Increasing size of /boot/efi

riptide1 · February 28, 2026, 6:05am

Hi,

During newer upgrades, I am getting notified by Plasma about low disk space in /efi. I figured out that this was because of snapper snapshots filling it up (1 GB seems to be not enough). I did read a few posts that at least 4 GB should be used for future proofing the install.

Since I am trying to avoid a reinstall for this, is it possible to increase the size of /efi from 1 GB to 4 safely via something like parted live? is it recommended?

I have already taken a backup of my home directory to be on the safer side.

Any advise is appreciated

hcvv · February 28, 2026, 9:24am

You did not provide any information about the layout of the disk (like fdisk -l and/or lsblk -f) but it is likely that the EFI partition was one of the first created and thus will be hemmed in somewhere at the begin of the device.

riptide1 · February 28, 2026, 10:19am

My bad, here it is:

NAME                                           FSTYPE      FSVER    LABEL UUID                                   FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
nvme0n1                                                                                                                         
├─nvme0n1p1                                    vfat        FAT32          --                                      829.2M    19% /boot/efi
└─nvme0n1p2                                    crypto_LUKS 2              --                  
  └─cr_nvme-eui.__-part2
    │                                          LVM2_member LVM2 001       --                
    ├─system-swap                              swap        1              --                                                     [SWAP]
    └─system-root                              btrfs                                                              125.7G    72% /var
                                                                                                                                /usr/local
                                                                                                                                /srv
                                                                                                                                /root
                                                                                                                                /home
                                                                                                                                /opt
                                                                                                                                /.snapshots
                                                                                                                                /

It is a pretty stock configuration. I also use GRUB2-BLS as my bootloader.

hcvv · February 28, 2026, 11:33am

Maybe switching to Grub-EFI will help. But details must be forwarded by others.

knurpht · February 28, 2026, 12:44pm

The snapshots don’t live in /boot , they are in /.snapshots . And, Henk is right, there is no way that you can expand the partition, and also about switching to grub2-efi

dcurtisfra · February 28, 2026, 3:38pm

@riptide1:

Please be aware of this News post made by Malcolm Lewis: <Default bootloader on Tumbleweed will be systemd-boot>
And, the following Wiki entry: <Systemd-boot>

But, please be patient – there’s this weekly Tumbleweed review from Dominique Leuenberger: <Tumbleweed – Review of the week 2026/9>

Reading the GParted documentation, you’ll have to boot “GParted Live” to see if, you can move the beginning of the encrypted LUKS partition to allow the EFI partition to be increased – there are some statements in the GParted documentation around this issue which suggest that, the chances of success are small.
Personally, I would reinstall Tumbleweed with the default EFI partition size.
<Live CD/USB/PXE/HD>

hcvv · February 28, 2026, 3:51pm

Can’t he simply switch to Grub2-EFI?

knurpht · February 28, 2026, 4:06pm

The snapshots don’t live in /boot , they are in /.snapshots . And, Henk is right, there is no way that you can expand the partition, and also about switching to

dcurtisfra · February 28, 2026, 4:50pm

Given the discussion in the Factory Mailing-List pointed to by the News post from Malcom, I would agree – yes.

But, do we have somewhere a “How-To” for migrating from “grub2-x86_64-efi-bls” to “grub2-x86_64-efi”?

malcolmlewis · February 28, 2026, 5:03pm

https://forums.opensuse.org/t/grub2-efi-instead-of-grub2-bls-how-to-change-to-it-reason-cannot-see-windows/190393

riptide1 · March 1, 2026, 8:24am

I will just go for a reinstall later then. The main reason I chose grub with bls, was the support for luks2 with argon2id. Now that systemd-boot is going to be the default, will it have full snapshot functionality?

Last time I checked, many features were missing from it and the wiki itself is pretty out of date about its current state. I do know that argon2id support is there though.

hcvv · March 1, 2026, 10:43am

In the future. Let this view to what is coming not become
distracted from your present problem.

Start another thread thread! The present topic title does not cover that subject at all, thus you will not get the audience you need here.

marel · March 2, 2026, 7:18am

Before trying to fix things, first check things:

> du -h /boot/efi
1.9M    /boot/efi/EFI/boot
4.0M    /boot/efi/EFI/opensuse
4.3M    /boot/efi/EFI/tumbleweed-main
52M     /boot/efi/EFI/HP/DEVFW
52M     /boot/efi/EFI/HP
4.0K    /boot/efi/EFI/Insyde
62M     /boot/efi/EFI
12K     /boot/efi/System Volume Information
8.0K    /boot/efi/$RECYCLE.BIN
62M     /boot/efi

1Gb is more than enough.

> sudo update-bootloader --show
grub2-efi

Only for grub2-bls more space is needed.

malcolmlewis · March 2, 2026, 12:45pm

@marel and systemd-boot

riptide1 · March 2, 2026, 3:11pm

94M     /boot/efi/opensuse-tumbleweed/6.19.2-1-default
94M     /boot/efi/opensuse-tumbleweed/6.19.3-1-default
188M    /boot/efi/opensuse-tumbleweed
96K     /boot/efi/loader/entries
108K    /boot/efi/loader
3.2M    /boot/efi/EFI/opensuse
2.1M    /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT
5.2M    /boot/efi/EFI
4.0K    /boot/efi/System Volume Information
193M    /boot/efi

Guess I will opt for 4 gb on the next reinstall then. I think it would be better if the installer suggests at least 2 gb, when grub2-bls or systemd-boot is selected.

malcolmlewis · March 2, 2026, 4:09pm

If your going to create it, then 2GB is probably enough, but 4GB is the best bet (firmware updates)… there maybe times you wish to keep some extra kernels…

Tumbleweed grub2-bls single boot

du -h /boot/efi
121M	/boot/efi/opensuse-tumbleweed/6.18.8-1-default
156M	/boot/efi/opensuse-tumbleweed/6.18.9-1-default
121M	/boot/efi/opensuse-tumbleweed/6.19.2-1-default
86M	/boot/efi/opensuse-tumbleweed/6.19.3-1-default
483M	/boot/efi/opensuse-tumbleweed
196K	/boot/efi/loader/entries
208K	/boot/efi/loader
3.2M	/boot/efi/EFI/opensuse
2.1M	/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT
12K	/boot/efi/EFI/Dell/logs
16K	/boot/efi/EFI/Dell
5.2M	/boot/efi/EFI
489M	/boot/efi

Tumbleweed grub-bls dual boot with Windows 11 Pro;

du -h /boot/efi
224K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bg-BG
128K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/CIPolicies/Active
160K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/CIPolicies
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/cs-CZ
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/da-DK
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/de-DE
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/el-GR
224K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/en-GB
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/en-US
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/es-ES
224K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/es-MX
224K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/et-EE
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/fi-FI
224K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/fr-CA
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/fr-FR
224K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/hr-HR
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/hu-HU
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/it-IT
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ja-JP
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ko-KR
224K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/lt-LT
224K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/lv-LV
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/nb-NO
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/nl-NL
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/pl-PL
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/pt-BR
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/pt-PT
96K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/qps-ploc
96K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/qps-plocm
224K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ro-RO
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ru-RU
224K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/sk-SK
224K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/sl-SI
224K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/sr-Latn-RS
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/sv-SE
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/tr-TR
224K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/uk-UA
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/zh-CN
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/zh-TW
14M	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/Fonts
64K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/Resources/en-US
288K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/Resources
34M	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot
96K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Recovery
35M	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft
2.1M	/boot/efi/EFI/Boot
32K	/boot/efi/EFI/opensuse/fw
3.9M	/boot/efi/EFI/opensuse
96K	/boot/efi/EFI/Dell/logs
14M	/boot/efi/EFI/Dell/Bios/Recovery
14M	/boot/efi/EFI/Dell/Bios
14M	/boot/efi/EFI/Dell
54M	/boot/efi/EFI
32K	/boot/efi/System Volume Information
118M	/boot/efi/opensuse-tumbleweed/6.19.2-1-default
84M	/boot/efi/opensuse-tumbleweed/6.19.3-1-default
118M	/boot/efi/opensuse-tumbleweed/6.18.8-1-default
152M	/boot/efi/opensuse-tumbleweed/6.18.9-1-default
471M	/boot/efi/opensuse-tumbleweed
1.2M	/boot/efi/loader/entries
1.3M	/boot/efi/loader
526M	/boot/efi

Aeon systemd-boot;

du -h /boot/efi
544K	/boot/efi/loader/entries
64K	/boot/efi/loader/credentials
736K	/boot/efi/loader
32K	/boot/efi/EFI/systemd/fw
2.4M	/boot/efi/EFI/systemd
2.1M	/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT
96K	/boot/efi/EFI/Dell/logs
27M	/boot/efi/EFI/Dell/Bios/Recovery
27M	/boot/efi/EFI/Dell/Bios
27M	/boot/efi/EFI/Dell
32M	/boot/efi/EFI
32K	/boot/efi/aeon/6.14.6-1-default
32K	/boot/efi/aeon/6.14.6-2-default
32K	/boot/efi/aeon/6.15.0-1-default
32K	/boot/efi/aeon/6.15.2-1-default
61M	/boot/efi/aeon/6.18.2-1-default
32K	/boot/efi/aeon/6.15.4-1-default
32K	/boot/efi/aeon/6.15.5-1-default
61M	/boot/efi/aeon/6.18.3-1-default
60M	/boot/efi/aeon/6.17.0-2-default
61M	/boot/efi/aeon/6.17.3-1-default
55M	/boot/efi/aeon/6.18.8-1-default
58M	/boot/efi/aeon/6.19.3-1-default
106M	/boot/efi/aeon/6.17.7-1-default
61M	/boot/efi/aeon/6.17.8-1-default
61M	/boot/efi/aeon/6.18.0-1-default
580M	/boot/efi/aeon
613M	/boot/efi