Creating new and bigger /boot partition

[Nachlese]

@Kobold

but no one explained what information was missing.

Of course not - this is YT.
Only if you are lucky you get good information.

I have not watched the video.

Do you even need a separate /boot partition?
If yes then - create a new one and replace the old with the new.

If no then just integrate it into / and be done with.

[Kobold]

@Nachlese

If no then just integrate it into / and be done with.

I use MBR, i don’t think that i need one… but in another PC Forum some people advised me to create a separate /boot Partition… and fooled me that 200MB are more than enough, this was 4 years ago before i earned experience in Linux… today i know better.

If i don’t need this Partition, how should i go from here?

1. Booting in Live Environment.

2. Just uncomment the UUID from /Boot in fstab.

3. Copy the /boot backup files into / where the boot folder in Root is located and overwrite this files again?

Then restart my system and hope everything is fine?

[Nachlese]

… not today - perhaps tomorrow
standby
or someone else explain it in the mean time …

[Kobold]

Tomorrow is fine. Thanks for now.

[Nachlese]

Why would you want to have a bigger /boot?

What is stored in /boot ?
… the kernel image and the initrd and the firmware

ls -hl /boot

to see the size of /boot partition
and mount point:
lsblk -f
mount

also: is it really a separate partition …
cat /etc fstab

~ 200 MB should be sufficient

a kernel image and it’s corresponding initrd will take up ~50MB in /boot

Rather than creating a new and bigger one
you may just clean out of there what is no longer needed
Old kernels … which are not even being used anymore
just taking up space

To me it makes no sense to create a bigger one
in order to hold/keep even more of what is not needed anymore anyway.

Yours is a bit of an XY question, isn’t it?

[Kobold]

@Nachlese

Yours is a bit of an XY question, isn’t it?

Not at all.

@Nachlese

Why would you want to have a bigger /boot?

Even a fresh install from 6.6 LTSC takes 180MB (i try to download it yesterday but the installation aborted because of no space) and the newer 6.7 Kernels extended hardcore for around 350MB, you can see it under known issues $ solutions in Stable release Topic.

@philm

Initramfs image can be bigger on 6.7 kernel due to Nvidia GSP Boot firmware

We all known that kernel 6.7 is very feature rich. One of the features is the inclusion of Nvidia’s GSP Boot firmware into Initramfs. However this will increase your image by 150 MB and the fallback image might be 240 MB in size. A way would be to remove kms from mkinitcpio.conf and redo your initramfs images. A discussion regarding that can be found at Arch Gitlab: kms hook increases the initramfs size heavily starting with 6.7 kernel (#238) · Issues · Arch Linux / Mkinitcpio / mkinitcpio · GitLab

@Nachlese

Rather than creating a new and bigger one
you may just clean out of there what is no longer needed

Not new info for me… i do this since 3,5 years for now… there is nothing left besides Kernel 6.1 now… take a look at my screenshot where i backup the /boot files… there is nothing else besides this one LTSC Kernel and it takes 130MB… only 70MB left, not enough room to switch Kernels.

@Nachlese

a kernel image and it’s corresponding initrd will take up ~50MB in /boot

This was maybe 3 years ago the case…

[Kobold]

@Nachlese

… not today - perhaps tomorrow
standby

Any advise?

[Nachlese]

@Kobold

If i don’t need this Partition, how should i go from here?

1. Booting in Live Environment.
2. Just uncomment the UUID from /Boot in fstab.
3. Copy the /boot backup files into / where the boot folder in Root is located and overwrite this files again?

Then restart my system and hope everything is fine?

Not quite.
You boot the live system.
You mount the /boot partition - because you need to copy its contents to the /boot directory on the / partition

You mount the / partition (to a separate place) - so that you can access the /boot directory
This directory is empty (!) - until now it was just a mount point for your too small /boot partition

And now you copy the contents of the /boot partition to that directory.
Then you open /etc/fstab and comment out the line for your /boot partition.
It is no longer needed, it’s contents are now on the /

unmount the partitions and test by rebooting

If everything works you can delete the line in /etc/fstab - if not you can just uncomment it and all will be back to what it was.

[mrcoldboot]

What is an LTSC Kernel, isn’t that a Windows thing?

I’m using UKI images and running 6.6, 6.7, and 6.8 kernels, along with Windows Boot Manager, rEFInd, and some misc utilities, all taking up ~181 MB. Kernel and initramfs are ~45 MB with some extra stuff manually bundled in, but I’m not using the nvidia bloat.

If rolling it into your root partition doesn’t work, you can remove the fallback image and disable it’s creation in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf, which should give you enough space to update your kernel.

That fallback image is usually much larger.

[Nachlese]

@mrcoldboot

What is an LTSC Kernel

Typo, most likely - the C at the end does not belong there.
Then it is an LTS kernel (long term support).

@mrcoldboot

If rolling it into your root partition doesn’t work, you can remove the fallback image and disable it’s creation in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf, which should give you enough space to update your kernel.

I was going to suggest the same - but even as it is, 200 MB is enough for two different kernels.
It’s just a bit cumbersome when wanting to install a new one
because to do that, he has got to delete one of the existing ones first.

[mrcoldboot]

Rolling it into their rootfs is the best solution if that’s possible, but they’re right about the bloated images. I don’t normally use the fallback images but I just built one to see:

[root@manjaro-testing ~]# ls -lh /boot/initramfs-6.7-x86_64*
-rw------- 1 root root 128M Feb 25 21:14 /boot/initramfs-6.7-x86_64-fallback.img
-rw------- 1 root root  25M Feb 25 21:13 /boot/initramfs-6.7-x86_64.img

And in my EFI partition, if I skip the mkinitcpio autodetect hook, its a 150MB UKI image:

[root@manjaro-testing ~]# ls -lh /efi/EFI/Manjaro/
total 279M
-rwx------ 1 root root 148M Feb 25 21:14 manjaro-6.7-x86_64-fallback.efi
-rwx------ 1 root root  44M Feb 25 20:39 manjaro-stable.efi
-rwx------ 1 root root  45M Feb 25 21:13 manjaro-testing.efi
-rwx------ 1 root root  45M Feb 25 17:11 manjaro-unstable.efi

[Kobold]

@Nachlese

You mount the /boot partition - because you need to copy its contents to the /boot directory on the / partition

You mount the / partition (to a separate place) - so that you can access the /boot directory
This directory is empty (!) - until now it was just a mount point for your too small /boot partition

I think you probably forgot that i backup my /boot files already

@Nachlese

I was going to suggest the same - but even as it is, 200 MB is enough for two different kernels.

Maybe this is the case for EFI Boot files, but not for MBR.

[Nachlese]

@Kobold

I think you probably forgot …

… probably.
Use the backup you made then.
Either way will work.
The contents of /boot need to end up in the /boot directory on the / partition.
For that, the /boot partition cannot be mounted to /boot.

@Kobold

Maybe this is the case for EFI Boot files, but not for MBR.

Lets not argue about this - it is irrelevant for the task - and will not play a role anymore once the contents of /boot are on the / partition.

[Kobold]

@mrcoldboot

What is an LTSC Kernel, isn’t that a Windows thing?

Yeah i do this by mistake, instead LTS i called it LTSC, im cursed by Microsoft

@mrcoldboot

I’m not using the nvidia bloat.

Well i do, i have a nvidia 2080Ti maybe thats why its downloading 180MB for only the 6.6 LTS Kernel 2 days ago.

[mrcoldboot]

Yeah, @Nachlese is correct, BIOS vs. EFI isn’t really going to differ with regards to size.

That said, have you tried this yet? You may need to set the boot flag on the root partition, and unset it from the existing boot partition… it’s been a while since I’ve used legacy BIOS boot.

[Kobold]

@mrcoldboot

That said, have you tried this yet?

I just verified his information, im not flash

@mrcoldboot

ou may need to set the boot flag on the root partition, and unset it from the existing boot partition

I saw yesterday in KDE partition manager a bloot flag icon from / and /boot partition, but it wasnt marked on both partitions.

@mrcoldboot

BIOS vs. EFI isn’t really going to differ with regards to size.

Roger, i was only confused why he see a much smaller bootfiles than i do… the screenshot above, showed 100MB… you can see this on the left Dolphin Window there, only with 6.1 Kernel.

[mrcoldboot]

@Kobold

I saw yesterday in KDE partition manager a bloot flag icon from / and /boot partition, but it wasnt marked on both partitions.

Ok, grub is smart enough to work without it I believe, it will scan through your partitions and look for kernel images, so try without any boot flags.

Question… Are you using BIOS/GPT or BIOS/MBR, both are possible but BIOS/GPT requires a separate boot partition.

[Kobold]

@mrcoldboot

Question… Are you using BIOS/GPT or BIOS/MBR, both are possible but BIOS/GPT requires a separate boot partition.

Holy crap, i didnt know that BIOS/GPT isnt even possible… atleast for Windows its not, so for Linux that it works is pretty new info for me, thanks.

@Nachlese

If everything works you can delete the line in /etc/fstab - if not you can just uncomment it and all will be back to what it was.

It worked and i just installed Kernel 6.6 (logs):

The following packages will be installed:

linux66

linux66-nvidia

Starting

resolving dependencies...

looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (2) linux66-6.6.16-2 linux66-nvidia-545.29.06-36

Total Installed Size: 187,87 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n]

checking keyring...

checking package integrity...

loading package files...

checking for file conflicts...

checking available disk space...

:: Processing package changes...

installing linux66...

Optional dependencies for linux66

wireless-regdb: to set the correct wireless channels of your country [installed]

installing linux66-nvidia...

:: Running post-transaction hooks...

(1/5) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...

(2/5) Updating module dependencies...

(3/5) Updating linux initcpios...

==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux66.preset: 'default'

==> Using default configuration file: '/etc/mkinitcpio.conf'

-> -k /boot/vmlinuz-6.6-x86_64 -g /boot/initramfs-6.6-x86_64.img --microcode /boot/intel-ucode.img

==> Starting build: '6.6.16-2-MANJARO'

-> Running build hook: [base]

-> Running build hook: [udev]

-> Running build hook: [autodetect]

-> Running build hook: [modconf]

-> Running build hook: [kms]

-> Running build hook: [keyboard]

==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'xhci_pci'

-> Running build hook: [keymap]

-> Running build hook: [block]

-> Running build hook: [filesystems]

-> Running build hook: [fsck]

==> Generating module dependencies

==> Creating gzip-compressed initcpio image: '/boot/initramfs-6.6-x86_64.img'

==> Image generation successful

==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux66.preset: 'fallback'

==> Using default configuration file: '/etc/mkinitcpio.conf'

-> -k /boot/vmlinuz-6.6-x86_64 -g /boot/initramfs-6.6-x86_64-fallback.img -S autodetect --microcode /boot/intel-ucode.img

==> Starting build: '6.6.16-2-MANJARO'

-> Running build hook: [base]

-> Running build hook: [udev]

-> Running build hook: [modconf]

-> Running build hook: [kms]

==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'ast'

-> Running build hook: [keyboard]

==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'xhci_pci'

-> Running build hook: [keymap]

-> Running build hook: [block]

==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'qed'

==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'qla2xxx'

==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'qla1280'

==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'bfa'

-> Running build hook: [filesystems]

-> Running build hook: [fsck]

==> Generating module dependencies

==> Creating gzip-compressed initcpio image: '/boot/initramfs-6.6-x86_64-fallback.img'

==> Image generation successful

(4/5) Updating Kernel initcpios for Nvidia-DRM...

(5/5) Updating Grub-Bootmenu

Generating grub configuration file ...

Found theme: /usr/share/grub/themes/manjaro/theme.txt

Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.6-x86_64

Found initrd image: /boot/intel-ucode.img /boot/initramfs-6.6-x86_64.img

Found initrd fallback image: /boot/initramfs-6.6-x86_64-fallback.img

Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.1-x86_64

Found initrd image: /boot/intel-ucode.img /boot/initramfs-6.1-x86_64.img

Found initrd fallback image: /boot/initramfs-6.1-x86_64-fallback.img

Warning: os-prober will not be executed to detect other bootable partitions.

Systems on them will not be added to the GRUB boot configuration.

Check GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER documentation entry.

Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+/memtest.bin

done

Done ...

Finally no abort message because of not enough space. You see 187MB, as i said.

Now i could delete the /boot Partition?

EDIT: Problem, after restart the new Kernel 6.6 wasn’t running, I was checking Manjaro Settings manager and it still told me its installed but 6.1 is running and 6.6 only installed.

I restarted again and openend Grub and under Advanced option, i only see 6.1 Kernel x2 duplicated.

Something is wrong

[mrcoldboot]

@Kobold

Now i could delete the /boot Partition?

You should be able to. I would keep your backup of the boot partition around until you’ve deleted the old boot partition and rebooted the system successfully, just in case. And if you haven’t already, check your running kernel version with uname -r after the reboot to verify your actually running the new kernel.

[Kobold]

@mrcoldboot

check your running kernel version with uname -r after the reboot to verify your actually running the new kernel.

$ uname -r
6.1.77-2-MANJARO

@Kobold

Problem, after restart the new Kernel 6.6 wasn’t running, I was checking Manjaro Settings manager and it still told me its installed but 6.1 is running and 6.6 only installed.

I restarted again and openend Grub and under Advanced option, i only see 6.1 Kernel x2 duplicated.

Something is wrong

@Nachlese
I restarted several times now and it doesn’t made a difference if i decided to choose the upper or lower 6.1 entry… still 6.1 running and 6.6 is ignored

boot]$ ls
grub                               initramfs-6.6-x86_64-fallback.img  linux61-x86_64.kver  memtest86+
initramfs-6.1-x86_64-fallback.img  initramfs-6.6-x86_64.img           linux66-x86_64.kver  vmlinuz-6.1-x86_64
initramfs-6.1-x86_64.img           intel-ucode.img                    lost+found           vmlinuz-6.6-x86_64