Disable FastBoot (was: Strange cabled network fault when rebooting from Windows (any version) into Ubuntu 24)

Anssi Saari <[email protected]> wrote:

> VanguardLH <[email protected]> writes:
> 
>> Anssi Saari <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> Dan Purgert <[email protected]> writes:
>>> 
>>>> Win10, 11 have that "FastBoot" thing that mucks with hardware releases
>>>> on "reboot" (win basically goes into hibernate).
>>> 
>>> No. Reboot is always reboot, Windows would be completely useless without
>>> that. "FastBoot" aka fast startup happens when shutting down if not
>>> disabled. And it's hibernate without hibernating apps so fairly useless.
>>
>> Actually Fast Starup is a full hibernate (all memory copied into the
>> hyberfil.sys file).
> 
> Source? For example here:
> https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/test/weg/delivering-a-great-startup-and-shutdown-experience
> "Starting with Windows 8.x, the default shutdown and restart scenario
> has been updated and named fast startup. Fast startup begins with the
> shutdown process and includes writing data to disk similar to the
> hibernate process. A key difference is that all user sessions (Session
> 1) are logged off and the remaining information is written to the
> hiberfile."
> 
> When user sessions are logged off, all user apps die and so aren't
> written to the hiberfil.sys, which, as I stated, makes this "fast
> startup" fairly useless.

Depends on whether or not you chose to sleep (whether manually
instigated, or by idle timeout) or shutdown while Fast Startup (aka
FastBoot) was enabled.

On sleep, Fast Startup saves an image of memory into the hiberfil.sys
file.  That's in case power is lost during sleep which means a reboot is
needed, so the hiberfil.sys file is used to write back the memory image
on the boot.  If power is not lost during sleep mode, well, you just
resume out of sleep mode.

On shutdown, yep, you chose to exit your Windows session(s), but the
reboot will still use the hiberfil.sys file to get more quickly get back
to the logon state.  Fast Startup does not alter that a shutdown logs
you out.  Fast Startup with shutdown does not waste the time nor disk
space to write a hiberfil.sys file to record your Windows session.  With
Fast Startup enabled, it saves a memory image only for the OS kernel and
drivers.  The point of Fast Startup aka FastBoot is to get Windows
booted faster, not restore your Windows session(s).  You get to the
logon screen faster.  It is Fast*Boot*.  Not FastSessionRestore.

Perhaps I wasn't clear.  Saving "all memory" into the hiber file is not
while you have a Windows session.  It is at the point of the logon
screen to reload a memory image for that state instead of having to wait
for the kernel to load, all drivers to load, all services to start, etc.

Fast Startup may speed up booting, but it slows shutdown.  When the
computer goes into sleep mode, you don't notice the writes to
hiberfil.sys.  Users are more sensitive to how long it takes them to
resume using Windows, because they're waiting there staring at the
monitor.  They are less sensitive to what happens going to sleep, or
during shutdown, because typically they leave, so they are not waiting.
Faster startup, slower shutdown.

If you slept your computer (manually instigated, or by idle timeout),
you can exit sleep mode to get back into your Windows session assuming
the computer never lost power.  If power was lost during sleep, yes,
Fast Startup gets you more quickly up to the logon screen, because the
kernel, driver, and services were reinstated from the memory image, not
from having to load them from scratch.

If you hibernated (manually instigated, or by timeout), that should be a
regular hibernate, so you resume your Windows session when you boot.

If you shutdown, why would you expect your Windows session(s) to get
saved?  

If you lost power to the computer while in a Windows session (i.e., not
sleeping), how could anything no longer running still write into the
hiber file to restore a Windows session that was nuked by a power
outage?

FastBoot (aka Fast Startup) is for faster booting, not for Windows
session resume.  Use sleep mode to resume Windows sessions, and hope
your computer doesn't lose power while sleeping.  If power is lost while
sleeping, Fast*Boot* gets to the logon screen faster.

With SSDs, especially with m.2 NVMe SSDs, getting much more common for
the OS disk, FastBoot provides little in a faster boot time, but causes
lots of headaches when troubleshooting.  I suspect FastBoot will
eventually fade away (get deprecated), like how ReadyBoost has faded
away (using USB flash drives or SD cards to add a faster drive-to-RAM
cache for HDDs despite HDDs already have a small cache, but ReadyBoost
could never be as fast as adding more real RAM).  ReadyBoost was
oriented to old computers still using HDDs for the OS disks.  FastBoot
was oriented toward old and slow computers.  Little point using either
today with typically larger RAM configs, and with SSDs, especially
NVMEs, replacing HDDs.