So I just installed Linux mint MATE(install alongside windows(7)) on my old laptop. Its an MBR without UEFI BIOS. When I headed over to the disks program after the installation I was shocked to see a /boot/efi partition created, partition type was(W95 FAT32). Is this normal or have I messed up? Till now its just working fine I even ran the update manager and it was happy after a reboot. Will this create problems long term? Should I reinstall or let it be?
I used Etcher to create a bootable USB.
The system did have an option UEFI Boot support, however it was kept disabled both during the installation of windows 7 and mint MATE.
Samsung RV411 (windows 7 64 bit)
intel Pentium dual core
2GB RAM
MBR Parition
480GB SSD
cat /etc/fstab
-----------
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=a4b92403-da07-45b9-a227-e2647a5bb4ab / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=BDA1-AF68 /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1
/swapfile none swap sw 0 0
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason:Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
potato26 wrote: ⤴Tue Jan 18, 2022 3:42 am
So should I reinstall now selecting something else? The post shows that the EFI partition is empty though.
No, it works. If you want, having checked that the EFI partition is empty you can delete it and modify fstab to remove the entry, or just leave it as it is. Now you know about it, next time you install mint you can avoid it. Mint uses the same installer, ubiquity, as Ubuntu and Ubuntu is moving to a new installer. We might see it in Mint 21, or if not then Mint 22. That will probably come with its own issues.
potato26 wrote: ⤴Tue Jan 18, 2022 3:42 am
So should I reinstall now selecting something else? The post shows that the EFI partition is empty though.
No, it works. If you want, having checked that the EFI partition is empty you can delete it and modify fstab to remove the entry, or just leave it as it is. Now you know about it, next time you install mint you can avoid it. Mint uses the same installer, ubiquity, as Ubuntu and Ubuntu is moving to a new installer. We might see it in Mint 21, or if not then Mint 22. That will probably come with its own issues.
Right now it is showing the new 20.3 (Una) upgrade in the update manager. Should I consider upgrading now with this mess? Or just stick with 20.2 for as long as possible before eventually switching machines or, having backed up for a fresh install again? I have created a snapshot using timeshift though.
It works, just checked one of my other T430 (I have four) and that has a similar setup to yours with an extended partition. I would go ahead and upgrade to LM20.3. Make sure you take a timeshift snapshot before you start, if you use chromium you might have this problem: viewtopic.php?f=47&t=365607
I will be timeshifting back to LM20.2.
If this bug, which slows legacy boot, persists in Mint 21 I think the Mint team should include in Release Notes details of how to clean up the superfluous EFI partition and amend /etc/fstab.
Version: LM 21.3 64bit Mate"If something is worth doing, it is worth doing for free."
It only slows boot because I deleted the EFI partition and then subsequently found out that there was an entry for it in fstab. Once that was deleted, boot times were normal.