Score:3

Ubuntu

Challenges when trying to increase size of /boot

Movin

10/6/22, 9:58 AM

At the heart of my issue is really that I've run out of space on /boot and cannot do updates anymore, so I'm of course very open to other suggestions, but my questions relate to the problems I've encountered along the way.

I probably made the /boot partition way too small some ten years ago when I set up my partition scheme on this Samsung 9 series laptop. Until recently, it was enough to do the autoremove of old kernels and I've also done the COMPRESS=xz i /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf suggested by Ubuntu, but I've concluded that I need to resize the partition, which has proven troublesome. Hence,

Question 1: Are there any other ways to increase the /boot without increasing the partition?

To increase the partition, I've tried to use Gparted, which shouldn't be a problem, but I cannot get into the BIOS. Hence,

Question 2: Is there any way to resize the partition/use Gparted without booting from a live USB-stick?

The problem I run into when I try to do just that, is that I cannot enter my BIOS, and hence not choose to boot from the USB stick. Hence,

Question 3: Is there any way to run the live Ubuntu stick/some other live session, without changing the boot order?

When I try to get into BIOS to change the boot order, I'm stuck with a black screen. This is regardless of whether I spam F2 to get immediately into "Setup" or F10, and choose Setup from the menu that shows up.

Any advice on how to solve either of the above questions? I believe an answer to just one of them would help me :)

Update 1:

Thanks to Raffles' help below, I used the efibootmgr to change the boot sequence. For some reason, it still doesn't boot from the USB, so maybe here's an additional issue.

bjorn@bjorn-900X3C-900X3D-900X4C-900X4D:~$ efibootmgr -v

BootCurrent: 0006

Timeout: 0 seconds

BootOrder: 0001,0004,0005,0006,0000

Boot0000  Setup FvFile(721c8b66-426c-4e86-8e99-3457c46ab0b9)

Boot0001  Boot Menu FvFile(86488440-41bb-42c7-93ac-450fbf7766bf)

Boot0002  Recovery  FvFile(ab4579c4-3bc5-4489-a88e-0f21e6cebf85)

Boot0003* SATA HDD: VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-8316-c068ee79d25b,91af625956449f41a7b91f4f892ab0f600)

Boot0004* USB CD:   VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-8316-c068ee79d25b,86701296aa5a7848b66cd49dd3ba6a55)

Boot0005* USB FDD:  VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-8316-c068ee79d25b,6ff015a28830b543a8b8641009461e49)

Boot0006* ubuntu    HD(1,GPT,972d7e49-c67a-4a8f-b417-32d2599ea6e7,0x800,0xf3800)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi)

Boot0007* NETWORK:  VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-8316-c068ee79d25b,78a84aaf2b2afc4ea79cf5cc8f3d3803)

Boot0008* Windows Boot Manager  HD(2,GPT,f1fdeac1-d057-4f3b-9f66-6f74eb3b469b,0x96800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}....................

Update 2:

Rearranging the boot sequence didn't help per se, but it did add "Windows Boot Manager" to the boot menu that opens with F10 during boot (nothing but Ubuntu happens if I choose it though). However, again choosing Setup from the App Menu, which would only lead to black screen before, now produces the following error:

Some googling suggests this is an error with the BIOS, so that's where I'm stuck at the moment.

1 + 8

partitioning

boot

bios

samsung

Raffles

10/6/22, 10:03 AM

You have to boot into a live session to resize partitions. It's pretty straightforward. I did it recently on a laptop. AFAIK, the answers to Q1 and Q2 are no. I'm not sure about Q3

Movin

10/6/22, 10:08 AM

Thank Raffles. Yes, I've done that in the past, it's just that I cannot get into BIOS/change the boot sequence any longer, for some reason.

Raffles

10/6/22, 10:11 AM

Does this help you? https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-view-and-change-boot-sequence-in-linux-terminal/

Movin

10/6/22, 10:29 AM

Thank you - that was very helpful, the exact information I was looking for and it let's me move forward. For some reason it still didn't boot from the USB after changing the sequence, but that's definitely something I will try to solve now. Thanks a lot.

Raffles

10/6/22, 10:33 AM

Please make sure your USB drive is working correctly, you might want to format it and redownload and reinstall the image with Startup Disk Creator.

nobody

10/6/22, 11:18 AM

And make a backup meddeling with filesystem is not an easy one. and maybe it is possible to remove some kernel packages before.

Raffles

10/6/22, 11:39 AM

If you're still having problems, can you take a screenshot of GParted with your system as is and paste it into your question? Another idea, run `sudo apt autoremove` to remove deprecated packages and free up some space,

Movin

10/6/22, 12:12 PM

I've now tried the live stick on another computer and it works well on that one, but the laptop still seems to ignore whatever changes I make to efibootmgr and continues to login to Ubuntu. Then when I'm in there, it recognises the USB. I'll get the Gparted screenshot when I'm back home. Thanks so much so far!

Score:1

Ubuntu

Raffles

10/6/22, 11:20 AM

NB!!! Back up your system first

In order to change the boot sequence in a terminal, run the following command :

efibootmgr -v

This will display all boot devices on your computer, as you have indicated above:

BootCurrent: 0006
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0004,0005,0006,0000
Boot0000 Setup FvFile(721c8b66-426c-4e86-8e99-3457c46ab0b9)
Boot0001 Boot Menu FvFile(86488440-41bb-42c7-93ac-450fbf7766bf)
Boot0002 Recovery FvFile(ab4579c4-3bc5-4489-a88e-0f21e6cebf85)
Boot0003* SATA HDD: VenMsg(....)
Boot0004* USB CD: VenMsg(....)
Boot0005* USB FDD: VenMsg(....)
Boot0006* ubuntu HD(1,GPT,....)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi)
Boot0007* NETWORK: VenMsg(....)
Boot0008* Windows Boot Manager HD(2,GPT,....)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)WINDOWS......=.{....}..

You want to boot from the USB FDD therefore type the following command in the terminal :

sudo efibootmgr -o 5,6,1,4,0

If for some reason this doesn't work, insert the bootable flash drive and redo the process and see if the bootable flash drive shows up in the list. Then use its number to start the boot order.

Once you have successfully booted into a live session, you can use GParted to resize your partitions.

0 + 4

Movin

10/6/22, 4:04 PM

Thank you. I tried the sudo efibootmgr -o 5,6,1,4,0 but it's as if the system ignores it when it's booting. How should it show up in the list? Here I still get this output: Boot0005* USB FDD: VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-8316-c068ee79d25b,6ff015a28830b543a8b8641009461e49) The USB is still visible in the file manager though.

Raffles

10/6/22, 5:55 PM

@Movin the only other thing I can think of right now is your BIOS up to date? I'll continue to look for a solution in the meantime.

Movin

10/6/22, 6:05 PM

Thank you so much for your efforts. It may very well be that it's not, maybe that's why I cannot access it. I'll try to update it.

Movin

10/7/22, 4:23 AM

please see the new picture I added to the post. I managed to produce a more specific error message just now and it seems your diagnostics about the BIOS were right.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Challenges when trying to increase size of /boot

TH: ความท้าทายเมื่อพยายามเพิ่มขนาดของ /boot

RO: Provocări atunci când încercați să măriți dimensiunea /boot

RU: Проблемы при попытке увеличить размер /boot

VI: Những thách thức khi cố gắng tăng kích thước của /boot

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