I am continuing a discussion started in XaAES skinning topic, but which needs a different one as being out scope of the initial thread.
Initial topic : viewtopic.php?f=27&t=27241&start=50
In summary, Paul mentioned the slowness of BeePi boot, which I fully agree.
paulwratt wrote:re: dev setup. However, I dont like what is happening with Jessie on Pi (boot times, kswap, bloat), and I want "real feel" ST out of Pi, which is why I started original AFROS-update project (there are lots people still not like CLI on ST) but want MiNT power and flexibility. I am almost there, I have updated (firmware + wifi) of Amibian sd-image, just need to compile new ARAnyM with new SCSI and NativeFeatures support. I can get Amibian boot with wifi in about 3 sec's, but atm any apt-get upgrade seriously screws up its performance.
Excellent !! I did not know about Amibian ; I am going to have a look at it. Clearly, the linux side of BeePi is not optimized, both in term of size and boot time, and that's something I have in my todo list too. I am very interested in your work, so keep us posted on that.
On my side, I had a look at Amibian and it's true that booting speed is amazing quick compared to BeePi ; so what's the secret?
Basically it has nothing to do with the polemic around systemd vs old sysV init or upstart, because both Amibian and BeePi use Debian Jessie starting with systemd. it's just that BeePi needs more services to be loaded, that it has a serious issue with Network configuration service that I need to figure out and that Amibian starts the emulator side much earlier in the boot process giving the feeling of a 3 sec boot when BeePi starts it at the end.
A systemd-analyze plot gave me a clearer view :
First let's look at BeePi boot :
Total boot time is 14 sec before starting the emulator, which is not so bad in absolute value, BUT, network service is delaying it by 6.2 sec and rc.local which then launches Aranym takes another 4 sec to set up the network bridge. rc.local can be easily reduced by 2 sec because I had left some wait instructions in the script

Now let's have a look to Amibian boot :
Total boot time is 6.5 sec, and the emulator starts after 2 sec (00startnow service) : wow !!!
Also Network service takes less than a second to start !!!
So in order of priority :
1- I have to figure out why Network service in BeePi takes so long to start, with a potential time reduction of 5 sec.
2 - Start the bridge setup earlier in the boot process, rc.local starting way to late : potential time saving 2 sec but I don't know if uml-net depends on Network service completion.
3 - Start Aranym earlier in the boot process, after the bridge setup surely (could it be done as EasyAraMint needs network setup to work?)
4 - remove the splashscreen
5 - Optimize the installed services.
More testing in perspective ; thanks Paul to open my eyes on that.
Regarding the issue after apt-get update, I would tend to say that id it works, don't fix it

Anyway, systemd-analyze plot may give you a better answer.