clr-boot-manager update: No space left on device

schteve

Hello,

I'm getting the following error when trying to update clr-boot-manager:
sudo clr-boot-manager update
[ERROR] cbm (../src/bootman/update.c:L238): Could not find default kernel for type lts, using highest relno
[FATAL] cbm (../src/bootman/kernel.c:L668): Failed to install initrd /boot/initrd-com.solus-project.current.5.11.6-174: No space left on device
[FATAL] cbm (../src/bootman/update.c:L250): Failed to install default-current kernel: ///usr/lib/kernel/com.solus-project.current.5.11.6-174

df -h | grep boot
/dev/sda1 270M 237M 16M 94% /boot

sudo clr-boot-manager list-kernels
com.solus-project.current.5.11.6-174
com.solus-project.current.5.10.15-172
com.solus-project.current.5.10.12-171
com.solus-project.lts.4.14.221-168

I've tried to eopkg rm and rm -rf the oldest lts. What's the right way to free up some space?

Thanks

Junglist

I'm not sure if it's the best way to do it, but you could mount your ESP (EFI System Partition) as per this article and then delete the old unused kernels manually.

After you mount it, you'll be able to browse and delete the unneeded kernels via a file manager (eg nautilus). If you mounted the ESP in /target as mentioned in the help center, you'll need to run the file manager with sudo (eg sudo nautilus) to be able to delete them with it.

Just be sure not to accidentally remove any other needed files.

Also, fyi Solus recommends an ESP size of 512 MB, so If you ever reinstall the os, be sure to make a bigger EFI system partition.

schteve

Thanks. It turned out that it could be done without the live environment. I just needed to be a bit more aggressive in deleting extraneous files.

LordMyschkin

It seems to me that the standard 200 mb-EFI-Partition is just too small to hold current and updated kernel if both are above 6 kernels.
I had to boot into a gparted-LIVE-CD, double to size (wich means to backup the EFI-Directory, reformat the efi-partition (/dev/sda1 in my case) to ext2, resize the Partitition and reformat it to FAT32, then restoring the EFI-Partiton from the backup.
Just wanted to share that journey in case anyone runs into that problem es well....
btw. I happened to be to dumb to backup my EFI-Partition, but could restore it without problems from the /boot/-directory - Thanks for having those important files on two different places....

[deleted]

LordMyschkin

It seems to me that the standard 200 mb-EFI-Partition is just too small to hold current and updated kernel if both are above 6 kernels.

That's why Solus installer makes a bigger EFI partition by default.

brent

LordMyschkin Like statelbrim said, solus doesn't make a standard 200mb partition. Unless you build it yourself at 512MB (489 mib,) it will make it for you at 512 during install. junglist is right that once you accumulate you might need to cull..so size wasn't the issue for the OP methinks; clutter was. Solus installer usually leaves the new one and the old kernel (2) only, so OP musta accumulated all those kernels manually two years ago..

LordMyschkin

Very likely I installed Solus on the remains of an AntiX partition quite a while ago...
Would be nice if Solus would give a warning if beeing installed on a (in the long term) too little EFI-Partition.

brent

LordMyschkin This doesn't seem like a likely scenario as I understand it. I doubt you could guide the iso installer into a 200MB partition, and even if you could, Solus would be unable to boot from a 200MB partition as I've seen in countless threads...I wonder if it shrunk when you installed something after Solus.

tomscharbach

brent Solus would be unable to boot from a 200MB partition as I've seen in countless threads...I wonder if it shrunk when you installed something after Solus.

No. Solus will install with an EFI boot partition smaller than 512 MB, as frequently happens when installed alongside Windows, which uses a 100 MB EFI boot partition. That's why there are a gazillion threads cautioning users to make sure that the user sets up a 512 GB partition when manually partitioning. Solus sets up a 512 GB partition by default, but that doesn't mean that a user can't override the default partition size by setting up Solus to use a smaller existing partition.

LordMyschkin Would be nice if Solus would give a warning if beeing installed on a (in the long term) too little EFI-Partition.

The documentation is clear about the required partition size.

brent

tomscharbach yeah but can you boot with 200MB?

[deleted]

tomscharbach Solus sets up a 512 GB partition by default

quite huge EFI partition

tomscharbach

brent Yeah but can you boot with 200MB?

Sure.

I screwed up one time and installed Solus Budgie alongside Windows 10 in a dual-boot, single-drive installation. Solus used the Windows EFI partition, which is 100 MB. It worked fine until the kernel updated a few times, and then the EFI partition ran out of space.

If the Windows EFI partition were 200 MB rather than 100 MB, I would have been able to update the kernel a few more times before everything went to hell.

My misadventure was one of the reasons I absolutely refuse to dual-boot, single-drive any more, and dual-boot, dual-drive now. I learn hard, but I learn. Some of the time, anyway.

brent

tomscharbach ok, interesting; I did not know. thanks for the response

tomscharbach

[deleted] tomscharbach Solus sets up a 512 GB partition by default

quite huge EFI partition

A gig here, a gig there, pretty soon you're talking real money. 🤣

[deleted]

tomscharbach Having a dedicated SSD just for EFI

laurker

I had this same issue with the 200MB EFI partition, possibly through installing from an old ISO (4.0?).

ReillyBrogan

laurker Yes, I think fairly old ISOs had the default set to 200mb. Too little now, but I imagine at the time it made sense.

I usually manually partition my drives and do a 1GB boot partition. Sure it's overkill but overall a minuscule loss for most modern SSDs (of which 500GB is now very affordable and should be the minimum for most people).

brent

ReillyBrogan 3.99999999 and before had the 200MBs? Far out.

tomscharbach

ReillyBrogan I think fairly old ISOs had the default set to 200mb. Too little now, but I imagine at the time it made sense.

A lot of distros use smaller partitions. My 11-3180, running Kubuntu auto-partitioned during installation this morning, has a 116 MB EFI partition, about the size of the Windows partition, which is 100 MB, as I recall.

My understanding is that the most common size guideline for Linux EFI partitions is between 100 MB to 550 MB. Solus is on the high side. No big deal unless you try to use an existing partition as the Solus EFI partition.

Dual booting from a single EFI partition requires more space than single booting, of course, and sometimes firmware is located in the EFI partition, which adds to the total needed.

It doesn't hurt to go large if you manually partition, but I install only one OS per drive, each drive with its own EFI partition, so I let the installer auto-size.

Edit/Update: I checked the EFI partition size on my Windows laptops. The Optiplex 7070 (circa 2019) and the Latitude 7390 (circa 2018) both have 100 MB EFI partitions. The Latitude 7520 (circa February 2022) and the Latitude 3120 (circa December 2022) both have 200 MB EFI partitions.

Both the 7070 and the 7390 came with Windows 10 OEM-installed and were upgraded to Windows 11 when the upgrade was available. The upgrade did not repartition the disk. Both the 7520 and the 3120 came with Windows 11 OEM-installed.

It looks like Microsoft has increased the EFI partition size for OEM Windows 11 installations. The increase from 100 MB to 200 MB might be a Dell decision rather than a Microsoft requirement, though. I don't know.

At some point during the year, I am likely to do a clean reinstall of Windows 11 on the 7390, deleting all the existing partitions as part of the process and letting Windows 11 auto-partition on a non-partitioned disk, and I'll be interested to see whether Windows 11 installs a 100 MB EFI partition or a 200 MB EFI partition with the reinstall.

Staudey

ReillyBrogan Yes, I think fairly old ISOs had the default set to 200mb. Too little now, but I imagine at the time it made sense.

Yes, seems like there was a condition for drives smaller than 20 GB, which then set the ESP size to 250 MB instead. That was changed on Jul 2, 2019 to be 512 MB for all cases. Additionally there was a lower limit of 300 MB for pre-existing partitions (and manually created ones), that was also set to 512 MB on Jan 31, 2021.