Arch Linux

huge-pancake

Member

Registered: 2023-01-26

Posts: 4

Windows' EFI partition(100mb) is not big enough to install Arch(256mb)

I'm installing Arch and Windows in one machine, and I planned to mount Windows' EFI partition as Arch's /boot partition. But it's not big enough to install packages which need to put something in the boot partition such as grub, intel-ucode, linux-zen(a kernel).

So I need to make Windows' EFI partition bigger, what and how can I do?

// I can't speak English well, sorry about that.

d.ALT

Member

Registered: 2019-05-10

Posts: 638

Re: Windows' EFI partition(100mb) is not big enough to install Arch(256mb)

<EDIT>
Deleted bad / wrong suggestion (See #3. Thanks @Slithery!)
</EDIT>

mount Windows' EFI partition as Arch's /boot partition. But it's not big enough

Just use /efi instead of /boot: remember to mkdir the /efi folder and mount it under /mnt/efi before entering chroot!

or

[..] it's not big enough [...]

So I need to make Windows' EFI partition bigger, what and how can I do?

Use GParted Live.

Last edited by d.ALT (2023-01-26 16:21:46)

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<49,17,III,I>    Fama di loro il mondo esser non lassa;
<50,17,III,I>    misericordia e giustizia li sdegna:
<51,17,III,I>    non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa.

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: Windows' EFI partition(100mb) is not big enough to install Arch(256mb)

When installing Windows you can create a larger ESP...
https://www.ctrl.blog/entry/how-to-esp- … setup.html

Use GParted Live.

Gparted can't resize EFI partitions.

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No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

aur - dotfiles

huge-pancake

Member

Registered: 2023-01-26

Posts: 4

Re: Windows' EFI partition(100mb) is not big enough to install Arch(256mb)

I use a tool and make it big enough to install Arch and grub (189mb, from the gap between the partitions, maybe), but not enough for linux-zen.

So I tried a stupid  way - delete linux kernel's files in /boot and install linux-zen, then remove linux kernel.

Luckily, it worked without any error

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 6,929

Website

Re: Windows' EFI partition(100mb) is not big enough to install Arch(256mb)

If you're using GRUB then you don't have to mount the EFI system partition under /boot and in fact I would not recommend it because the FAT filesystem breaks easily.

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Kurogane

Member

Registered: 2021-02-20

Posts: 4

Re: Windows' EFI partition(100mb) is not big enough to install Arch(256mb)

Hello! I have a similar issue and I decided not to create a new thread. I'm following the Wiki installation guide, so I wondered if we can just create a /mnt/boot directory without mounting EFI partition there as per Wiki? And then just install a bootloader to EFI part?

Raynman

Member

Registered: 2011-10-22

Posts: 1,491

Re: Windows' EFI partition(100mb) is not big enough to install Arch(256mb)

Create any remaining mount points (such as /mnt/boot)

If you're not using /mnt/boot as a mount point, you don't need to create it. You'll get a /boot directory by installing the filesystem package (part of base) with pacstrap.

Kurogane

Member

Registered: 2021-02-20

Posts: 4

Re: Windows' EFI partition(100mb) is not big enough to install Arch(256mb)

Create any remaining mount points (such as /mnt/boot)

If you're not using /mnt/boot as a mount point, you don't need to create it. You'll get a /boot directory by installing the filesystem package (part of base) with pacstrap.

Does it mean, if I don't create /mnt/boot and just mount my root partition and use pacstrap script, it will create a /boot directory itself, and is it going to place kernel there?

Last edited by Kurogane (2023-02-17 11:49:53)

Raynman

Member

Registered: 2011-10-22

Posts: 1,491

Re: Windows' EFI partition(100mb) is not big enough to install Arch(256mb)

Yes.

d.ALT

Member

Registered: 2019-05-10

Posts: 638

Re: Windows' EFI partition(100mb) is not big enough to install Arch(256mb)

Create any remaining mount points (such as /mnt/boot)

If you're not using /mnt/boot as a mount point, you don't need to create it. You'll get a /boot directory by installing the filesystem package (part of base) with pacstrap.

Does it mean, if I don't create /mnt/boot and just mount my root partition and use pacstrap script, it will create a /boot directory itself, and is it going to place kernel there?

Yes, but you still lack an ESP.
If you're on an UEFI machine, you'll need to put the BootLoader's .efi somewhere in order to get your PC's UEFI Firmware to actually load the BootLoader.
Please have a look at ArchLinux WIKI's relevant page.

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<49,17,III,I>    Fama di loro il mondo esser non lassa;
<50,17,III,I>    misericordia e giustizia li sdegna:
<51,17,III,I>    non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa.

Kurogane

Member

Registered: 2021-02-20

Posts: 4

Re: Windows' EFI partition(100mb) is not big enough to install Arch(256mb)

If you're not using /mnt/boot as a mount point, you don't need to create it. You'll get a /boot directory by installing the filesystem package (part of base) with pacstrap.

Does it mean, if I don't create /mnt/boot and just mount my root partition and use pacstrap script, it will create a /boot directory itself, and is it going to place kernel there?

Yes, but you still lack an ESP.
If you're on an UEFI machine, you'll need to put the BootLoader's .efi somewhere in order to get your PC's UEFI Firmware to actually load the BootLoader.
Please have a look at ArchLinux WIKI's relevant page.

Sorry, I didn't understand that part all too well. I already have Windows 10 installed with it's respective EFI partition. In addition, I also have rEFInd installed on it, acting as my main boot manager. It's just EFI partition size is not sufficient to install from latest archiso. So a way to make the system install bootloader on EFI partition and install kernel somewhere else would solve my issue. Judging from the link you've sent me, do I understand correctly, that:

mount ESP to /efi. Only the EFI binaries (the boot loader (and optionally drivers) and/or the unified kernel image) will be stored on the ESP, which saves storage space.

So can I rather mount EFI partition to /mnt/efi and only have bootloader installed there?

d.ALT

Member

Registered: 2019-05-10

Posts: 638

Re: Windows' EFI partition(100mb) is not big enough to install Arch(256mb)

So can I rather mount EFI partition to /mnt/efi and only have bootloader installed there?

Exactly

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<49,17,III,I>    Fama di loro il mondo esser non lassa;
<50,17,III,I>    misericordia e giustizia li sdegna:
<51,17,III,I>    non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa.

tydynrain

Member

From: Lower Puna, Big Island Hawai'i

Registered: 2017-10-26

Posts: 114

Website

Re: Windows' EFI partition(100mb) is not big enough to install Arch(256mb)

Gparted can't resize EFI partitions.

@Slithery, yes it can. I do it all the time. I did it yesterday! I'm a kernel freak who's always configuring and building/compiling my own kernels, so between official kernels and ones from AUR that I customize for my system, I usually have about 12-15 different kernels installed. I ran out of space on my 1 GB EFI partition yesteday, so I booted up a an Ubuntu live environment and used Gparted to resize it. Super easy!

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nl6720

The Evil Wiki Admin

Registered: 2016-07-02

Posts: 449

Re: Windows' EFI partition(100mb) is not big enough to install Arch(256mb)

Whether gparted works depends on how small the ESP was and how large you want to make it. See https://superuser.com/a/1717415