After installing bootchart and booting my system both with and without the external USB drive plugged in, I'm more confused than ever about why things are slow: http://home.att.net/~Tom.Horsley/boot-with-usb.png http://home.att.net/~Tom.Horsley/boot-no-usb.png As near as I can tell, these charts mean my system is just sitting there like a lump for the first 18 seconds doing absolutely nothing (with or without the USB drive I thought it might be waiting to spin up). Lots of the sample charts on the www.bootchart.org web site don't have these big empty gaps up front. I'm jealous :-).
