[SOLVED] Need help setting up multi-boot with btrfs

[TwoFistedJustice]

Obviously Kali does not use the vmlinuz/initrd.img symlinks like *buntus do. So 6.4 is there but you're booting 6.3? Or did you update between posts?

As per the end of Post #32, those are actually copies of the 6.1 kernel that I renamed to see what would happen. ( all the file 6.1 & 6.4 files are the exact same size as its analog )

[oshunluvr]

OK so I installed Kali in a VM and the file above is installed with two additional lines:

do_initrd = yes
do_link_in_boot = no

but not the deb package. However, it's not installed on my KDEneon install either.
I went ahead and edited the above file to

do_link_in_boot = yes

and updated the system, which installed new kernels - and viola!

[oshunluvr]

Hmm, that was easy (maybe). Kali is debian based.

linux-update-symlinks is the package.

/etc/kernel-img.conf is the config file.

Contents:

# Kernel Image management overrides
# See kernel-img.conf(5) for details
do_symlinks = yes
do_bootloader = no

Fun experiment to see if it works that simply

[Schwarzer Kater]

TwoFistedJustice :
You are welcome, but I would suggest writing "100 MB minimum, 320-512 MB recommended" - so people will not start resizing their EFI partition of an existing Windows installation…

Also for the swap partition generally choosing 1,5 x RAM is debatable nowadays (and always has been )- a more moderate suggestion would be something like ">= RAM for hibernation" (because you really don't know how and for what people use their computer).
And perhaps an additional link to something like https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Sw...p_do_I_need.3F (and these are just Ubuntu's suggestions - other distributions have other ones and as mentioned: it heavily depends on the use case, too).

[oshunluvr]

Seems like - unless kali would update the sysmlinks if you created them - you'll have to specify the kernel version to boot. Or write a script that updates the symlinks automagically. Probably a little sleuthing may reveal where in the system that is done and you could replicate it in kali.

[oshunluvr]

I tried this out with Kali and it doesn't (quite) work. Kali needs a wildcard character tacked to the end. i.e.

linux /@kali/boot/vmlinuz*
initrd /@kali//boot/initrd.img*

After setting this up I updated from 6.1 to 6.3, ran uname -r and confirmed that it used 6.3.


[EDIT]

Contents of @kali/boot


drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 644 Jul 14 14:26 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 258 Jul 13 15:43 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 258800 May 12 11:20 config-6.1.0-kali9-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 262471 Jun 29 05:05 config-6.3.0-kali1-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 258800 Jul 14 14:11 config-6.4.0-kali1-amd64
drwx------ 3 root root 4096 Dec 31 1969 efi
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 106 Jul 13 15:43 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 76430800 Jul 8 18:37 initrd.img-6.1.0-kali9-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 79739435 Jul 13 15:44 initrd.img-6.3.0-kali1-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 76430800 Jul 14 14:11 initrd.img-6.4.0-kali1-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 83 May 12 11:20 System.map-6.1.0-kali9-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 83 Jun 29 05:05 System.map-6.3.0-kali1-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 83 Jul 14 14:12 System.map-6.4.0-kali1-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7976256 May 12 11:20 vmlinuz-6.1.0-kali9-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8983392 Jun 29 05:05 vmlinuz-6.3.0-kali1-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7976256 Jul 14 14:11 vmlinuz-6.4.0-kali1-amd64

Obviously Kali does not use the vmlinuz/initrd.img symlinks like *buntus do. So 6.4 is there but you're booting 6.3? Or did you update between posts?

[TwoFistedJustice]

I updated based on your suggestions Schwarzer Kater. Thank you!

[oshunluvr]

A look at the contents of /boot would explain why and probably would be beneficial to add to this thread.

[Schwarzer Kater]

[…]
And I'm also not certain of the optimal size for the EFI partition. My test system shows that I'm only using about 6 out of 550 MB. So despite it being Rod Smith's recommendation for 550 MB, I find myself dubious.
[…]

The usual name I have come across is "EFI System Partition" or "EFI system partition".

35 MB seems a bit small for an EFI partition - one could easily run out of space if one installs 4-5 or more different systems with secure boot enabled and different naming of their directories within /boot/efi/EFI (as it should be) - on one of my EFI partitions more than 60 MB are used…
100 MB should be a safe bet for a minimum size (that is the size a Windows installation usually creates IIRC).

But I prefer >300 MB - only because occasionally I have come across Linux installers that complain if it is smaller than that (for whatever technical reason). So I always recommend 304 or 320 MB nowadays.

500 MB or more is a waste of space IMHO, unless one installs really many systems (40-80) including boot loaders, and 500 MB is too small if this was for /boot (and not only /boot/efi).

[TwoFistedJustice]

The write up is essentially complete. I'm sure it needs some revisions. I have yet to redo my test system. And of course since I wrote it, I will no doubt overlook some of the bits that are less clear or maybe even wrong.

I'm unclear about partition names/labels. And I'm also not certain of the optimal size for the EFI partition. My test system shows that I'm only using about 6 out of 550 MB. So despite it being Rod Smith's recommendation for 550 MB, I find myself dubious.

I'd appreciate any feedback you all can provide.

If you approve of the write up and you have a github account, please consider starring it so it will go higher in the rankings.

Here's the link:

https://github.com/TwoFistedJustice/...TRFS-and-Linux

[Snowhog]

I suspect when you copy the formatted screen output, it pastes as Rich Text or similar.

I think that is correct.

[TwoFistedJustice]

-----

-> For a test I just marked the above part from your instructions (thank you, by the way!) with my mouse and copied/pasted it ("Paste", not "Paste without …") and obviously the Markdown layout from your GitHub page was only partly used.

It did work with the Markdown output from my GitLab page, though (I did do that with the Readme part of my scripts - see e.g. the first link in my signature for the outcome in this forum and compare it to https://gitlab.com/scripts94/kubuntu-get-rid-of-snap: not exactly the same but quite close. I had to do some editing afterwards, but it was minimal).

You're welcome! It's mostly finished. I need to follow through it again to make sure I didn't miss or botch anything. Feedback is welcome.

I think the forum isn't really interpreting markdown. I suspect when you copy the formatted screen output, it pastes as Rich Text or similar. So it doesn't pick up MD tables or back tics.

[Schwarzer Kater]

-----

High Level Overview of Phases

1. Partition Drive
2. Install primary OS (recommend ubuntu variant)
3. Rename subvolumes and configure primary OS
4. Install Second OS (any Linux distro)
5. Rename subvolumes and configure secondary OS
6. Boot into and configure primary OS (again)

What you will need: A bootable USB (recommend Etcher on Linux, Rufus on Windows) with Kubuntu LTS An empty SSD or hard drive, preferably one that never had Windows installed on it (Windows leaves things behind...).

Common terminal commands we will use:


"Update grub" means open a terminal and type in the following commands:

sudo grub-mkconfig sudo update-grub


Renaming files use the move command with sudo.

sudo mv oldname newname


Making a backup copy - use the copy command and add a tilde to the copy name:

sudo cp filename filename~

Phase 1 - Drive Partitioning -- A very sparse overview

-----

-> For a test I just marked the above part from your instructions (thank you, by the way!) with my mouse and copied/pasted it ("Paste", not "Paste without …") and obviously the Markdown layout from your GitHub page was only partly used.

It did work with the Markdown output from my GitLab page, though (I did do that with the Readme part of my scripts - see e.g. the first link in my signature for the outcome in this forum and compare it to https://gitlab.com/scripts94/kubuntu-get-rid-of-snap: not exactly the same but quite close. I had to do some editing afterwards, but it was minimal).

[TwoFistedJustice]

I did not find that, but I was able to copy/paste the Markdown output and it was formatted the right way.

I'm not seeing that. Here's what I get:

## Common terminal commands we will use:

"Update grub" means open a terminal and type in the following commands:
```shell
sudo grub-mkconfig
sudo update-grub
```
Renaming files use the move command with sudo.
```shell
sudo mv oldname newname
```


[EDIT]

I just checked vBulletin forum and they say they don't support it:

[Schwarzer Kater]

[…]
Does this forum have the ability to support posts in markdown?

I did not find that, but I was able to copy/paste the Markdown output and it was formatted the right way.