ewaller@turing/home/ewaller % ll /boot -h
total 45M
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 0 Mar 30 2015 BCD.LOG1
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 0 Mar 30 2015 BCD.LOG2
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 512 Aug 1 2015 BOOTSECT.BAK
drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 4.0K Jul 8 2016 EFI
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1.6M Dec 31 1979 FSCK0000.REC
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 28M Aug 9 18:42 initramfs-linux-fallback.img
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 6.9M Aug 9 18:42 initramfs-linux.img
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1.7M Aug 8 00:47 intel-ucode.img
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Apr 10 2015 loader
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 472 Jul 10 2016 refind_linux.conf
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 754K Apr 19 2015 shellx64.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1.4M Apr 30 2016 shellx64_v2.efi
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Mar 30 2015 System Volume Information
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 5.1M Aug 9 04:56 vmlinuz-linux
ewaller@turing/home/ewaller % ^C
This is my /boot. The initrd is just under 7MB, but the fallback is 28MB. The kernel is 5.1MB. Also, You may need to have the microcode update image for your processor. Mine is 1.7MB
With 70 MB Free, I think you will be okay. But check it when you boot your boot media using Linux tools. I find that File Explorer does some, er, unexpected things -- I never believe what it tells me. It hides some things and creates what appear to be directories and soft links out off whole cloth that are not really there.
]]>https://www.archlinux.org/packages/core/x86_64/linux/
so archlinux kernel is about 67.4 MB
how big is initrd though? part of this package?
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/core/any/mkinitcpio/
ewaller@turing/home/ewaller % df /boot -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2 256M 157M 100M 62% /boot
ewaller@turing/home/ewaller %
ewaller@turing/home/ewaller % du /boot -h
156K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bg-BG
204K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/cs-CZ
204K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/da-DK
212K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/de-DE
212K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/el-GR
156K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/en-GB
200K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/en-US
204K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/es-ES
156K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/et-EE
204K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/fi-FI
212K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/fr-FR
156K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/hr-HR
212K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/hu-HU
204K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/it-IT
184K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ja-JP
184K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ko-KR
156K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/lt-LT
156K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/lv-LV
204K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/nb-NO
204K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/nl-NL
204K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/pl-PL
204K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/pt-BR
204K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/pt-PT
212K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/qps-ploc
156K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ro-RO
200K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ru-RU
156K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/sk-SK
156K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/sl-SI
204K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/sr-Latn-CS
156K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/sr-Latn-RS
200K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/sv-SE
204K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/tr-TR
156K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/uk-UA
176K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/zh-CN
176K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/zh-HK
176K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/zh-TW
13M /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/Fonts
16K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/Resources/en-US
112K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/Resources
156K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/es-MX
164K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/fr-CA
25M /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot
64K /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Recovery
25M /boot/EFI/Microsoft
84K /boot/EFI/systemd
15M /boot/EFI/HP/SystemDiags
2.7M /boot/EFI/HP/BIOSUpdate
8.1M /boot/EFI/HP/BIOS/Current
8.0K /boot/EFI/HP/BIOS/New
8.1M /boot/EFI/HP/BIOS/Previous
17M /boot/EFI/HP/BIOS
232K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/bg-bg
328K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/cs-cz
328K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/da-dk
340K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/de-de
340K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/el-gr
220K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/en-gb
316K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/en-us
328K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/es-es
232K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/et-ee
328K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/fi-fi
13M /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/Fonts
340K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/fr-fr
232K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/hr-hr
340K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/hu-hu
328K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/it-it
296K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/ja-jp
296K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/ko-kr
232K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/lt-lt
232K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/lv-lv
328K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/nb-no
328K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/nl-nl
328K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/pl-pl
328K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/pt-br
328K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/pt-pt
16K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/Resources/en-US
40K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/Resources
232K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/ro-ro
320K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/ru-ru
232K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/sk-sk
232K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/sl-si
232K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/sr-latn-rs
328K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/sv-se
328K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/tr-tr
232K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/uk-ua
284K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/zh-cn
284K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/zh-hk
284K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/zh-tw
196K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/qps-ploc
156K /boot/EFI/HP/Boot/sr-Latn-CS
32M /boot/EFI/HP/Boot
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/bg-bg
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/cs-cz
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/da-dk
84K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/de-de
84K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/el-gr
76K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/en-gb
76K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/en-us
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/es-es
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/et-ee
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/fi-fi
84K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/fr-fr
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/hr-hr
84K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/hu-hu
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/it-it
72K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/ja-jp
72K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/ko-kr
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/lt-lt
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/lv-lv
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/nb-no
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/nl-nl
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/pl-pl
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/pt-br
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/pt-pt
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/ro-ro
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/ru-ru
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/sk-sk
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/sl-si
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/sr-latn-rs
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/sv-se
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/tr-tr
80K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/uk-ua
68K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/zh-cn
68K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/zh-hk
68K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot/zh-tw
4.2M /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Boot
52K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/cs-cz
52K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/da-dk
52K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/de-de
52K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/el-gr
52K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/en-us
52K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/es-es
52K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/fi-fi
13M /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/Fonts
52K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/fr-fr
52K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/hu-hu
52K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/it-it
48K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ja-jp
48K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ko-kr
52K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/nb-no
52K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/nl-nl
52K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/pl-pl
52K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/pt-br
52K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/pt-pt
24K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/Resources
48K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ru-ru
52K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/sv-se
52K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/tr-tr
48K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/zh-cn
48K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/zh-hk
48K /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/zh-tw
15M /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft/Boot
15M /boot/EFI/HP/EFI/Microsoft
20M /boot/EFI/HP/EFI
86M /boot/EFI/HP
84K /boot/EFI/Boot
716K /boot/EFI/refind/icons
40K /boot/EFI/refind/keys
1016K /boot/EFI/refind
4.0K /boot/EFI/tools
112M /boot/EFI
12K /boot/loader/entries
24K /boot/loader
8.0K /boot/System Volume Information
157M /boot
ewaller@turing/home/ewaller %
It will be be very close, at best. I could save 1M by removing rEFInd, and 84K by removing systemd boot. I have them both set up, but do not often use either of them -- only when I want to experiment with kernel command lines.
Check to see if you have room for your kernel and initrd. If you do, and you have UEFI, you can get by without needing a bootloader.