[SOLVED] /boot is full

Deadagent · 2025-09-19 21:00:49

I was updating my system when I suddenly saw this:

 ==> Generating module dependencies 
==> Creating zstd-compressed initcpio image: '/boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img' cat: kirjoitusvirhe: Laitteella ei ole tilaa jäljellä 
bsdtar: Write error 
bsdtar: Write error 
==> ERROR: Early uncompressed CPIO image generation FAILED: 'sort' reported an error 
virhe: komento päättyi virheeseen 
(13/14) Reloading system bus configuration... 
(14/14) Updating the desktop file MIME type cache...

My system is in finnish but those 2 bits just say "write error: the device has no space left" and "error: the command ended in an error".
Regardless I checked gnome-disks and sure enough, the 213 Mb /boot partition is full.
Rebooting after this shows this on every bootup

[     0.330587]  Initramfs unpacking failed: ZSTD-compressed data is truncated
Segmentation fault
Segmentation fault
Segmentation fault
Segmentation fault
/dev/sda2: clean, 383109/14639104 files, 18666770/58555030 blocks
Segmentation fault
Segmentation fault

What steps do I need to take to fix this?
Can I use something to adjust the partition size to prevent this from happening again?
Or is it just better to do a full reinstall?

Last edited by Deadagent (2025-09-20 21:06:42)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2025-09-19 21:40:23

Please use code tags rather than quote tags when posting terminal output. Prepend commands with `LC_ALL=C` to make them speak English.

Why do you have a separate /boot/ partition? It would be easier to have /boot/ on the main root partition unless you have a specific reason not to.

What is actually taking up the space? Can we see the output of

tree -h /boot

https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/tree/

Deadagent wrote:

full reinstall

That will not be needed. This isn't Windows.

seth · 2025-09-19 21:43:50

Boot the install iso, mount the root partition into /mnt, the boot partition into /mnt/boot, post

lsblk -f | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

then arch-chroot /mnt, edit /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset, comment the fallback_image entry, then re-install the kernel.

213MB isn't much these days, some firmware files might bloat the initramfs so much that you're running out of space.
You can either put less stuff (the fallback image) there, move the boot to the root partition (if the current boor partition is the ESP, that's not required) or repartition the disk, but if there's no free/expendable space right to the boot partition, that's gonna be tedious.

Edit: more ninjas on the board tonight…

Last edited by seth (2025-09-19 21:44:31)

Deadagent · 2025-09-19 22:59:28

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Please use code tags rather than quote tags when posting terminal output. Prepend commands with `LC_ALL=C` to make them speak English.

I edited to code tags on the original post. Wasn't sure so originally I used the quote.
As for prepending the command, I couldn't replicate the error again. Though I guess it can be replicated with something else that isn't just "pacman -Syu"

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Why do you have a separate /boot/ partition? It would be easier to have /boot/ on the main root partition unless you have a specific reason not to.

It was the default on setup archinstall iirc.

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

What is actually taking up the space? Can we see the output of
tree -h /boot
https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/tree/

Sure

[1.0K]  /boot
├── [ 512]  grub
│   ├── [ 512]  fonts
│   │   └── [2.3M]  unicode.pf2
│   ├── [5.3K]  grub.cfg
│   ├── [1.0K]  grubenv
│   ├── [ 20K]  i386-pc
│   │   ├── [ 10K]  acpi.mod
│   │   ├── [1.2K]  adler32.mod
│   │   ├── [5.5K]  affs.mod
│   │   ├── [5.9K]  afs.mod
│   │   ├── [1.5K]  afsplitter.mod
│   │   ├── [ 15K]  ahci.mod
│   │   ├── [ 492]  all_video.mod
│   │   ├── [ 956]  aout.mod
│   │   ├── [2.9K]  archelp.mod
│   │   ├── [5.4K]  ata.mod
│   │   ├── [4.0K]  at_keyboard.mod
│   │   ├── [1.5K]  backtrace.mod
│   │   ├── [6.6K]  bfs.mod
│   │   ├── [4.5K]  biosdisk.mod
│   │   ├── [2.1K]  bitmap.mod
│   │   ├── [3.5K]  bitmap_scale.mod
│   │   ├── [2.0K]  blocklist.mod
│   │   ├── [ 512]  boot.img
│   │   ├── [2.6K]  boot.mod
│   │   ├── [1.2K]  boottime.mod
│   │   ├── [ 30K]  bsd.mod
│   │   ├── [2.2K]  bswap_test.mod
│   │   ├── [ 19K]  btrfs.mod
│   │   ├── [2.0K]  bufio.mod
│   │   ├── [1.4K]  cacheinfo.mod
│   │   ├── [2.8K]  cat.mod
│   │   ├── [3.8K]  cbfs.mod
│   │   ├── [3.3K]  cbls.mod
│   │   ├── [2.4K]  cbmemc.mod
│   │   ├── [1.0K]  cbtable.mod
│   │   ├── [2.7K]  cbtime.mod
│   │   ├── [3.3K]  chain.mod
│   │   ├── [2.9K]  cmdline_cat_test.mod
│   │   ├── [1.1K]  cmosdump.mod
│   │   ├── [1.8K]  cmostest.mod
│   │   ├── [2.2K]  cmp.mod
│   │   ├── [4.5K]  cmp_test.mod
│   │   ├── [3.8K]  command.lst
│   │   ├── [2.2K]  configfile.mod
│   │   ├── [ 29K]  core.img
│   │   ├── [2.6K]  cpio_be.mod
│   │   ├── [2.6K]  cpio.mod
│   │   ├── [1.6K]  cpuid.mod
│   │   ├── [1.5K]  crc64.mod
│   │   ├── [ 14K]  cryptodisk.mod
│   │   ├── [ 936]  crypto.lst
│   │   ├── [4.8K]  crypto.mod
│   │   ├── [3.5K]  cs5536.mod
│   │   ├── [1.6K]  ctz_test.mod
│   │   ├── [1.7K]  datehook.mod
│   │   ├── [2.1K]  date.mod
│   │   ├── [2.1K]  datetime.mod
│   │   ├── [9.6K]  diskfilter.mod
│   │   ├── [2.2K]  disk.mod
│   │   ├── [ 956]  div.mod
│   │   ├── [5.4K]  div_test.mod
│   │   ├── [1.7K]  dm_nv.mod
│   │   ├── [5.2K]  drivemap.mod
│   │   ├── [1.9K]  echo.mod
│   │   ├── [7.5K]  efiemu32.o
│   │   ├── [ 11K]  efiemu64.o
│   │   ├── [ 23K]  efiemu.mod
│   │   ├── [ 16K]  ehci.mod
│   │   ├── [5.6K]  elf.mod
│   │   ├── [1.3K]  eval.mod
│   │   ├── [5.7K]  exfat.mod
│   │   ├── [1.3K]  exfctest.mod
│   │   ├── [5.9K]  ext2.mod
│   │   ├── [4.5K]  extcmd.mod
│   │   ├── [6.3K]  f2fs.mod
│   │   ├── [5.9K]  fat.mod
│   │   ├── [ 17K]  file.mod
│   │   ├── [ 13K]  font.mod
│   │   ├── [2.6K]  freedos.mod
│   │   ├── [2.9K]  fshelp.mod
│   │   ├── [ 219]  fs.lst
│   │   ├── [ 33K]  functional_test.mod
│   │   ├── [1.5K]  gcry_arcfour.mod
│   │   ├── [7.8K]  gcry_blowfish.mod
│   │   ├── [ 33K]  gcry_camellia.mod
│   │   ├── [ 16K]  gcry_cast5.mod
│   │   ├── [ 10K]  gcry_crc.mod
│   │   ├── [ 19K]  gcry_des.mod
│   │   ├── [2.1K]  gcry_dsa.mod
│   │   ├── [2.8K]  gcry_idea.mod
│   │   ├── [3.0K]  gcry_md4.mod
│   │   ├── [3.6K]  gcry_md5.mod
│   │   ├── [2.3K]  gcry_rfc2268.mod
│   │   ├── [ 19K]  gcry_rijndael.mod
│   │   ├── [8.1K]  gcry_rmd160.mod
│   │   ├── [1.9K]  gcry_rsa.mod
│   │   ├── [ 14K]  gcry_seed.mod
│   │   ├── [ 17K]  gcry_serpent.mod
│   │   ├── [8.4K]  gcry_sha1.mod
│   │   ├── [4.3K]  gcry_sha256.mod
│   │   ├── [7.7K]  gcry_sha512.mod
│   │   ├── [ 12K]  gcry_tiger.mod
│   │   ├── [ 36K]  gcry_twofish.mod
│   │   ├── [ 24K]  gcry_whirlpool.mod
│   │   ├── [ 25K]  gdb.mod
│   │   ├── [5.4K]  geli.mod
│   │   ├── [4.7K]  gettext.mod
│   │   ├── [ 38K]  gfxmenu.mod
│   │   ├── [2.7K]  gfxterm_background.mod
│   │   ├── [4.8K]  gfxterm_menu.mod
│   │   ├── [9.7K]  gfxterm.mod
│   │   ├── [3.6K]  gptsync.mod
│   │   ├── [8.5K]  gzio.mod
│   │   ├── [4.5K]  halt.mod
│   │   ├── [5.0K]  hashsum.mod
│   │   ├── [6.4K]  hdparm.mod
│   │   ├── [1.1K]  hello.mod
│   │   ├── [2.5K]  help.mod
│   │   ├── [3.0K]  hexdump.mod
│   │   ├── [6.8K]  hfs.mod
│   │   ├── [2.9K]  hfspluscomp.mod
│   │   ├── [7.9K]  hfsplus.mod
│   │   ├── [5.6K]  http.mod
│   │   ├── [2.7K]  iorw.mod
│   │   ├── [8.9K]  iso9660.mod
│   │   ├── [6.0K]  jfs.mod
│   │   ├── [7.5K]  jpeg.mod
│   │   ├── [4.1K]  json.mod
│   │   ├── [4.9K]  keylayouts.mod
│   │   ├── [1.8K]  keystatus.mod
│   │   ├── [6.1K]  ldm.mod
│   │   ├── [ 29K]  legacycfg.mod
│   │   ├── [ 14K]  legacy_password_test.mod
│   │   ├── [5.4K]  linux16.mod
│   │   ├── [ 13K]  linux.mod
│   │   ├── [5.6K]  loadenv.mod
│   │   ├── [3.0K]  loopback.mod
│   │   ├── [4.6K]  lsacpi.mod
│   │   ├── [2.2K]  lsapm.mod
│   │   ├── [1.8K]  lsmmap.mod
│   │   ├── [3.8K]  ls.mod
│   │   ├── [4.7K]  lspci.mod
│   │   ├── [ 14K]  luks2.mod
│   │   ├── [3.8K]  luks.mod
│   │   ├── [8.3K]  lvm.mod
│   │   ├── [4.6K]  lzopio.mod
│   │   ├── [3.1K]  macbless.mod
│   │   ├── [7.2K]  macho.mod
│   │   ├── [2.0K]  mda_text.mod
│   │   ├── [1.9K]  mdraid09_be.mod
│   │   ├── [2.1K]  mdraid09.mod
│   │   ├── [1.8K]  mdraid1x.mod
│   │   ├── [1.9K]  memdisk.mod
│   │   ├── [2.7K]  memrw.mod
│   │   ├── [3.4K]  minicmd.mod
│   │   ├── [3.8K]  minix2_be.mod
│   │   ├── [3.6K]  minix2.mod
│   │   ├── [3.7K]  minix3_be.mod
│   │   ├── [3.6K]  minix3.mod
│   │   ├── [3.6K]  minix_be.mod
│   │   ├── [3.5K]  minix.mod
│   │   ├── [8.3K]  mmap.mod
│   │   ├── [5.6K]  moddep.lst
│   │   ├── [2.5K]  modinfo.sh
│   │   ├── [2.3K]  morse.mod
│   │   ├── [ 27K]  mpi.mod
│   │   ├── [2.3K]  msdospart.mod
│   │   ├── [1.9K]  mul_test.mod
│   │   ├── [ 16K]  multiboot2.mod
│   │   ├── [ 15K]  multiboot.mod
│   │   ├── [4.1K]  nativedisk.mod
│   │   ├── [ 50K]  net.mod
│   │   ├── [2.7K]  newc.mod
│   │   ├── [6.6K]  nilfs2.mod
│   │   ├── [112K]  normal.mod
│   │   ├── [4.2K]  ntfscomp.mod
│   │   ├── [ 10K]  ntfs.mod
│   │   ├── [2.4K]  ntldr.mod
│   │   ├── [2.6K]  odc.mod
│   │   ├── [1.4K]  offsetio.mod
│   │   ├── [ 10K]  ohci.mod
│   │   ├── [1.6K]  part_acorn.mod
│   │   ├── [1.8K]  part_amiga.mod
│   │   ├── [2.0K]  part_apple.mod
│   │   ├── [2.6K]  part_bsd.mod
│   │   ├── [1.7K]  part_dfly.mod
│   │   ├── [1.4K]  part_dvh.mod
│   │   ├── [2.2K]  part_gpt.mod
│   │   ├── [ 111]  partmap.lst
│   │   ├── [2.2K]  part_msdos.mod
│   │   ├── [1.7K]  part_plan.mod
│   │   ├── [1.4K]  part_sun.mod
│   │   ├── [1.6K]  part_sunpc.mod
│   │   ├── [  17]  parttool.lst
│   │   ├── [4.5K]  parttool.mod
│   │   ├── [1.8K]  password.mod
│   │   ├── [2.7K]  password_pbkdf2.mod
│   │   ├── [4.7K]  pata.mod
│   │   ├── [1.3K]  pbkdf2.mod
│   │   ├── [2.1K]  pbkdf2_test.mod
│   │   ├── [2.3K]  pcidump.mod
│   │   ├── [1.3K]  pci.mod
│   │   ├── [ 11K]  pgp.mod
│   │   ├── [7.0K]  plainmount.mod
│   │   ├── [6.1K]  plan9.mod
│   │   ├── [2.4K]  play.mod
│   │   ├── [7.8K]  png.mod
│   │   ├── [1.5K]  priority_queue.mod
│   │   ├── [3.4K]  probe.mod
│   │   ├── [2.2K]  procfs.mod
│   │   ├── [2.1K]  progress.mod
│   │   ├── [2.6K]  pxechain.mod
│   │   ├── [3.6K]  pxe.mod
│   │   ├── [1.3K]  raid5rec.mod
│   │   ├── [2.2K]  raid6rec.mod
│   │   ├── [3.6K]  random.mod
│   │   ├── [1.8K]  rdmsr.mod
│   │   ├── [1.6K]  read.mod
│   │   ├── [1.6K]  reboot.mod
│   │   ├── [ 50K]  regexp.mod
│   │   ├── [8.5K]  reiserfs.mod
│   │   ├── [ 15K]  relocator.mod
│   │   ├── [4.0K]  romfs.mod
│   │   ├── [4.5K]  scsi.mod
│   │   ├── [3.1K]  search_fs_file.mod
│   │   ├── [3.1K]  search_fs_uuid.mod
│   │   ├── [3.0K]  search_label.mod
│   │   ├── [3.6K]  search.mod
│   │   ├── [6.8K]  sendkey.mod
│   │   ├── [9.8K]  serial.mod
│   │   ├── [ 628]  setjmp.mod
│   │   ├── [1.6K]  setjmp_test.mod
│   │   ├── [5.1K]  setpci.mod
│   │   ├── [5.0K]  sfs.mod
│   │   ├── [2.4K]  shift_test.mod
│   │   ├── [6.2K]  signature_test.mod
│   │   ├── [2.1K]  sleep.mod
│   │   ├── [2.2K]  sleep_test.mod
│   │   ├── [5.4K]  smbios.mod
│   │   ├── [2.0K]  spkmodem.mod
│   │   ├── [6.8K]  squash4.mod
│   │   ├── [2.1K]  strtoull_test.mod
│   │   ├── [ 17K]  syslinuxcfg.mod
│   │   ├── [3.1K]  tar.mod
│   │   ├── [ 202]  terminal.lst
│   │   ├── [4.3K]  terminal.mod
│   │   ├── [ 12K]  terminfo.mod
│   │   ├── [1.2K]  test_blockarg.mod
│   │   ├── [2.7K]  testload.mod
│   │   ├── [4.9K]  test.mod
│   │   ├── [2.2K]  testspeed.mod
│   │   ├── [4.9K]  tftp.mod
│   │   ├── [4.5K]  tga.mod
│   │   ├── [1.4K]  time.mod
│   │   ├── [1.6K]  trig.mod
│   │   ├── [2.3K]  tr.mod
│   │   ├── [3.5K]  truecrypt.mod
│   │   ├── [1.1K]  true.mod
│   │   ├── [8.5K]  udf.mod
│   │   ├── [5.5K]  ufs1_be.mod
│   │   ├── [5.1K]  ufs1.mod
│   │   ├── [5.2K]  ufs2.mod
│   │   ├── [6.4K]  uhci.mod
│   │   ├── [3.7K]  usb_keyboard.mod
│   │   ├── [ 12K]  usb.mod
│   │   ├── [6.9K]  usbms.mod
│   │   ├── [1.9K]  usbserial_common.mod
│   │   ├── [2.2K]  usbserial_ftdi.mod
│   │   ├── [2.6K]  usbserial_pl2303.mod
│   │   ├── [1.4K]  usbserial_usbdebug.mod
│   │   ├── [3.5K]  usbtest.mod
│   │   ├── [9.5K]  vbe.mod
│   │   ├── [4.8K]  vga.mod
│   │   ├── [2.1K]  vga_text.mod
│   │   ├── [5.5K]  video_bochs.mod
│   │   ├── [5.9K]  video_cirrus.mod
│   │   ├── [5.4K]  video_colors.mod
│   │   ├── [ 20K]  video_fb.mod
│   │   ├── [3.9K]  videoinfo.mod
│   │   ├── [  33]  video.lst
│   │   ├── [5.8K]  video.mod
│   │   ├── [2.2K]  videotest_checksum.mod
│   │   ├── [4.1K]  videotest.mod
│   │   ├── [1.4K]  wrmsr.mod
│   │   ├── [7.8K]  xfs.mod
│   │   ├── [ 27K]  xnu.mod
│   │   ├── [2.0K]  xnu_uuid.mod
│   │   ├── [1.9K]  xnu_uuid_test.mod
│   │   ├── [ 15K]  xzio.mod
│   │   ├── [5.3K]  zfscrypt.mod
│   │   ├── [6.3K]  zfsinfo.mod
│   │   ├── [ 39K]  zfs.mod
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│   ├── [3.0K]  locale
│   │   ├── [124K]  ast.mo
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│       └── [3.0K]  starfield
│           ├── [ 836]  blob_w.png
│           ├── [ 178]  boot_menu_c.png
│           ├── [ 193]  boot_menu_e.png
│           ├── [ 193]  boot_menu_ne.png
│           ├── [ 103]  boot_menu_n.png
│           ├── [ 184]  boot_menu_nw.png
│           ├── [ 198]  boot_menu_se.png
│           ├── [ 102]  boot_menu_s.png
│           ├── [ 196]  boot_menu_sw.png
│           ├── [  96]  boot_menu_w.png
│           ├── [ 19K]  COPYING.CC-BY-SA-3.0
│           ├── [150K]  dejavu_10.pf2
│           ├── [165K]  dejavu_12.pf2
│           ├── [181K]  dejavu_14.pf2
│           ├── [199K]  dejavu_16.pf2
│           ├── [189K]  dejavu_bold_14.pf2
│           ├── [1.2K]  README
│           ├── [ 197]  slider_c.png
│           ├── [ 265]  slider_n.png
│           ├── [ 269]  slider_s.png
│           ├── [1.8M]  starfield.png
│           ├── [ 178]  terminal_box_c.png
│           ├── [  94]  terminal_box_e.png
│           ├── [ 128]  terminal_box_ne.png
│           ├── [ 194]  terminal_box_n.png
│           ├── [ 210]  terminal_box_nw.png
│           ├── [ 126]  terminal_box_se.png
│           ├── [ 101]  terminal_box_s.png
│           ├── [ 123]  terminal_box_sw.png
│           ├── [  97]  terminal_box_w.png
│           └── [2.2K]  theme.txt
├── [145M]  initramfs-linux-fallback.img
├── [ 15M]  initramfs-linux.img
├── [ 13M]  intel-ucode.img
└── [ 15M]  vmlinuz-linux

7 directories, 369 files

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Deadagent wrote:
full reinstall
That will not be needed. This isn't Windows.

Amen to that.
Though my thinking on that is sometimes that is the path of least resistance.
But I am asking in the hopes that I won't have to.

seth wrote:

Boot the install iso, mount the root partition into /mnt, the boot partition into /mnt/boot, post
lsblk -f | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st
then arch-chroot /mnt, edit /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset, comment the fallback_image entry, then re-install the kernel.
213MB isn't much these days, some firmware files might bloat the initramfs so much that you're running out of space.
You can either put less stuff (the fallback image) there, move the boot to the root partition (if the current boor partition is the ESP, that's not required) or repartition the disk, but if there's no free/expendable space right to the boot partition, that's gonna be tedious.

Some of this went a bit over my head here.
To clarify, boot install iso. Mount root and boot.
Run

lsblk -f | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

comment away a part of /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset that says "fallback_image", and then re-install kernel with "pacman -Syu linux"?
I'm sorry if this sounds stupid.

Last edited by Deadagent (2025-09-19 23:40:34)

twelveeighty · 2025-09-20 00:22:22

Deadagent wrote:

the 213 Mb /boot partition is full.

├── [145M]  initramfs-linux-fallback.img
├── [ 15M]  initramfs-linux.img
├── [ 13M]  intel-ucode.img
└── [ 15M]  vmlinuz-linux

Minimum for /boot is 1GiB and recommend is 4 GiB - see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Partitioning#/boot

To fix this, I would reinstall since you need to resize your /boot partition, which can be tricky and could take more time than simply backing up your data files (which you have to do anyway before you resize partitions) and reinstalling.

Scimmia · 2025-09-20 00:32:55

twelveeighty wrote:

Deadagent wrote:
the 213 Mb /boot partition is full.
├── [145M]  initramfs-linux-fallback.img
├── [ 15M]  initramfs-linux.img
├── [ 13M]  intel-ucode.img
└── [ 15M]  vmlinuz-linux
Minimum for /boot is 1GiB and recommend is 4 GiB - see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Partitioning#/boot
To fix this, I would reinstall since you need to resize your /boot partition, which can be tricky and could take more time than simply backing up your data files (which you have to do anyway before you resize partitions) and reinstalling.

That is not at all true, it all depends on what you want to do with it. Even your link doesn't say what you say it does.

seth · 2025-09-20 07:27:54

To clarify, boot install iso. Mount root and boot.
Run
lsblk -f | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st
comment away a part of /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset that says "fallback_image", and then re-install kernel with "pacman -Syu linux"?

"pacman -S linux" will do (assuming you've still the latest package in the cache)
nb. that w/o the fallback image you won't have a fallback image
Make sure to maintain access so some live system at all times (can be the install iso, can be grml etc) - which is generally a good idea w/ only one kernel present.

lsblk -f | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

will get you a url to share
In what context did you run the tree command? Chrooted into the installed system? Or does the installed system actually still boot?
(In the latter case you can skip chrooting from the install iso and just comment the fallback entry and re-install the kernel)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2025-09-20 08:11:23

Deadagent wrote:

It was the default on setup archinstall iirc.

Yes, I suspected as much. The braindead defaults for that application have started quite a few threads here now. If you use the "Report" button on your first post to request this thread be moved to the archinstall section that might help make Torxed aware of the chaos they are causing...

Anyway, you're using GRUB so I would recommend moving /boot/ to the main root partition with the ESP mounted under /efi/ instead. Post back if you need more help with this process.

Deadagent · 2025-09-20 09:27:10

seth wrote:

lsblk -f | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st
will get you a url to share

Ah, ok I get it now. In that case http://0x0.st/KTIX.txt

seth wrote:

In what context did you run the tree command? Chrooted into the installed system? Or does the installed system actually still boot?
(In the latter case you can skip chrooting from the install iso and just comment the fallback entry and re-install the kernel)

The system does boot, I guess I wasn't clear on that, sorry.

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Yes, I suspected as much. The braindead defaults for that application have started quite a few threads here now. If you use the "Report" button on your first post to request this thread be moved to the archinstall section that might help make Torxed aware of the chaos they are causing...
Anyway, you're using GRUB so I would recommend moving /boot/ to the main root partition with the ESP mounted under /efi/ instead. Post back if you need more help with this process.

Does the process involve more that using "mv" with sudo?
Is this doable while the system is running?
Does it work from ext4? I'm asking because of what you can see from the link earlier.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2025-09-20 09:49:32

Deadagent wrote:

Does the process involve more that using "mv" with sudo?

Using `mv` is a bit tricky because you would need to first un-mount the EFI system partition to expose /boot/ on the root partition then re-mount it somewhere else to move the contents.

Deadagent wrote:

Is this doable while the system is running?

Yes.

First delete the /boot/ line in /etc/fstab and everything on the ESP to free up the space then `umount /boot` and reinstall the kernel & grub packages to place the kernel & initramfs images on the root partition and create /boot/grub/ there.

Then create /efi/ and run your grub-install command with the --efi-directory=/efi option added and re-generate or modify /boot/grub/grub.cfg to reflect the new configuration.

I'm not sure about your themes though, I've always preferred GRUB's vanilla styling. Just re-apply whatever steps you took to apply your themes.

V1del · 2025-09-20 10:00:32

Moving to the Guided Installer subsection, by request

Head_on_a_Stick · 2025-09-20 11:03:00

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Then create /efi/ and run your grub-install command with the --efi-directory=/efi option added and re-generate or modify /boot/grub/grub.cfg to reflect the new configuration.

Apologies OP, I forgot to tell you to mount the ESP under /efi/ before running grub-install & grub-mkconfig. Oops.

Easily fixed from the live environment though, as I hope you will figure out...

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/efi
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/efi
arch-chroot /mnt
grub-install [...] --efi-directory=/efi
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
exit
reboot

Deadagent · 2025-09-20 11:50:38

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:
Then create /efi/ and run your grub-install command with the --efi-directory=/efi option added and re-generate or modify /boot/grub/grub.cfg to reflect the new configuration.
Apologies OP, I forgot to tell you to mount the ESP under /efi/ before running grub-install & grub-mkconfig. Oops.
Easily fixed from the live environment though, as I hope you will figure out...
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/efi
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/efi
arch-chroot /mnt
grub-install [...] --efi-directory=/efi
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
exit
reboot

Oh no worries, I haven't even gotten started yet because I'm trying to understand your instructions.
I know it's a hassle but can you give me step by step which commands to run?
I understood deleting the line from fstab but got a bit lost after that.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2025-09-20 12:05:02

Spoon-feeding isn't really consistent with the Arch Way but I will make an exception here, starting with fstab cleared and the ESP still mounted under /boot/, run all commands as root:

rm -r /boot/*
umount /boot
pacman -Syu linux grub
mkdir -p /efi
mount /dev/sda2 /efi
genfstab -U / | grep '/efi ' >> /etc/fstab # check /etc/fstab afterwards!
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/efi --bootloader-id=arch --recheck
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
reboot

seth · 2025-09-20 14:16:01

mount /dev/sda2 /efi

Caveat emptor: There're currently not efi's in the /boot partition which is sda1 tbw and might be a BIOS installation?
@Deadagent, have you atttempted any of this and is the system still booting?

Deadagent · 2025-09-20 14:21:59

seth wrote:

mount /dev/sda2 /efi
Caveat emptor: There're currently not efi's in the /boot partition which is sda1 tbw and might be a BIOS installation?
@Deadagent, have you atttempted any of this and is the system still booting?

Yeah so I ran into an issue where grub-install says

error: /efi dosen't look like an EFI partition.

I assume your post is related.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2025-09-20 14:25:59

Well spotted seth, the OP does indeed seem to be using non-UEFI:

Deadagent wrote:

│   ├── [ 20K]  i386-pc

The grub-install command should error out with the x86_64-efi target if the system is booted in non-UEFI mode.

This illustrates another reason why spoon-feeding is a bad idea

For a non-UEFI system the OP should follow https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#Installation_2 and not bother with /efi/ at all.

EDIT: crossposted with above.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2025-09-20 14:26:26)

Deadagent · 2025-09-20 14:49:22

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Well spotted seth, the OP does indeed seem to be using non-UEFI:
Deadagent wrote:
│   ├── [ 20K]  i386-pc
The grub-install command should error out with the x86_64-efi target if the system is booted in non-UEFI mode.
This illustrates another reason why spoon-feeding is a bad idea
For a non-UEFI system the OP should follow https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#Installation_2 and not bother with /efi/ at all.
EDIT: crossposted with above.

Right, well since I got through some of that, I guess I should walk back some of it as well.
Do I remount /boot ?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2025-09-20 14:57:03

My suggested commands should still work fine once the grub-install line is adjusted but there's no need to create /efi/, mount /dev/sda1, or run genfstab.

The only caveat I can think of would be for encryption. If you share the archinstall log we can check the full configuration. I should have asked for that earlier, it would have helped me avoid the silly mistake.

Deadagent · 2025-09-20 15:14:14

Well I already created /efi and ran genfstab, so is it still fine to just change the target?
Also does the log still matter?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2025-09-20 15:18:21

Just remove the added fstab line to prevent /dev/sda2 being mounted under /efi/ every boot. That won't do any harm but it isn't needed.

I suppose the log doesn't matter if you're sure there is no encryption.

@Torxed: why does your install script create a separate /boot/ partition for a non-UEFI system? Seems like a bug to me.

seth · 2025-09-20 15:19:34

Make sure nothing's mounted into /efi and update the fstab.
Then remove the /efi mountpoint for good measure.

Do you actually want to move boot to the root partition?
I'd frankly install linux-lts next to linux, skip the fallback images for either, put one of them into the pacman Ignore list and only manually update it explicitly after verifying that the last kernel udpate didn't cause any troubles.
This provides more redundancy and reliability and requires less space than a single kernel + fallback image.

Deadagent · 2025-09-20 15:41:01

seth wrote:

Make sure nothing's mounted into /efi and update the fstab.
Then remove the /efi mountpoint for good measure.

I removed the line from fstab and unmounted /efi

Do you actually want to move boot to the root partition?

Yes, the root paritition has over 100gb free, and this is an old laptop mostly for tinkering.

Edit: grub-install is complaining about multiple install devices.

Last edited by Deadagent (2025-09-20 17:09:37)

Deadagent · 2025-09-20 21:06:02

After hours of looking at the problem I realised an error in the way I wrote a few commands earlier.
Sorry for being dumber than a bag of rocks and sincerely thank you to everyone who helped.

Arch Linux

#1 2025-09-19 21:00:49

[SOLVED] /boot is full

#2 2025-09-19 21:40:23

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#3 2025-09-19 21:43:50

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#4 2025-09-19 22:59:28

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#5 2025-09-20 00:22:22

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#6 2025-09-20 00:32:55

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#7 2025-09-20 07:27:54

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#8 2025-09-20 08:11:23

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#9 2025-09-20 09:27:10

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#10 2025-09-20 09:49:32

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#11 2025-09-20 10:00:32

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#12 2025-09-20 11:03:00

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#13 2025-09-20 11:50:38

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#14 2025-09-20 12:05:02

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#15 2025-09-20 14:16:01

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#16 2025-09-20 14:21:59

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#17 2025-09-20 14:25:59

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#18 2025-09-20 14:49:22

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#19 2025-09-20 14:57:03

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#20 2025-09-20 15:14:14

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#21 2025-09-20 15:18:21

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#22 2025-09-20 15:19:34

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#23 2025-09-20 15:41:01

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

#24 2025-09-20 21:06:02

Re: [SOLVED] /boot is full

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