Updated (20may2022) and will not boot up on restart

brent

mspiff ok thats good. I'd say resize it in gparted to 512 except....

"/dev/sda1: 24 files, 335710/403266 clusters
grow file system to fill the partition 00:00:01 ( ERROR )
using libparted
libparted messages ( ERROR )
GNU Parted cannot resize this partition to this size. We're working on it!"

I have no answer for that weirdness. "Cannot"? You have to have root permission to run Gparted...so it's not a permissions problem? I'm at a loss for that message. You can still try to resize. Got nothing to lose.
"I hate the weird ones."

googl or ddg that message for kicks./edit

ReillyBrogan

You will need to have free space immediately after the EFI partition in order to resize the EFI partition (partitions can only be expanded into contiguous free space, yes this isn't always true for all filesystem types but IS true for FAT32 partitions which is what the EFI partition actually is). This means that you will likely need to resize other partitions from the left side which is non-trivial and definitely cannot be done on a live system. You will need to boot from a live CD/USB in order to do this and you are likely going to need to figure this out partially on your own because it can be different for different setups and it's unlikely that anyone will want to take responsibility if you lose data by being given wrong instructions.

brent

ReillyBrogan it's unlikely that anyone will want to take responsibility if you lose data by being given wrong instructions.

amen.

So to add 200MiB or so to the boot means shaving 200Mib off the /root filesystem or the unformatted space? Then build the free space manually in the resize fields. Yes its not as rookie as I thought it is, if I even thought it was. No guarantees in these types of maneuvers.

mspiff

brent

ReillyBrogan

At the end of the day I wouldn't want to pawn responsibility of my own system on anyone but me. No worries

I got access via live to all my files so all is good, the rest is spitballing this root issue. If I have to re-install then so be it, it's beginning to sound like a mess,

Any particular reason Solus installed with a 200mb partition for boot? Would that have been manual? So, me (user error which I'm sure it is)

mspiff

Ahh figures there was an exception to the norm. Thanks Reilly for clarifying.

qsl

mspiff I recently went through a few rounds of installing/reinstalling various flavors of windows only to find my nice pristine solus boot partition is now also sporting a windows boot manager (WTF? Well, I guess I could see what Gnome is all about).

Not so much it applies in your instance, but to make the point other software treating your partitions as sacrosanct is not happening..

brent

mspiff Any particular reason Solus installed with a 200mb partition for boot? Would that have been manual? So, me (user error which I'm sure it is)

thats the thing. it didn't install it that way, I thought you said after an update it just borked it that way....but we can never know for sure I guess. Some testimony in this thread claims using it at 200MB was never possible. If that's true then user error or update. In the end does not matter.
Writing is on the wall with this one (fresh install).

If it was me, and I had copies/back up of what I needed then I would would try to move heaven and earth to salvage my operating system: read 25 articles on this exact procedure, watch 20 videos of the same, work up the courage, then, in the words of the immortal John Daly: "grip it and rip it." Because if you fail you were going to do a fresh install anyway🙂.

mspiff

qsl

Thanks again for all your help earlier. Yeah I think you're right... unless you're single booting, it will be a headache eventually.

qsl

mspiff I think you could probably manage somewhat with installs on separate drives (installing on one, pulling the drive, and installed on the other) and imaging software for the most part. Especially if the other OS is no longer getting updates (my XP/7 dual boot is humming along just fine).

But if things get borked enough you are looking at reinstall, it is just going to get ugly.

Actually investigating something like Rescuezilla where I can just swap out images without having to manage them.

We'll see how it goes.

De nada 😃

ReillyBrogan

I believe 200MB may have been the default a few years ago? It may also be that the installer re-used a pre-existing EFI partition if one already existed on the drive.

But yes, the overall flow if you wanted to increase the EFI partition size from 200MB to 1GB (I know 512MB is the current default, but really you won't miss the half GB from your root partition and having a larger EFI partition may save your bacon in the future) would be something like (all of these need to be done to an offline system booted from a live USB, GParted will absolutely not let you do these to a live system):

Backup your data
Resize the root partition to reduce the size by 800MB
Move the root partition to the end of the drive (there should now be _800MB free space shown between the swap partition and the root partition). It's possible GParted may let you do this at the same time as step 2.
Move the swap partition to the end of the available space (the _800MB free space should now be visible after the EFI partition and before the swap partition).
Expand the EFI partition to take advantage of the available space.
Go through the steps in the boot rescue document to mount your OS and do the usysconf -f command to force a regeneration of the boot files on the EFI partition
If all goes well at this point you should be able to boot into your Solus system

Again, all of this is entirely at your own risk and assumes that the partitions on your drive are in the order of EFI partition followed by swap followed by the root file system. Resizing and moving partitions is an inherently risky activity and carries the risk of data loss if done incorrectly or interrupted partway (the process actually moves blocks of data to other parts of the partition and relocates the filesystem metadata tables which are stored at the beginning of the partition).

That said, assuming you read this fully and are careful with the process you are highly likely to succeed since none of this is really THAT risky. So long as you backup your data first might as well give it a try especially if you were otherwise going to reinstall the system anyway.

mspiff

ReillyBrogan

Wow thank you for taking the time to explain it and going through the steps in detail.

It looks as if my sda2 mac partition is before the sda3 swap partition, is this ok to keep in this order after the 800MB is added to the EFI? If it has been running fine up till now, it should be ok, correct?

edit- is it possible I'm running this without a dedicated swap partition? it looks like it has been

So, make another partition, mkswap, put it right after the efi partition then the mac partition, then the root? Thanks again

brent

I made my swap late and it's after the boot and it never felt right. wow ReillyBrogan that was a tutorial. I knew how to make partitions never how to sequence. The 1GB boot is fascinating in concept.
mspiff you are definitely getting closer

ReillyBrogan

Sorry if I gave the impression that the specific partitions I mentioned matter. I was more trying to explain the concept of what needs to be done with shrinking a given partition and then moving partitions around on the disk to try to move that now freed space to where it can be utilized by the EFI partition. Someone posted a picture of the partition structure being EFI > Swap > root partition and I used that for the example. If you do not already have a swap partition you do not need to add one for this (you can however add one during this process if you want, but you can always put the swap partition at the end of the disk if it's easier.

ReillyBrogan

@mspiff GParted supports shrinking and resizing hfs+ partitions so basically read my previous instructions as moving your hfs+ partitions instead of the swap partition I used in my example.

mspiff

Hey all, I just wanted to say thanks again for all the replies and I hope at least everyone has learned something from this. I was resizing the efi and going through it when I realized, I can't actually recover the boot and update from my live due to my hardware, broadcom, not being recognized until I install and reboot anyway, unless I tether from phone in live, which is a little risky on it's own as if there's a hiccup on the phone, my solus AND mac might be borked during the updating process.

I think it's best to do a reinstall, but with the 1gb efi like Reilly suggests. I think it's best to play it safe this time.

Thanks again brent and qsl. Every day's a school day!

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