hey trapsters,

a few months ago, i reinstalled my laptop because i noticed it was getting considerably laggy. i first installed xp, however i didn't have the time to install ubuntu as well (dual boot) until around about a week ago.

for some reason, however, my ubuntu 7.10 takes an awfully long time to boot. firstly, after the splash (ubuntu logo and loading bar), the common unix printing system (cupsd) takes about 30secs - 1min to load. then, once typing in my username and password, ubuntu goes through this very strange process of desktop switching before i actually get to my proper desktop.

all in all, my ubuntu boot becomes 3-4mins, where it should be no more than 2mins. the shutdown is ordinary: the famous ubuntu 16 second shutdown.

i was wondering: what is the common unix printing system, and do i need it? if not, how can i get rid of it?

also, why does my ubuntu change its desktop 5 times before actually getting to my proper desktop?

i have uploaded a video (only 28mb) showing the exact things that happen when i boot up my ubuntu. you can download it here

thanks so much if you can help.

The Common UNIX Printing System is, as its name suggests, a system for printing It is a piece of software on UNIX-based machines that acts pretty much as a universal driver for printers (as quite a few printer manufacturers don't tend to release UNIX drivers). cupsd is the daemon process for CUPS. It runs in the background and detects when you try to print, what you are printing, and which printer you are sending it to so that it can get to work printing your document.

You need it if you intend to print anything. If you don't own a printer then you can usually remove it, but be careful to check what else will get removed if you do get rid of it. A lot of programs require CUPS as a dependency if they have printing functionality. Removing CUPS would remove those applications too. It shouldn't be taking that long to boot, but if CUPS is holding you up you can always blacklist it so it doesn't get loaded at boot.



This seems like dodgy graphics. What graphics card do you have, and what drivers are you using for it?



That website is no good - they detect my IP wrong just to get me to buy an account, so I can't watch the video unfortunately.

I saw the video, that's very odd. Did this start happening when you first booted into Ubuntu or some time afterwards? I couldn't really tell from the video (though i think i saw a drop shadow for the panels), but did you enable desktop effects for your account?

well, i will definitely not ever be printing anything from my ubuntu - i use my other computer with xp (office 2007) to print out my things. when you say removing cups removes applications as well, does that mean every application that has a file -> print option?

if this is not the case, then how can i remove cups and cupsd from booting up? because it is certainly the thing slowing down my boot...



here are my system stats:

operating system: xp pro sp2 dual boot ubuntu 7.10 (the dual boot is working fine, xp seems ok with grub)
processor: intel centrino 1.83 ghx (not top of the range but works fine for me)
ram: 1gb
display driver: intel express chipset

i actually love badongo - fast downloads, fast uploads for members, very easy-to-use interface, not many limits... nonetheless, i have also uploaded the file to my 4shared account - link



actually, the first few times i booted ubuntu it seemed to be fine, then after updating my whole ubuntu system some errors about the gnome desktop started appearing at boot, but i didnt pay any heed to them. they stopped appearing but then the problems started happening. and yes, i have enabled desktop effects, and they seem to be working perfectly so far with my compizfusion advanced settings

thanks so much for your help, guys

Not necessarily. Open up Synaptic and run a search for cups. Remove the cups printing packages, then get a preview of what will actually get removed (I can't remember the name of the option, I use Adept). Find the Preview Changes screen and see what else will get removed. If you see applications you want to keep then the best idea is to close Adept and leave cups installed. If all it removes is cups then you should be OK - just make sure!



Go into System > Administration > Services (if I remember it right) and find the printer service. Just disable it. If you ever try to print from an application you'll get an error, but it should stop it loading at boot.



If you have an integrated Intel chipset then that may be the problem. I have an integrated Intel chip on my laptop which caused me a little bit of a problem at the start. What you need to do is install a package called i915resolution (sometimes just called 915resolution). That should fix any display problems.



The fix for integrated Intel chips doesn't always play nice with Desktop Effects (Compiz). Be careful and take backups

As I noticed, Ubuntu 7.10 has quite a few problems on different subjects... Anyways, you can try, just to see, if disablng Compiz can fix the matters with the desktop...

Type this into terminal:

This should disable Compiz, and activate Metacity, and cut down on effects, and then you can see what happens... I personally don't use compiz, as it is somewhat buggy on my system, it tends to mess up global hotkeys for moving windows and stuff, and to turn on effects I don't want, and that really annoys me, so I turned off the effects, no spining cube, and wobbly windows for me... But, who needs them anyway, they are nice, but don't actually do anything I installed linux for functionality, not visual effects

So, try this, and tll us if it solved the problem, it could be one of the Compiz bugs...