On Wed, 2025-01-22 at 14:20 +0100, Hans wrote: Apologies, this is (another) long email. I tried to cover my experiences that were tied to that directory.
tl;dr.... How did you install GRUB and/or EFI? It might be as simple as that. > I am using UEFI now for the first time. Everything is woring fine, > but I do not understand everything. Please allow me to ask: > > 1. In /etc/fstab there is my entry > UUID=5ABD-D634 /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1 > and df -h shows > > /dev/nvme0n1p1 96M 32M 65M 33% /boot/efi > which is correct so far. But I also find the directory > > /efi > > which has the same content as /boot/efi. It shows, both are the same. > > Questions: > 1. Is the folder /efi correct and who is creating it? > > 2. If not, how can I get rid of it? Hi.. While you're waiting for others to respond, the first thing I would do is run "ls -ld" on both. I'd be looking for symlinks. The next thing is to put a magnifying glass on both to see if all of the file dates and sizes are exactly the same. For that second test, I'd also run "diff -r" on both in same command line to see if that catches any substantial variance. Theoretically, it seems like there should be zero difference. Another thing I do is run "mount" to verify that my system is obeying my /etc/fstab entry. It's also how I frequently, quickly check which primary partition I'm working out of because I'm super forgetful, grin. Afterthought: I ran "df -h" on my own setup. I also had this line: efivarfs 246K 146K 96K 61% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars THAT is the bugger that caused me serious brain pain several years ago. It was missing in the past, but it's now automatically installed (and possibly configured?) via GRUB's dependencies these days. Of note is that it might not be necessary for all Users to still successfully boot. > 3. Which packages of debian must I install, to automate all settings > of UEFI during grub-install or update-grub. I read of grub-efi, grub- > efi-amd64, grub-efi-amd64-bin and grub-efi-amd64-signed. But which one > I should install to get no pain. At the moment only grub-efi-amd64-bin > and grub-efi-amd64-signed and of course grub2-common are installed. Do > I need more? I don't know that there's a "should" list of packages because Users' requirements will vary. What I did just now is fire up my very basic Debian Sid and start to install grub-pc by itself. That brought these automatically installed dependencies: gettext-base grub-common grub-pc-bin grub2-common libefiboot1t64 libefivar1t64 os-prober Next I fired up Debian Trixie and ran "apt-cache policy" on that whole list. All those packages are installed on both my Sid and Trixie. Cool. The importance to me is I used to have to fight anything bearing an "efivar" name. I had a horrible battle solving GRUB installs that kept throwing errors referencing that. These days, "efivar" is still part of my installs that now successfully manage themselves. A question that I don't immediately know how to poke at is: How did you initially install onto your dedicated EFI FAT32 partition? Am just wondering if that might be what generated that /efi directory. It's a possibility if your variables were slightly off while manually running grub-install. Life lesson learned on my most recent GRUB install was I didn't have to manually install onto my own dedicated efi partition. The dependencies that came in with grub-pc successfully filled in that content on their own. I was able to verify by simply checking my dedicated EFI partition via Thunar. THANK YOU (because that does prevent fatal newbie errors)! IMPORTANT is that the EFI FAT32 partition must already be created and properly reporting itself with no errors (e.g. via gparted) before installing GRUB. NOTE: That curious /efi directory MIGHT accidentally be installed while running "grub-install" with this declaration: "--efi- directory=/boot/efi". I remember my horrific battle with this the last time I ever had to fight it. As a newbie at it back then, at some point my attempted declaration WAS either "--efi-directory=/efi" or "--efi-directory=efi". That might potentially generate that errant /efi directory. Or not if grub-install doesn't have the proper permissions to create a brand new directory through that single terminal command. Lastly, there's that efibootmgr package. I installed it while battling my past fails but never used it. I've seen it mentioned here at Debian- User so someone here likely knows if and/or how it might help somehow. Hope this at least helps someone out here. Cindy :) DISCLAIMER: Evolution has updated a couple times recently. Am hoping my preferences for abiding by listserv netiquette remained in place. Am still a relative newbie at manipulating its vast features. -- Talking Rock, Pickens County, Georgia, USA * runs with birdseed! *
