/boot/efi vs /efi ... location, location, location?

I’ve noticed something about how EndeavourOS has installed itself that’s puzzling me…

Background: I’ve installed EOS-i3wm on 4 different hardware platforms:

1 - Dell Optiplex model 7010
2 - iMac (c. 2019)
3 - MacBookPro laptop (c. 2011)
4 - MacMini (c. 2011) << installed twice most recently, having overcome some obstacles :wink:

What’s puzzling me is this:

The EOS ISO installed my chosen kernels into /boot in the case of #1, #2, and #3 above. But into some weird subdirectory located within /efi in the case of #4.

Related to this: why is the ESP (EFI boot up) written into fstab such that it’s mounted into /boot/efi in #1, #2, and #3 - but into /efi in the case of #4?

I’m not sure I should care. Except I noticed this after trying to tweak my grub config in #4 to use the last run kernel (i.e., “saved”) following the same procedures that worked for my other installations - but it fails to be effective in #4.

That got me exploring into the fstab (where I successfully mount partitions of an external drive for timeshift and vorta use - which both work perfectly). But within fstab I see that EOS set up #4 such that the EFI mounts directly into /efi while the EFI is mounted into /boot/efi in #1, #2 and #3.

Of course this observation may have nothing to do with it. But it’s also curious to me that EOS would install my various selected kernels in the case of #4 into a slew of directories not seen in the other hardware installs …
/efi/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/6.6.40-l-lts/ and /efi/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/6.9.10-arch1-1 and /efi/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/6.9.10-zen1-1-zen/
… (where x = i.e., some long alpha-numeric-named directory).

Meanwhile, in #1, #2 and #3 all kernels are all found directly in the /boot directory

Most likely some choice I made upon installation but that’s what I can’t understand. Any idea as to why this difference might be? :man_shrugging:

It is because when you choose systemd-boot, it is mounted to /efi and that is where the kernels go.

When you choose grub, it uses /boot/efi and puts the kernels in /boot

2 Likes

Aha! I thought I’d chosen the same install options for each … apparently not.
Will go back and reinstall #4 for hoots and learn as I go. Many thanks! :vulcan_salute:

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 2 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.