All these ideas, tips, suggestions are above my level of know how.
But what I have done in Gparted is created a new partition. It is 2.33 GB and presently, “unallocated”. The space was taken from sdb3, which still has 750 GB free space available.
All this is located on the second SSD which is separate from the Windows10 SSD.
So is there a safe / easy way to transfer the “boot” partition to this new “unallocated - space” ?
What parameters do I have to set concerning ext4 /boot and would it have to be
/dev/sdb4 ???
If someone could give me clear / clean copy paste text to enter into the Terminal, I would give it a try.
Any takers on this suggestion / support / idea ?
PS.is there a way to insert screenshots to these posts? because I made a screenshot of the Gparted display, if anyone wants to see what the present situation looks like .
Booting starts with vendor software, which is often buggy and only tested with Windows. Windows updates may mess with the linux boot configuration. If you can’t find instructions that are known to work for similar hardware, the safest approach is to backup important data and makes notes of configuration settings, then do a fresh install.
this is quite easy, but if you use the wrong device names for dd or tune2fs things will go south
according the a previous lsblk output the UUID of /boot is bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b
you will find the same UUID in ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/.
This UUID is also used in /etc/fstab to mount the filesystem as /boot
we will create a backup of /boot , change the UUID of the old /boot ,
and restore the backup to the new partition, resize the filesystem, mount and that’s it.
No specific commands yet. Please post output of lsblk -f /dev/sdb -o +PARTUUID and sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb
I don’t see a partition sdb4. Please use gparted and create a new partition type Linux or if available type “Linux extended boot”, filesystem ext4 . You can deny the request to create the filesystem. We won’t need it anyway.
142 Linux extended boot BC13C2FF-59E6-4262-A352-B275FD6F7172
ID 142 or hex. 8e
Then make sure that you have a bootable f43 linux live system. Just in case.
Then run again lsblk -l /dev/sdb and sudo parted -l /dev/sdb and copy paste the output as preformatted text for better readability. Use the </> symbol to mark selected text as pre-formatted.
here is the sequence of commands and I try to hint at some points you should be aware of
I won’t write sudo for the dangerous commands, you have to
$ are commands you will not need sudo
### comment / hint
there should be no errors, if so then don’t continue but post command and complete output. run the commands line by line,
### UUID of /dev/sdb4 is bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b
### next command should succeed and shows a link to ../../sdb2
$ ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b
umount /boot/efi /boot
dd if=/dev/sdb2 of=/var/tmp/boot_sdb2.img bs=64k
### /var/tmp/boot_sdb2.img is our backup
tune2fs -U random /dev/sdb2 ### set a random UUID
### next command should fail, we've changed the UUID
### if not then don't continue
$ ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b
$ ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/ |grep sdb2 ### should show the new UUID for sdb2
### at this point it's possible to revert and set the previous UUID
### see comments at the end
### 2nd part
### write our backup to sdb4 and resize
dd if=/var/tmp/boot_sdb2.img of=/dev/sdb4 bs=64k
e2fsck -f /dev/sdb4
resize2fs -F /dev/sdb4
$ lsblk -f /dev/sdb
## you should see the UUID bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b next to sdb4
### is a link to ../../sdb4
$ ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b
mount /boot
$ df -Th /boot ### should be /dev/sdb4 size ~2GB
mount /boot/efi
post output of lsblk -f
a reboot should work.
The old /boot filesystem is still available on /dev/sdb2 and we can restore the original UUID
with the command sudo tune2fs -U <original UUID> /dev/sdb2
before that we would need to change the UUID on /dev/sdb4 or delete the partition if run through the 2nd part
we also have the original image available in /var/tmp/boot_sdb2.img
Hi Mark, we are probably in two different “Time Zones” so that may explain the time lapse in our communication.
Also, before we begin this process, I want to let you know that this is my Personal PC and that I have the “normal login” and use “sudo” for terminal inputs
and I can also login as “root” if that makes a difference or is easier or if it needs “different” inputs to the Terminal.
I will wait for an answer to this message before I begin any inputs.
Thanks for your patience, understanding and support so far…
I appreciate it !!!
HI, this is a question concerning your “text” from the instructions…
Copy / Pasted: in the 4. line down it says:
umount /boot/efi /boot
Is this text “umount” corrrect or should it be “unmount” ? (Or is the “umount” the correct input for “unmount” ?)
As you said, be careful that all inputs are correct, I wasn’t sure about this word (/ ev. type mistake?),
there should be no errors, if so then don’t continue but post command and complete output. run the commands line by line,
### UUID of dev/sdb is bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b
### next command should succeed and shows a link to ../../sdb2
$ ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b
umount /boot/efi /boot
dd if=/dev/sdb2 of=/var/tmp/boot_sdb2.img bs=64k
Question: are the (orange) dd’s also inputs to the terminal ?
I hope you see / understand my confusion, wish for “clarity” before we begin.
When asked to run an unfamiliar command you should run, e.g. man umount in a terminal to learn what the umount command is meant to do and what syntax it expects. This protects against typos and increases your Linux knowledge.
Hi Mark, I don’t know if you can / will continue monitoring the progress of these “transactions”,
This is what I’ve done / received (out-puts) so far. I’m not sure if all these out-puts are as they should be / expected. And / or if I made any mistakes with the in-puts. It would be good to know how it looks and If I need to make any changes / corrections or can I continue ? When the input didn’t work, I tried again with “sudo” and then it seemed to work.
frank@fedora:~$ ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 10 11. Nov 11:41 /dev/disk/by-uuid/bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b → ../../sdb2
frank@fedora:~$ umount /boot/efi /boot
umount: /boot/efi: must be superuser to unmount.
umount: /boot: must be superuser to unmount.
frank@fedora:~$ sudo umount /boot/efi /boot
[sudo] password for frank:
frank@fedora:~$ dd if=/dev/sdb2 of=/var/tmp/boot_sdb2.img bs=64k
dd: failed to open ‘/dev/sdb2’: Permission denied
frank@fedora:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdb2 of=/var/tmp/boot_sdb2.img bs=64k
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 4.48839 s, 239 MB/s
frank@fedora:~$ tune2fs -U random /dev/sdb2
tune2fs 1.47.3 (8-Jul-2025)
tune2fs: Permission denied while trying to open /dev/sdb2
Couldn’t find valid filesystem superblock.
frank@fedora:~$ sudo tune2fs -U random /dev/sdb2
tune2fs 1.47.3 (8-Jul-2025)
frank@fedora:~$ ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b
ls: cannot access ‘/dev/disk/by-uuid/bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b’: No such file or directory
frank@fedora:~$ sudo ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b
[sudo] password for frank:
ls: cannot access ‘/dev/disk/by-uuid/bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b’: No such file or directory
frank@fedora:~$ sudo ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/ |grep sdb2 ### should show the new UUID for sdb2
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 10 14. Nov 19:05 eb9de1b0-41f1-400d-a4c7-076aa7471248 → ../../sdb2
frank@fedora:~$ sudo dd if=/var/tmp/boot_sdb2.img of=/dev/sdb4 bs=64k
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 15.4925 s, 69.3 MB/s
frank@fedora:~$ e2fsck -f /dev/sdb4
e2fsck 1.47.3 (8-Jul-2025)
e2fsck: Permission denied while trying to open /dev/sdb4
You must have r/w access to the filesystem or be root
frank@fedora:~$ sudo e2fsck -f /dev/sdb4
e2fsck 1.47.3 (8-Jul-2025)
/dev/sdb4: recovering journal
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/sdb4: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/sdb4: 377/65536 files (1.3% non-contiguous), 155331/262144 blocks
frank@fedora:~$ sudo resize2fs -F /dev/sdb4
resize2fs 1.47.3 (8-Jul-2025)
Resizing the filesystem on /dev/sdb4 to 610304 (4k) blocks.
The filesystem on /dev/sdb4 is now 610304 (4k) blocks long.
frank@fedora:~$ lsblk -f /dev/sdb
NAME FSTYPE FSVER LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
sdb
├─sdb1 vfat FAT32 C8B4-C385
├─sdb2 ext4 1.0 eb9de1b0-41f1-400d-a4c7-076aa7471248
├─sdb3 btrfs fedora 6a2a12ec-a4f9-48e2-8f98-b3d0a193489f 743.5G 20% /home
│ /
└─sdb4 ext4 1.0 bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b
frank@fedora:~$ ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 10 14. Nov 19:27 /dev/disk/by-uuid/bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b → ../../sdb4
frank@fedora:~$ sudo mount /boot
frank@fedora:~$ mount /boot
mount: /boot: must be superuser to use mount.
dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call.
frank@fedora:~$ sudo mount /boot
frank@fedora:~$ sudo mount /boot/efi
frank@fedora:~$ lsblk -f
NAME FSTYPE FSVER LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
sda
├─sda1 vfat FAT32 8817-F9BB
├─sda2
├─sda3 ntfs 4422203522202E7C
└─sda4 ntfs 74F2556EF2553618
sdb
├─sdb1 vfat FAT32 C8B4-C385 579.5M 3% /boot/efi
├─sdb2 ext4 1.0 eb9de1b0-41f1-400d-a4c7-076aa7471248
├─sdb3 btrfs fedora 6a2a12ec-a4f9-48e2-8f98-b3d0a193489f 743.5G 20% /home
│ /
└─sdb4 ext4 1.0 bdf43cb2-e238-45c1-87c9-f3ec1b41b89b 1.6G 24% /boot
/boot
sdc iso9660 Joliet E Fedora-WS-Live-43 2025-10-23-04-15-58-00
├─sdc1 iso9660 Joliet E Fedora-WS-Live-43 2025-10-23-04-15-58-00 0 100% /run/media/frank/Fedora-WS-Live-43
└─sdc2 vfat FAT16 BOOT AD6C-5955
sr0
zram0 swap 1 zram0 30ef85b3-cfcb-4fa5-9515-aaad585115d1 [SWAP]
frank@fedora:~$
Here is the entire procedure, how I managed it, with and without adding the “sudo” when it didn’t work. I will shut down and try the “reboot” now ?!?!?!
