Arch Linux

Evergreen

Member

Registered: 2016-08-14

Posts: 16

[SOLVED] Separate /boot and EFI partition causing kernel mismatch?

Hello,

I am new to archlinux and recently installed it. However I think I have done something wrong during the installation. I have a separate /boot partition (sda5) and a pre-existing EFI partition(sda1) due to win8.1 installed. Recently during a pacman update there was a kernel mismatch and I had to fix it using a live usb. Can the kernel mismatch be due to this partitioning?

lsblk

NAME    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda       8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk 
├─sda1    8:1    0   700M  0 part 
├─sda2    8:2    0   438M  0 part 
├─sda3    8:3    0   128M  0 part 
├─sda4    8:4    0 442.7G  0 part 
├─sda5    8:5    0   382M  0 part /boot
├─sda6    8:6    0  37.3G  0 part /
├─sda7    8:7    0  11.2G  0 part /var
├─sda8    8:8    0   326G  0 part /home
├─sda9    8:9    0   5.6G  0 part [SWAP]
└─sda10   8:10   0  93.3G  0 part /data
sr0      11:0    1  1024M  0 rom

fdisk

Disk /dev/sda: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 89E149EB-04CE-49B9-8C79-DE7BCB0FB94B

Device          Start        End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1        2048    1435647   1433600   700M EFI System
/dev/sda2     3344384    4241407    897024   438M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda3     4671488    4933631    262144   128M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda4     4933632  933375999 928442368 442.7G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda5   957030400  957812735    782336   382M Linux filesystem
/dev/sda6   958984192 1037109247  78125056  37.3G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda7  1039063040 1062500351  23437312  11.2G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda8  1062500352 1746094079 683593728   326G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda9  1746094080 1757812735  11718656   5.6G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda10 1757812736 1953523711 195710976  93.3G Linux filesystem

If the partitioning is faulty then what are the problems it can create? Is there a way to fix it ?

Thanks.

Last edited by Evergreen (2016-08-21 08:11:09)

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,521

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Separate /boot and EFI partition causing kernel mismatch?

Can the kernel mismatch be due to this partitioning?

Yes.  Your symptoms are expected when you have a separate root and efi partition unless you manually copy over the kernel.  This is why you should not have both a boot and efi partition.

Is there a way to fix it ?

Yes.  Mount the efi partition on /boot and remove the boot partition.

---

"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

alive4ever

Member

Registered: 2016-07-10

Posts: 65

Re: [SOLVED] Separate /boot and EFI partition causing kernel mismatch?

Can the kernel mismatch be due to this partitioning?

Yes.  Your symptoms are expected when you have a separate root and efi partition unless you manually copy over the kernel.  This is why you should not have both a boot and efi partition.

Is there a way to fix it ?

Yes.  Mount the efi partition on /boot and remove the boot partition.

I think it's okay to have separate boot and efi partitions. /boot partition for holding kernel, initramfs, and GRUB configuration files. EFI partition for holding efi related stuff.

The only problem is to have kernel and initramfs on both boot and efi partitions.

Either put the kernel and initramfs on boot partition (in case of GRUB, which is able to read almost any filesystem) or put the kernel and initramfs on efi partition (in case of using EFISTUB/systemd boot without GRUB). Not both.

Evergreen

Member

Registered: 2016-08-14

Posts: 16

Re: [SOLVED] Separate /boot and EFI partition causing kernel mismatch?

Sorry for the late reply. I have done what Trilby suggested as it seemed the easier way. Just did a pacman update and there was a kernel update which went smoothly. So I think things are resolved now. Thanks guys.