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Re: Boot better have mounted on root or /boot ?



On Thu 08 Apr 2021 at 14:37:59 (+0200), Marco Ippolito wrote:
> > Eventually it all boils down to one's ability to predict the future or
> > at least a subset thereof.
> 
> What would you consider in your future planning regarding sizing /boot?

I create ~500MB ESP and /boot partitions on each system disk.
But because I don't encrypt my systems (only /home and swap),
I don't use the "boot" partition for /boot, but as swap instead.

As for the future: in the 1990's I would install the entire system
onto a 1GB disk. It's time I retired my oldest disk (14 years)
which is 500GB. So disk lifetimes can take disks "out of circulation"
before once-generous partition sizes start to look too small.

OTOH I have set up BIOS-booting disks as GPT, with both a BIOS Boot
partition and an ESP, so that they can be converted to UEFI booting
without problem.

> e.g. how many kernels (with how many built-in modules and with what
> compression) to keep around for alternate booting or reuse elsewhere...

If there are kernels etc for use elsewhere, there's no need
to keep them in /boot, is there?

Generally you need room for three sets of the four files:

  old,              current,  just installed,

which then become:

  about to purge,   backup,   current.

> ... what else?

Bear in mind that upgrading grub may generate a new initrd,
and hence a backup of the previous one (depending on
/etc/initramfs-tools/update-initramfs.conf). So currently
$ du -shx /boot/
119M    /boot/
$ 

Cheers,
David.


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