I want to install endeavouros but 2 gbs is just too much for a dual boot between eos and windows(i think). I use systemd with latest kernel, latest kernel fallback, lts kernel, lts kernel fallback(basically 4 kernels, and im not intending to keep old kernels). What is the recommended storage for efi boot partition? Thx u guys so much!
The recommended size for the /efi is 2 gb. Do you really need that space somewhere else?
Arch’s own wiki recommends 1 gb, is 2 gb all that more unreasonable?
Tbh, I do leave the EFI partition at the EOS-recommended size of 2 GB, even on small devices like a notebook with only 64 GB NVME or MMC.
It seems unnecessary
# df -h /efi
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/nvme0n1p1 2,0G 111M 1,9G 6% /efi
but EOS store a lot of things and the initrds in the EFI partition that would be in /boot on other distros:
# tree /efi
/efi
├── e42b60dc716a4889a9c9cd478a72e159
│ └── 6.16.2-arch1-1
│ ├── initrd
│ ├── initrd-fallback
│ └── linux
├── EFI
│ ├── BOOT
│ │ └── BOOTX64.EFI
│ ├── Linux
│ ├── memtest86+
│ │ └── memtest.efi
│ └── systemd
│ ├── fw
│ ├── fwupdx64.efi
│ └── systemd-bootx64.efi
└── loader
├── entries
│ ├── e42b60dc716a4889a9c9cd478a72e159-6.16.2-arch1-1.conf
│ ├── e42b60dc716a4889a9c9cd478a72e159-6.16.2-arch1-1-fallback.conf
│ └── memtest86+.conf
├── entries.srel
├── keys
├── loader.conf
└── random-seed
12 directories, 13 files
and I once ran into a situation in which a smaller EFI partition (created by another OS) got filled up, and I had to boot a live ISO, resize and shift around partitions, create a new EFI partition and reinstall all that was supposed to go there. Hours wasted.
Since then I decided for me it’s better to waste 2 GB than hours of work (potentially). Better safe than sorry…
It’s not a must, though. You could get by with less, but I’m thinking the EOS devs recommended 2 GB for a reason.
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The recommended storage is 2 GiB. The size of the initrds really vary depending on what software and drivers you have installed. I can fit 4 initrds in 400MB but others are over 1GB. Especially nvidia users. The nvidia drivers are huge.
If you use grub, you can use a much smaller partition or even re-use you existing Windows ESP.
That is maybe the smallest I have ever seen with systemd-boot. That is definitely not a typical size.
I was wondering myself! It’s from my Thinkpad T14 Gen 1, using EOS/Cinnamon and the Intel graphics. Really pretty tight!
And I even have an additional memtest on it.
Maybe we should start a new thread “Show your ESP size!” 
My Medion E2228T has:
# df -h /efi
Dateisystem Größe Benutzt Verf. Verw% Eingehängt auf
/dev/mmcblk0p1 2,0G 108M 1,9G 6% /efi
@Pthang0411: This is in no way representative!
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Hello @Moonbase59 ,
looks different here, too:
$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
nvme0n1 259:0 0 1,8T 0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 1G 0 part /boot/efi
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 1,8T 0 part
│ └─luks-60a7f694-b49c-4d53-87a1-89caed4c64e9 253:1 0 1,8T 0 crypt /var/log
│ /var/cache
│ /home
│ /
└─nvme0n1p3 259:3 0 8,8G 0 part
└─luks-6769f9b4-be42-4040-be8c-e95e0850f382 253:0 0 8,8G 0 crypt [SWAP]
So, there is no /efi but a /boot/efi. And there is not a lot in there:
$ sudo du -sh /boot/
[sudo] Passwort für photor:
111M /boot/
$ sudo ls -l /boot/
insgesamt 96920
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 184320 8. Aug 15:06 amd-ucode.img
drwxr-x--- 3 root root 4096 1. Jan 1970 efi
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 112 22. Aug 20:00 grub
-rw------- 1 root root 52022452 22. Aug 15:51 initramfs-linux-fallback.img
-rw------- 1 root root 31107164 22. Aug 15:51 initramfs-linux.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15921664 22. Aug 15:50 vmlinuz-linux
$ sudo du -sh /boot/efi/
728K /boot/efi/
sudo tree /boot/efi/
/boot/efi/
└── EFI
├── boot
│ └── bootx64.efi
└── endeavouros
└── grubx64.efi
4 directories, 2 files
I was always wondering, why consider 2GB for this. And the layout looks different in general (/boot/efi and not /efi).
This Endeavour OS installation is about a year old on a new Laptop. I used the EOS Installer and the disk was fully partitioned as the installer suggested; the filesystem is BtrFS. I followed the instructions of the installer.
As the machine runs fine, I would not change anything, but why the difference? I just would like to know.
Ciao,
Photor
You’re using GRUB, which places files into /boot (on your LUKS partition), unlike systemd-boot.
Haven’t used LUKS for a while, how does it manage to decrypt the files in /boot in early boot stage? Do you enter the password that early, or is it stored somewhere? [asking out of interest]
You are using grub so your ESP needs very little space.
grub itself is capable of decrypting the partition. However, it does it without the benefit of hardware acceleration so it is slow to decrypt.
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Ah, interesting, thanks for explaining!
nice practical experience tho, thats helpful. Thx yall for helping me!
Hello
Thank you all for helping.
As @dalto says, Grub handles the decryption of the partition - with 2 small things to keep in mind:
- no locale is set; so your password should not contain letters that are hard to type in US-layout!
- no video settings are made; so, with my new laptop’s display resolution it is hard to read, what Grub exactly wants from you
but this usually does not change for later boots
Ciao,
Photor
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