[syslinux] Faster USB key booting?

[David L. Parsley]

I'm using syslinux for booting a thin client from USB key.  It took just 
over 1min (from reset button to 'Ready'), loading a 1.2M kernel and 2.0M 
(approx.) initrd; about 55s of this was syslinux.  Once the initrd 
starts, it takes only about 1s to load the 5M image from the key, which 
corresponds to the advertised 8MB/s read speed.  This is using 
syslinux-3.08pre5, USB-HDD booting, with the mbr.bin included in syslinux. 
It's an award bios on a DFI AZ-30 TL micro atx board.

Now, I've tried a variety of keys with a couple of different motherboards 
(also a biostar m/b w/ award bios).  I also tried the 'grub' bootloader, 
which was actually a bit slower (took several sec just to load grub). 
Only once have I seen a 'fast' usb boot, on a newer Gateway desktop 
machine - but that was just testing, I won't be building production 
terminals from those.

Is the speed some kind of bios limitation?  These m/b's all take 
usb-uhci/1.1 drivers and ehci-hcd/2.0 drivers.  The kernel/initrd load 
speed seems even slower than usb-1.1 speeds.  Any clues/tips appreciated. 
The boot speed is acceptable, but I get the feeling I should be able to 
boot these much faster (since the main image loads so fast, at usb 2.0 
speeds).

regards,
 	David

-- 
David L. Parsley
Network Systems Administrator, Alfred University
"If I have seen further, it is by standing on ye shoulders of giants."
 	- Isaac Newton