powerd takes eternity to boot on pc

the same thing. strange...

$ systemd-analyze blame
      3min 418ms powerd.service
         15.289s click-system-hooks.service

Same here on 16.04 64 Bit:

systemd-analyze blame
      3min 362ms powerd.service
          5.746s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
          1.318s vmware.service
          1.240s apache2.service
          1.017s mysql.service
           485ms user@1000.service
           349ms click-system-hooks.service
           314ms lvm2-monitor.service
           311ms vboxdrv.service
           290ms postfix.service
           210ms dev-sda1.device
           179ms networking.service
           143ms systemd-logind.service
           131ms vmware-USBArbitrator.service
           120ms motion.service
           120ms grub-common.service
           118ms lxc-net.service
           118ms apport.service
           113ms speech-dispatcher.service
           101ms ModemManager.service

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu Xenial Xerus (development branch)
Release: 16.04

apt-cache policy powerd
powerd:
  Installed: 0.16+16.04.20160204.1-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 0.16+16.04.20160204.1-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 0.16+16.04.20160204.1-0ubuntu1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

and here's what I see in the output of the command «systemctl status powerd.service»:

* powerd.service - monitor and control system power state
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/powerd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: signal) since Thu 2016-03-17 16:41:08 KRAT; 5min ago
  Process: 762 ExecStart=/usr/bin/powerd (code=killed, signal=KILL)
 Main PID: 762 (code=killed, signal=KILL)

Mar 17 16:38:05 d0rje powerd[762]: No suspend interface detected, using mock suspend
Mar 17 16:38:05 d0rje powerd[762]: TestSensor INFO: Setup for DYNAMIC event injection over named pipe /tmp/sensor-fifo-762
Mar 17 16:38:05 d0rje powerd[762]: TestSensor WARNING: Requested sensor proximity not yet created, blocking thread until create event received
Mar 17 16:39:38 d0rje systemd[1]: powerd.service: Start operation timed out. Terminating.
Mar 17 16:39:38 d0rje powerd[762]: SIGTERM recieved, cleaning up
Mar 17 16:41:08 d0rje systemd[1]: powerd.service: State 'stop-final-sigterm' timed out. Killing.
Mar 17 16:41:08 d0rje systemd[1]: powerd.service: Main process exited, code=killed, status=9/KILL
Mar 17 16:41:08 d0rje systemd[1]: Failed to start monitor and control system power state.
Mar 17 16:41:08 d0rje systemd[1]: powerd.service: Unit entered failed state.
Mar 17 16:41:08 d0rje systemd[1]: powerd.service: Failed with result 'signal'.

Can hang up a reboot or shutdown here for 90 sec's

Same here on upgraded Ubuntu 16.04 from Ubuntu 14.04:

systemd-analyze blame
      3min 467ms powerd.service
         22.058s mysql.service
         20.716s postgresql@9.5-main.service
         20.429s postgresql@9.3-main.service
         15.128s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
         10.495s dev-sda6.device
          8.098s apparmor.service
          6.456s winbind.service
          6.453s nmbd.service
          6.184s apache2.service
          6.055s systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
          6.015s samba-ad-dc.service
          5.371s <email address hidden>
          4.913s binfmt-support.service
          4.827s NetworkManager.service
          4.139s accounts-daemon.service
          4.131s click-system-hooks.service
lines 1-17 ...

huh, it seems that this is fixed.

karma@d0rje:~$ systemd-analyze blame | head
          9.742s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
          9.673s dev-sda6.device
          8.693s ModemManager.service
          8.428s keyboard-setup.service
          6.672s libvirtd.service
          5.613s irqbalance.service
          5.060s speech-dispatcher.service
          4.906s lm-sensors.service
          4.850s repowerd.service
          4.793s alsa-restore.service

karma@d0rje:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu Yakkety Yak (development branch)
Release: 16.10
Codename: yakkety

Seeing the same as all who has posted to this topic

systemd-analyze blame
      3min 351ms powerd.service

powerd.service - monitor and control system power state
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/powerd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: signal) since tis 2016-08-16 10:23:14 CEST; 56min ago
  Process: 3170 ExecStart=/usr/bin/powerd (code=killed, signal=KILL)
 Main PID: 3170 (code=killed, signal=KILL)

I have the same problem on Ubuntu 16.04

3min 364ms powerd.service
         13.087s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
         12.970s apparmor.service
         12.427s dev-sda8.device
         12.355s mysql.service
          7.731s click-system-hooks.service
          7.716s apache2.service
          6.441s qemu-kvm.service
          6.292s systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-4403\x2d7341.service
          5.817s plymouth-read-write.service
          5.600s ebtables.service
          4.546s dev-loop2.device
          4.532s NetworkManager.service
          3.682s accounts-daemon.service
          3.146s thermald.service
          2.924s snapd.firstboot.service
          2.816s systemd-udevd.service
          2.484s ModemManager.service
          2.420s plymouth-start.service
          2.053s user@1000.service
          1.961s grub-common.service
          1.763s dev-loop0.device
          1.738s dev-loop1.device
          1.674s systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
          1.534s gpu-manager.service
          1.434s keyboard-setup.service
          1.366s vboxdrv.service
          1.181s rsyslog.service
          1.153s systemd-journald.service
          1.147s console-setup.service
          1.128s systemd-modules-load.service
          1.090s binfmt-support.service
          1.070s ssh.service
          1.070s lightdm.service
          1.049s ofono.service
           974ms systemd-backlight@backlight:intel_backlight.service
           961ms apport.service
           878ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
           874ms polkitd.service
           840ms systemd-journal-flush.service
           830ms colord.service
           793ms snapd.refresh.service
           789ms wpa_supplicant.service
           673ms systemd-sysctl.service

Why does powerd.service take exactly 3 mins for most of the people here? Is the service waiting for anything and timing out?

Same here

Booting my laptop with 16.04 takes a looooong time to start. blame is mighty similar to the other reports:

      3min 296ms powerd.service

OK. I think I got to the bottom of this.

It seems that this issue snuck in when I decided to try out Unity 8. I noticed that the powerd package wasn't on my other machines. When I began to research powerd.service, I kept seeing references to phones and tablets. I decided to disable the service with:

sudo systemctl disable powerd.service

BINGO! No more lag, of course, because powerd wasn't starting. No visible impact on system performance. Doesn't look like I ever needed this daemon.

I then went to Synaptic and marked powerd for removal. It warned me that it was going to also un-install "System Settings". Hmm..... Oh! Looks like the Unity 8 System Settings was still hanging around in addition to the standard Unity 7 component. Blasted them both and everything is normal.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I am thinking that everyone else with this issue has Unity 8 components running / installed on their system as well.

Had the same problem after upgrading from 14.04 to 16.04: Slow boot with "3min 346ms powerd.service" in systemd-analyze blame. After I did as Hydra suggested boot time dropped to around 1 minute. When removing powerd.service Synaptics didn't tell me to remove anything else, though.