Arch Linux

webcapcha

Member

Registered: 2019-02-14

Posts: 162

[SOLVED] Partition scheme for systemd-boot with encryption setup

Previously I used to use pretty straightforward setup with grub and scheme like this:

/
/boot
/home

partitions. Which I mounted as /mnt, /mnt/boot, /mnt/home respectively.

Now I have to reinstall Arch and I want to go with systemd-boot and LVM on Luks encryption.

According to the wiki namely I see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/EFI_sy … unt_points mount ESP to

/efi

has some advantages. Is that correct? Or maybe outdated info?

In this case of mounting ESP to /efi should I have

/boot

partition? Or just boot directory will be enough?

On other words does this scheme look good?

/ (mounted as /dev/MyVolGroup/root)
/efi (mounted as /mnt/efi)
/home (mounted as /dev/MyVolGroup/home) Yeah I know about systemd home, but I want to have it as separate partition.

If all above is right what size of /efi partition is enough? 1GB should be more than enough?

And finally, later it is possible I will need windows in case to update UEFI on the laptop. Will the scheme above be good to have dual boot?

Last edited by webcapcha (2024-03-14 09:52:19)

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Ukrainian

gcb

Member

Registered: 2014-02-12

Posts: 211

Re: [SOLVED] Partition scheme for systemd-boot with encryption setup

i read that differently. The first option is to have the ESP/UEFI partition mounted on /boot.

and then just have a EFI dir in there.

Your comment have some typos (mounted as, instead of mounted from). I'd sleep on it and re-read the wiki in the morning honest suggestion. not trying to be snarky.

Last edited by gcb (2024-03-13 21:49:21)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,104

Re: [SOLVED] Partition scheme for systemd-boot with encryption setup

You definitely should mount your ESP to /boot as systemd-boot can't read an encrypted root partition for the kernel images you need to decrypt said root partition. If you're not going to use the ESP for /boot you MUST use a separate unencrypted /boot partition together with the XBOOTLDR GUID spec: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System … g_XBOOTLDR

Last edited by V1del (2024-03-13 22:01:49)

gcb

Member

Registered: 2014-02-12

Posts: 211

Re: [SOLVED] Partition scheme for systemd-boot with encryption setup

Oh, if you plan to dual boot, windows is a pain. I highly suggest you install it FIRST and leave unused space in the drive to install linux.

here's my dual boot setup from the one host i have windows10: I created everything in windows, including the ESP (1gb) partition.

/dev/nvme0n1p1      2048    2099199   2097152     1G EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2   2099200    2131967     32768    16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/nvme0n1p3   2131968  346833846 344701879 164.4G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p4 346834944  348243967   1409024   688M Windows recovery environment
/dev/nvme0n1p5 348243968 1000214527 651970560 310.9G Linux filesystem

Only p5 was created on linux. for the root partition. Then i just mount the p1 partition windows created for the ESP as /boot and use it as is.

Fuxino

Member

From: Slovakia

Registered: 2014-09-26

Posts: 198

Re: [SOLVED] Partition scheme for systemd-boot with encryption setup

If you're not going to use the ESP for /boot you MUST use a separate unencrypted /boot partition together with the XBOOTLDR GUID spec

You can also use UKIs, so everything you need to boot is on the unencrypted efi partition mounted at /efi

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Arch + XMonad

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