brent So if the OP is not using Solus with multiple operating systems ( we have no way of knowing) then the 287 should be adequate?
I would say no, I mean the user is having issues. But lets look at it. With each kernel you get several files the biggest being these two, that go in /boot/EFI/com.solus-project/ (On a UEFI system).
58M initrd-com.solus-project.current.5.13.6-190
8.1M kernel-com.solus-project.current.5.13.6-190
My EFI partition is 489mib and has 208mib used. Note people often say mb when they mean mib etc. 512mb = 489mib and applications are terrible at defining the measurement used. lsblk
and df -h
and du -h
are using *ib. It's infuriating...
To be safe lets call it 70mib with each kernel update. Remembering a newer kernel has to be installed successfully before it would try clean up older kernels. So in my case if I only had 287mib boot, next kernel update would be fine bringing me to 278mib used, just barely squeezing in. However if that update did not trigger a clean up of older kernels (not exactly sure when it decides to clean up) I would be out of space.
From looking in /boot/EFI/com.solus-project/ I have:
- LTS kernel from 2021-02-12
Which is because I installed the wrong virtualbox for my kernel which meant it pulled in the LTS kernel as a dependency. oops.
- 2x current kernel's 5.13.4-189 and 5.13.6-190
So my assumptions are as follows:
- It will keep at least 2 of each kernel. LTS kernel was never marked for deletion despite me no longer having the linux-lts package installed because of this rule.
- It does not check space available to decide if it cleans up or not.
Fine if you have a 512mb partition and do not multiboot waaaay to many operating systems as each OS will have their own kernel images. Windows included, and even if you deleted the windows partition the /boot information would remain.
So for your average install with only the 2x current kernels and no other operating systems 140mib + an additional 70mib~ for future kernel upgrades brings us to 210mib. About how much space I have used with an additional kernel. So I would need another 70mib for future updates bringing me to 280mib available as a minimum requirement and kernels get larger with time.
tl;dr
A smaller partition is a bad idea, especially if my understanding about when a clean up occurs is wrong or you have another OS even if that OS partition was deleted or you have an extra kernel like I do unintentionally which is easy to do.
This is exactly why when something is recommended, you want at least that. The system will make assumptions at some point and the safest assumption will always be the minimum recommended + some room to move for updates and multi booting so long as you're not crazy booting 8 distros with a 512mib boot.