1: 0% MANUAL CONTROL
pwm2: 0% MANUAL CONTROL
nvme-pci-0400
Adapter: PCI adapter
Composite: +37.9°C (low = -0.1°C, high = +82.8°C)
(crit = +83.8°C)
Sensor 1: +30.9°C (low = -273.1°C, high = +65261.8°C)
Sensor 2: +32.9°C (low = -273.1°C, high = +65261.8°C)
acpitz-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
temp1: +25.0°C
run sudo tune2fs -l /dev/nvme0n1p2 or whatever your boot partition is called on your nvme
you can use lsblk to see what the designation is for your linux root partition.
in the tune output look for Maximum mount count: -1
if its a positive number, that is how many times it will try to mount the device before it runs fschk.
I ran these commands and got this:
$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
zram0 252:0 0 62.1G 0 disk [SWAP]
nvme0n1 259:0 0 1.8T 0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 4G 0 part /boot
└─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 1.8T 0 part
└─root 253:0 0 1.8T 0 crypt /system
$ sudo tune2fs -l /dev/nvme0n1p1
[sudo] password for nate:
tune2fs 1.47.3 (8-Jul-2025)
tune2fs: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/nvme0n1p1
/dev/nvme0n1p1 contains a vfat file system
What does it mean?
run it on nvme0n1p2
$ sudo tune2fs -l /dev/nvme0n1p2
[sudo] password for nate:
tune2fs 1.47.3 (8-Jul-2025)
tune2fs: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/nvme0n1p2
/dev/nvme0n1p2 contains a crypto_LUKS file system
It still don’t say anything obvious to me?