Re: [gentoo-user] Resizing boot partition while dual-booting

[Michael <confabulate@kintzios.com>]

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On Wednesday, 3 April 2024 16:10:41 BST Vít Smolík wrote:
> Hello fellow Gentooers,
> 
> I want to dual-boot Gentoo and M$ Windows on my computer, but windows only
> created a 100MB EFI partition. Is it necessary to resize it so my boot
> files will fit? If so - how to resize it so I don't mess up my Windows EFI
> files?

100M for boot should be enough.  This is what I have on one PC here, where /
mnt/Windows is the 100M EFI partition:

~ # du -s -h /mnt/Windows
68M	/mnt/Windows

~ # du -s -h /mnt/Windows/EFI/*
1.9M	/mnt/Windows/EFI/Boot
36M	/mnt/Windows/EFI/Gentoo
27M	/mnt/Windows/EFI/Microsoft
4.3M	/mnt/Windows/EFI/ubuntu

The /EFI/Gentoo directory has two kernels, but no initramfs (I don't use it) 
and I don't use GRUB either:

~ # ls -la /mnt/Windows/EFI/Gentoo/
total 36381
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root     2048 Jan 26 16:51 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root     1024 Aug  2  2023 ..
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 11743360 Dec 13 10:36 bootx64-6.1.67-gentoo.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 13105984 Feb 18 08:44 bootx64-6.6.13-gentoo.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   137161 Dec 13 10:36 config-6.1.67-gentoo
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   140301 Feb 18 08:44 config-6.6.13-gentoo
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  4615431 Dec 13 10:36 System.map-6.1.67-gentoo
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  7504974 Feb 18 08:44 System.map-6.6.13-gentoo

The /EFI/ubuntu directory has only the GRUB .efi executable in it, because the 
ubuntu distribution kernel and initramfs is installed in the ubunutu / 
partition, not in EFI.

If you really want to make the EFI partition larger you can use gparted to do 
this, but you have to be very careful.  This is how I have done it whenever I 
needed to resize Windows partitions:

1. Boot into MSWindows and defragment the drive.  Press Shift as you click to 
shutdown fully the MSWindows OS (to avoid hybrid hybernation).
2. Reboot with gparted Live USB, or with the Gentoo OS.
3. Unmount the EFI partition, if mounted and resize the C:\ drive to make it 
smaller, in order to release enough space on the right of it, to be able to 
move it out of the way.  Careful you *only* drag the right hand edge of the C:
\ partition when you shrink it, toward the left.
3. After you apply the changes move the C:\ partition to the right away from 
the EFI partition.
4. Apply the change and then resize the EFI partition to a desired size, e.g. 
500M.
5. Apply again and next move the C:\ partition to the left.
6. Apply and then resize the C:\ partition to enlarge it.  Apply the last 
change and you're done.

NOTE: Do NOT delete any of the MSWindows partitions and do NOT attempt to 
change their order.  If in doubt ask.

After you reboot into MSWindows, it will pop up a warning about the C:\ drive 
filesystem needing checking, click to accept the warning and wait until it 
finishes checking the filesystem.

Enjoy your Gentoo!

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