So, I always have the LTS kernel installed. Then whatever other kernel I want. Typically, just have the latest normal kernel available. When I upgraded to the 6.14.5 kernel, I found I didn’t have enough space to install it. My /efi partition is only 300 MB but, thus far, it’s been enough. For now, I’ve just removed the “fallback” kernels and updated dracut to not install them. That has me running with both kernels for now.
Could not find any “junk” or old kernels in /efi. I’m guessing the new kernel is just bigger. I suppose I need to consider expanding my /efi to 500 MB?
Interestingly enough, after removing the fallback kernels, I’m now only using 41% of my 300 MB /efi partition. That’s running both LTS and Latest kernel.
I know that when 6.14.5 installed, it grabbed a lot of other stuff to install so, perhaps, it was the initrds’s that grew? Resizing partitions on a system you’re using is a non-zero risk. I’ll probably just grab the latest EndeavourOS boot ISO and do the resize from there. If it borks on me, then I guess I’m installing that ISO. That would be sad because, I’ve been running EndeavourOS for years and the only time I’ve had to reinstall was because of a motherboard failure and damaged hard drive. (static discharge due to a cheap-ass remote power switch I got on Amazon…computer went down like a burnt out light bulb.)
Does anyone know why /efi is now the recommended mount point for your efi partition?
Note:
/efi is a replacement[6][7] for the historical and now discouraged ESP mountpoint /boot/efi.
The /efi directory is not available by default, you will need to first create it before mounting the ESP to it.
I just switched back to Arch not too long and only created a boot partition and have my efi under /boot/efi. I wish I would have seen this sooner!
Edit
I see it now it’s mentioned in the links of the note. Any reason to change for a system already using /boot/efi with enough space? I guess probably not? The archinstall script still places it under /boot, guess it’s all good then.
I think the size of the initrd depends upon more than just the kernel(s) installed. Also, speculation aside, when I installed both kernels with fallbacks on my system, I ran out of memory. On rare occasions, the fallback kernel has helped. So, I’d like to keep at least the LTS one.
UPDATE: Poking around the documentation this morning, that might be possible to do.
Can GRUB2 work with /efi instead of /boot/efi? Because if /boot is on its own partition and /boot/efi has to be FAT32/VFAT then it is more sensible to have /efi instead of /boot/efi
Just remember that if you place /boot on it’s own partition, you lose some of the value of choosing grub in the first place such as the ability to boot and rollback snapshots.
My EFI partition is 1GB in size. I installed a fresh EndeavourOS approx. 3 months ago.
I have the installed kernel and whatever backup kernel (if any) the install routine put there = no extra kernels and my EFI partition is currently 275.52MB used / 748.48MB free. For me that’s plenty. At this point in my Linux journey I feel no need to experiment with newer (or older) kernels.
Well, that explains why I ran out of space. My habit is mainly a throwback to the 90’s when the often cited “best practice” was to keep the last three kernels just in case there was a problem. Today, if I only install one kernel, it’s the LTS kernel. If I install any other kernel, it’s in addition to that one. Usually, for me, that means latest available kernel and LTS kernel.
As per my reading multiple kernels might be required for kernel or application developers. Or those who game on their linux boxes. For most of the average joe’s out there the latest mainline kernel as well as the LTS should suffice, i.e. max 2. And for those who would want stability, max 1, i.e. LTS, should suffice.
