initrd performance improvements (asg2024)

Every second spent on waiting for a system to boot is wasted time. In this talk I present the steps we took in Ubuntu to speed up the boot and the initrd generation time. The presented improvements are not specific to Ubuntu and can be ported to other implementations (like dracut) to benefit other distributions as well. The talk will present further speed improvements that can/will be implemented in the future. That includes rewriting parts in modern languages like Rust. Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/de/ about this event: https://cfp.all-systems-go.io/all-systems-go-2024/talk/9T8LTT/