Arch Linux

Breizh29

Member

Registered: 2021-08-04

Posts: 74

Boot partition too small

Hi everybody

I am in dual-boot windows-arch on my main desktop (UEFI). My boot partition is the partition created by Windows and it is 100M in size and gparted indicates a 99% usage! Yes I know it is very small, too small but so far I had no problem with it.
But my last update of the system:

╭─   ~                                                                                                                                                                                                                   at  16:07:08 ─╮ 
╰─❯ lsblk                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS 
sda           8:0       0 465,8G  0 disk  
├─sda1        8:1    0    100M  0 part /boot 
├─sda2        8:2    0      16M  0 part  
├─sda3        8:3    0 465,2G  0 part /windows10 
└─sda4        8:4    0    505M  0 part  
nvme0n1     259:0        0 476,9G  0 disk  
├─nvme0n1p2 259:1    0      16G  0 part [SWAP] 
├─nvme0n1p3 259:2    0      30G  0 part / 
├─nvme0n1p4 259:3    0    100G  0 part /home 
├─nvme0n1p5 259:4    0      90G  0 part  
└─nvme0n1p6 259:5    0 240,4G  0 part /data 
╭─   ~                                                                                                                                                                                                                   at  16:08:06 ─╮ 
╰─❯

╭─   ~                                                                                                                                                                                                        took  27s at  15:16:46 ─╮ 
╰─❯sudo pacman -Syu

 ................

Total installed size: 1158.74 MiB 
Net update size: 27.90 MiB

:: Proceed with the installation? [Y / n] y
(21/21) checking the keys in the keychain 
[---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------] 100% 
(21/21) packet integrity check 
[---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------] 100% 
(21/21) loading package files 
[---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------] 100 % 
(21/21) conflict analysis between files 
[---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------] 100 % 
(22/22) checking the available disk space 
[---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------] 100% 
error: Partition / boot full: 4916 blocks required, 2285 free blocks 
error: insufficient disk space 
error: transaction validation failed (not enough free space) 
Errors have occurred, no packages have been updated. 
-> error when installing package repositories 
╭─   ~ took  11s at  15:17:37 ─╮ 
╰─❯

So my stupid question is: how can I increase this damn partition without breaking everything?

Thanks in advance.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,295

Re: Boot partition too small

My approach would be to not mount it to /boot but move your vmlinuz-linux and linux-initramfs{,-fallback}.img to the /boot directory on your / and instead use and install a bootloader that can read your linux file system like GRUB or refind and install only that to the ESP.

Alternatively disable the generation of the fallback image in /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset if you don't change your (boot) HW often.

zoli

Member

Registered: 2022-01-12

Posts: 4

Re: Boot partition too small

Hi,

I have two partitions EFI, one for windows (100Mo) and the second for Arch (550mo). I don't use windows partitions under Arch but i have a dual boot.
I suggest to you to create a new partition EFI for your arch and mount your EFI windows partition on /boot/EFIWIN for example.

At the end don't forget to run again grub-mkconfig. (don't forget install the os-prober package to find your windows)

Zoli

Raynman

Member

Registered: 2011-10-22

Posts: 1,539

Re: Boot partition too small

Instead of a second ESP, you can also consider https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/system … g_XBOOTLDR

But if you don't want to touch the partition tables, try V1del's suggestions first. Maybe check first what exactly is taking up space.

Breizh29

Member

Registered: 2021-08-04

Posts: 74

Re: Boot partition too small

I forgot to mention that I am using the GRUB bootloader.

My approach would be to not mount it to /boot but move your vmlinuz-linux and linux-initramfs{,-fallback}.img to the /boot directory on your / and instead use and install a bootloader that can read your linux file system like GRUB or refind and install only that to the ESP.

Alternatively disable the generation of the fallback image in /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset if you don't change your (boot) HW often.

@V1del:
For me, the alternative solution is not working:

╭─   ~                                                                                                                                                                                                                   at  19:14:29 ─╮ 
╰─❯ mkinitcpio -p linux                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'default' 
 -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img 
==> ERROR: Unable to write to /boot/initramfs-linux.img

For the first solution, it is not very clear in my mind.
Create a new boot partition on the disk where my root partition is and mount it: OK.
Then it gets tricky: How do I move my vmlinuz-linux and linux-initramfs{,-fallback}.img into the new /boot?

zoli

Member

Registered: 2022-01-12

Posts: 4

Re: Boot partition too small

For me, you have to downsize(shrink) one of your partition :
- if it's ext4 with a gparted bootable key for exemple or
- your windows partition with disk manager.

Then you boot with your Arch key so you can modify and re-configure your new boot partition.

Last edited by zoli (2022-01-13 06:25:50)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,295

Re: Boot partition too small

@zoli
This isn't a strict requirement no.

@Beizh9
The not explicitly spoken implication is that you'd want to remove the fallback image manually, have you done that? Also this prompt looks like a normal user, you'd need to run mkinitcpio as root in any case

For the first approach you do  not need to create a new partition, you can move them into the new boot just like you'd move files around, unmount your "current" /boot and then mount it to e.g. /efi (your /boot should be empty now and /efi contain the old "boot" contents) and then do a

mv /efi/initramfs* /efi/vmlinuz* /efi/grub/ /boot/
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/efi --bootloader-id=GRUB #This one is necessary so GRUB's config lookup path gets updated because it now has to look at /boot on your root rather than your ESP for the config
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg #Shouldn't be strictly necessary but let's do it for good measure.

Adjust your fstab to mount the ESP to /efi if you want, just make sure it is not mounted to /boot anymore

Last edited by V1del (2022-01-13 11:12:55)