Arch Linux

Zaphkiel224z

Member

Registered: 2024-01-11

Posts: 30

Increasing the size of EFI partition [SOLVED]

I've had the misfortune of running Windows with my arch install. The 100mb efi is chocking me out. I don't have anything of value on my Windows system so I don't care what happens to it but I'd rather avoid solutions that would require reinstalling my arch. I hope someone would share their knowledge.

Last edited by Zaphkiel224z (2024-11-04 19:34:35)

Zaphkiel224z

Member

Registered: 2024-01-11

Posts: 30

Re: Increasing the size of EFI partition [SOLVED]

My lsblk and fdisk -l
nvme0n1      259:0    0 476.9G  0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1  259:1    0   100M  0 part /efi
├─nvme0n1p2  259:2    0    16M  0 part
├─nvme0n1p3  259:3    0   120G  0 part
├─nvme0n1p4  259:4    0  79.9G  0 part
├─nvme0n1p5  259:5    0   512M  0 part
├─nvme0n1p6  259:6    0    14G  0 part
├─nvme0n1p7  259:7    0     1G  0 part
├─nvme0n1p8  259:8    0  93.1G  0 part
├─nvme0n1p9  259:9    0     8G  0 part [SWAP]
└─nvme0n1p10 259:10   0 155.7G  0 part /

/dev/nvme0n1p1       2048     206847    204800   100M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2     206848     239615     32768    16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/nvme0n1p3     239616  251897855 251658240   120G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p4  251897856  419543039 167645184  79.9G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p5  967708672  968757247   1048576   512M Windows recovery environme
/dev/nvme0n1p6  968757248  998117375  29360128    14G Windows recovery environme
/dev/nvme0n1p7  998117376 1000214527   2097152     1G Windows recovery environme
/dev/nvme0n1p8  762908672  958222335 195313664  93.1G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p9  419543040  436320255  16777216     8G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p10 436320256  762908671 326588416 155.7G Linux filesystem

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,231

Re: Increasing the size of EFI partition [SOLVED]

I'd just use GRUB or refind on the ESP and keep the kernel images on /boot in the root filesystem. That way you'll never have an increase of notable size on the ESP. If you really wanted to increase the size you'd need to either delete the Windows partition or at least shrink it, move it to the right and then increasing the ESP size. All of which I'd strongly suggest you do with a Gparted Live Disk if you really want to do that.

Last edited by V1del (2024-02-17 20:22:11)

Zaphkiel224z

Member

Registered: 2024-01-11

Posts: 30

Re: Increasing the size of EFI partition [SOLVED]

Yeah, I don't sweat about the kernels, they are on /boot, like you suggested. I want to try out NixOS and I heard that it stores system snapshots on /efi. I can just create a separate efi partiotion for it but I wondered if I can just make my current one bigger in some trivial way, considering that I don't care if my Windows bricks as a result.

Last edited by Zaphkiel224z (2024-02-17 21:25:27)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,231

Re: Increasing the size of EFI partition [SOLVED]

I highly doubt that it stores general snapshots on /efi and if so that will be configurable. as for trivial, yes as mentioned I'd suggest you use a Gparted live disk (... actually for your usecase you'd not need a live disk, you could just do that in gparted on your live Arch -- install optional deps for FAT partitions and ntfs-3g) shrink the ntfs partition, move it to the right and expand the ESP. If you want to do this via terminal commands that's going to be a bit more involved as you need to take care you do things in the proper order (shrink filesystems then partitions, move partitions, expand partition, expand filesystem)