Arch Linux

Bednar

Member

Registered: 2015-09-19

Posts: 73

[SOLVED] multiple arch linux EFI installs sharing 1 EFI partition

Hi guys,

I have an NVMe drive which has several partitions as follows:

Device             Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1        34   1290239   1290206   630M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2   1290240   1323007     32768    16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/nvme0n1p3   1323008 553199179 551876172 263.2G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p4 553199616 554319871   1120256   547M Windows recovery environment
/dev/nvme0n1p5 554321920 571099135  16777216     8G Linux swap
/dev/nvme0n1p6 571099136 976773119 405673984 193.4G Linux filesystem

The Linux filesystem partition has my main arch linux install with several kernels:

local/linux 5.10.14.arch1-1
    The Linux kernel and modules
local/linux-amd-staging-drm-next-git 5.10.952663.672b03f722c1-1
    The Linux kernel with AMDGPU WIP patches kernel and modules
local/linux-lts 5.4.96-1
    The LTS Linux kernel and modules
local/linux-next-git 20210209.r0.ga4bfd8d46ac3-1
    The Linux NEXT kernel and modules

I have installed a new SSD which I want to use as my testbed: git packages, unstable repos etc. but I am wondering if there could be any conflict between the various linux images from both installs sharing the same EFI partition. Is there anything specific I need to be wary of when imnstalling?

Thanks!

Last edited by Bednar (2021-02-09 17:34:18)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 12,431

Re: [SOLVED] multiple arch linux EFI installs sharing 1 EFI partition

containers/VMs are a better solution for this, IMO, but if you want to do it and want the kernels/initramfss on the ESP, mount it to /efi then bind mount a dir to /boot. Otherwise use refind/grub and keep the kernels on the root partition.

Bednar

Member

Registered: 2015-09-19

Posts: 73

Re: [SOLVED] multiple arch linux EFI installs sharing 1 EFI partition

thanks! I will be testing mesa-git and proton games so a VM might not be an option for me.

Bednar

Member

Registered: 2015-09-19

Posts: 73

Re: [SOLVED] multiple arch linux EFI installs sharing 1 EFI partition

sorry for back to back posting but it indeed looks like bind mounts will be the best approach here. I will mark the thread as resolved