Clonezilla boot/setup very slow - A possible fix
A partition and disk imaging/cloning program
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steven_shiau
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Dear All
This may be the wrong forum/discussion - I apologise.
I have used Clonezilla for many years without any problems until recently.
Booting from a live usb I got messages stating "Timed out waiting for the udev queue to empty" or similar at the start then 2 times after syslinux64.exe. It took about 25minutes to get to the setup configuration. Then is slowed down ocs-cache and finding disks and partitions - it was so slow I shutdown the laptop,
I suspected it was my OSes Windows 11 24H2 and Ubuntu 24.04. I usually use Ubuntu and wanted to clone to image the Ubuntu system.
Ununtu had the 6.8 kernel so I upgraded it to the HWE kernel 6.11 - problem persisted.
I have both secure boot and fast boot disabled.
I switched from Nvidia to Nouveau with X11 not Wayland - problem persisted.
Next I booted to Gparted live usb and checked all partitions - zero errors but when exiting Gparted via the terminal option I saw a message regarding sr0. There is no cdrom device on the laptop.
I had done many searches then found a fix for udev
https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/1gsgxhf/timed_out_for_waiting_the_udev_queue_being_empty/
It fixed some of the udev messages when booting Ubuntu but it did not fix Clonezilla.
Then I found this
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=301052
that gave me the clue to removed the usb wifi adapter before booting Clonezilla - the boot must mistake the wifi adapter for a cdrom.
IT FIXED THE PROBLEM !!!!!
I cloned the partition as I have done before
I was using the wifi adapter because the 6.8 kernel did not support the Alder Lake AX201 Intel wifi.
Could this or brief note a be placed on a trouble shooting guide.
Regards
Truck5
Dear All
An update that explains why the usb wifi adapter caused Clonezilla problems.
The adapter is a TP-Link Archer TX20U Nano - embedded in the adapter is the Windows driver that activates Autoplay when the adapter is attached to system running Windows. If the pop up is clicked you have te option to install the driver.
It seems there may require usb live applications to ignore these embedded folders/files.
See attached
Regards
Stephen Carr
"It seems there may require usb live applications to ignore these embedded folders/files." -> Do you know any GNU/Linux has such a feature to do so?
Steven
Dear Steven
I found this https://www.draisberghof.de/usb_modeswitch/ which I have not tested yet.
I think there may be an option to check if the storage responds to modeswitch then get Clonezilla to skip the device.
I hope to do some testing son.
Regards
Stephen Carr
Dear All
I have tested usb_modeswitch - it seems difficult to use with a Clonezilla live usb disc as the system would need to scan devices attached and if a wifi adapter disable disc storage mode (if applicable).
See attached file where the TX20U was the adapter that caused my problems. The other two are old adapters I borrowed - there is little difference.
Also see https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi/blob/main/home/How_to_Modeswitch.md
I could not register to the USB Modeswitch Forum https://www.draisberghof.de/usb_modeswitch/bb/ it seems to be inactive.
I recommend a warning about attached usb wifi adapters be displayed at startup.
Regards
Stephen Carr
We will include the package usb-modeswitch in the next testing Clonezilla live.
Steven
Dear Steven
I will test the new version.
Stephen Carr
Stephen Carr
On Fri, 11 Apr 2025, 03:51 Steven Shiau, steven_shiau@users.sourceforge.net
wrote:
Good news
I have tested clonezilla-live-20250504-questing-amd64 withe the TP-LINK TX20 Nano attached to the computer - it worked with no problems.
To confirm this I then booted Clonezilla-live-3.2.19 and the prior problem reapperaed.
Well done
Regards
Stephen Carr
Dear all
Another test with 3.2.2-1 with TP-LINK TX20U attached. It works and seems faster.
Thanks
Stephen Carr
Cool! Thanks for your feedback.