Moving root directory to drive containing /boot/efi

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1

Hello. I apologize if this has already been asked. I’ve done some research into moving my Manjaro install but I can’t seem to find anything on my specific situation.

I currently have a NVMe SSD (/dev/nvme0n1) with 3 partitions:

  • A 480MB ntfs partition (/dev/nvme0n1p1)
  • A 500MB fat32 partition mounted as /boot/efi (/dev/nvme0n1p2)
  • A 930GB Windows partition (/dev/nvme0n1p3, A window install no longer being used. This is the partition I would like to wipe and move my Manjaro root directory to)

My Manjaro root directory is at /dev/sdb4 on a separate, 1TB HDD (mounted as /).

I believe my boot is set up this way because I was formerly dual-booting Windows and Manjaro with the NVMe drive.

What I think I need to do based on what I’ve read:

  1. Format the /dev/nvme0n1p3 partition to ext4 using GParted

  2. Run

sudo dd if=/dev/sdb4 of=/dev/nvme0n1p3 bs=64K conv=noerror,sync

to copy the files.

  1. Generate a UUID with uuidgen

  2. Run

sudo tune2fs /dev/nvme0n1p3 -U <uuid from uuidgen>
  1. Mount /dev/nvme0n1p3 to /mnt/new, navigate to /mnt/new/etc/fstab and change the UUID of / to this new UUID
# <file system>             <mount point>  <type>  <options>  <dump>  <pass>
UUID=5434-6658                            /boot/efi      vfat    umask=0077 0 2
UUID=<new uuid> /              ext4    defaults,noatime 0 1

Where I’m confused is, will this go smoothly with /boot/efi on the same drive? Is this the correct command to run to get grub working on the NVMe drive?

sudo grub-install /dev/nvme0n1p3

Do I need to get rid of that first partition on the NVMe drive? CAN I just get rid of it?

I just don’t want my system to be set alight.

Thanks for the help.

2

good so far

I disagree.
Why dd when you can simply copy?

Instead, format it properly to ext4
mount it somewhere
and then simply copy
using cp or rsync …
everything from the hdd to the new nvme partition

adjust /etc/fstab

then you may need to use a live system to chroot and reinstall the boot loader
but I don’t think so
since the boot loader is already installed

All that has changed is the location of the / directory.
This needs to be reflected in /etc/fstab

2 Likes
3

That’s a complicated recipe for disaster.

Why not just backup and/or keep safe your current user’s home folder and files, and then just install Manjaro fresh to the NVMe? Don’t touch your 1TB HDD.

Later, you can safely mount /home to point to your existing home directory on your 1 TB HDD. (You’ll likely have to move your old “home” directory down one “level”, since otherwise it will be “nested”.)

1 Like
4

dd is no good tool to copy files !

It will destroy the format of nvme0n1p3 and replace it with the format of sdb4. This may work only when sdb4 has exactly the same size as nvme0n1p3 (but i would not accept the risk).

Use copy, or even better, use rsync

And dont forget to correct your UEFI bootentry, ==> grub.cfg and ==> /etc/fstab ,