brent timothy saner via plug on 7 Apr 2020 21:08:35 -0700


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Re: [PLUG] Fixing /boot/ too small 

On 4/7/20 23:24, JP Vossen via plug wrote:
> Summary: I need to fix some Mint-19 workstations where /boot/ is too small.
> 

is it using UEFI or BIOS booting?

if UEFI, the ESP can be anywhere (as long as it's FAT), not necessarily
/boot. Heck, it can be an SD card or USB thumbstick or something that
you just keep attached. This would let you keep /boot in your /
partition, as you would only need something large enough for the grub
EFI binary, its supporting files (not STRICTLY necessary, as long as the
binary has support for the e.g. mdadm filesystem the supporting files -
menu, etc.- are on), and you can then keep the kernel and initramfs on
your / array. if you can boot to grub (assuming "grub 2"), in other
words, you're good.

if it's BIOS, you have less flexible options. (though if it's BIOS +
GPT, you have some weird options.[0])

the real gotchas, here, in either case, are:

1.) going from UEFI *or* BIOS directly to an mdadm array isn't possible
(unless the array is using 0.90 metadata version, in which case keep
going). you need grub EFI binary/bootloader as an intermediate.

2.) if it's BIOS, and you're booting to grub from /(boot/), AND the
array is metadata 0.90, that partitioning MUST be a DOS/BIOS table.
can't be GPT. if you want to use BIOS booting with GPT, *some* boards
support it but it still requires a dedicated partition big enough for
the grub core.img file. (2MB i think?)

3.) if it's UEFI, and you're using metadata version 0.90, and don't want
a dedicated partition for your ESP, your / array has to be GPT and be a
FAT filesystem. hardly ideal.

also worth keeping in mind that BIOS and UEFI both cannot understand
LVM, but grub can- so same limitations as in #1 whether it's mdadm or
lvm (or both).



[0]
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB#GUID_Partition_Table_(GPT)_specific_instructions

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