efi partition has very limited space

[gbvoris]

Doesn't seem to have any affect on the lap top; but this message recently started showing up at every boot.

Low Disk Space on "efi"
The volume "efi" has only 145.4 k

I click Ignore and everything goes normally. Is this a problem waiting to happen?

[fabien85]

I click Ignore and everything goes normally. Is this a problem waiting to happen?

It could be. Please report the outputs of

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df -h /boot/efi

and

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du -h /boot/efi

[gbvoris]

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greg@greg-E5450:~$ df -h /boot/efi
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2        96M   96M  142K 100% /boot/efi

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greg@greg-E5450:~$ du -h /boot/efi
du: cannot read directory '/boot/efi': Permission denied
1.0K	/boot/efi
greg@greg-E5450:~$

Should this have been sudo?

[Daisuke]

Yes, repeat using sudo!

[gbvoris]

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greg@greg-E5450:~$ sudo du -h /boot/efi
161K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bg-BG
204K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/cs-CZ
202K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/da-DK
211K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/de-DE
213K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/el-GR
153K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/en-GB
198K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/en-US
206K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/es-ES
161K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/es-MX
155K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/et-EE
204K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/fi-FI
164K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/fr-CA
211K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/fr-FR
159K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/hr-HR
211K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/hu-HU
205K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/it-IT
181K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ja-JP
180K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ko-KR
157K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/lt-LT
157K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/lv-LV
201K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/nb-NO
206K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/nl-NL
207K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/pl-PL
204K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/pt-BR
205K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/pt-PT
200K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/qps-ploc
158K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ro-RO
204K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ru-RU
160K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/sk-SK
158K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/sl-SI
198K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/sr-Latn-CS
160K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/sr-Latn-RS
203K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/sv-SE
202K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/tr-TR
159K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/uk-UA
171K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/zh-CN
169K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/zh-HK
171K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/zh-TW
13M	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/Fonts
14K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/Resources/en-US
106K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/Resources
26M	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot
53K	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Recovery
26M	/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft
1012K	/boot/efi/EFI/Boot
1.0K	/boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/fw
3.4M	/boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu
91K	/boot/efi/EFI/systemd
66M	/boot/efi/EFI/com.solus-project
96M	/boot/efi/EFI
2.0K	/boot/efi/loader/entries
4.0K	/boot/efi/loader
96M	/boot/efi
greg@greg-E5450:~$

[gbvoris]

Most of the languages could well be deleted, I fluent in English and Spanish and was conversational in Germean; but all of those - NOT

[Daisuke]

It may not be advisable to make changes to the Windows ESP (EFI System Partition). Windows is picky about these things. I found this video on youtube which may help. Please note that I have not tried this But it may at least give you a starting point. Be sure to backup the ESP perhaps with Foxclone. I would recommend taking a disk image of the entire drive using Foxclone before trying anything.

[Jo-con-Ël]

So the responsable is Solus loader (Solus folder on EFI is 66MB), they advise about it (need minimal 512MB EFI partition to install). IMO consider what is proposed on Solus furums (increase EFI partition size from inside Windows, create a new EFI partition for Solus,..) or create a new post there.

[fabien85]

So the responsable is Solus loader (Solus folder on EFI is 66MB), they advise about it (need minimal 512MB EFI partition to install). IMO consider what is proposed on Solus furums (increase EFI partition size from inside Windows, create a new EFI partition for Solus,..) or create a new post there.

+1, that's a Solus problem.

[gbvoris]

So can I just remove solus? I don't know what it is, possibly something I tested?

[pbear]

Solus is a Linux distribution. Removing it won't solve the EFI partition per se. You'll have to remove its folder in the EFI partition to free up the space.

Weird problem, by the way. Sounds like they've taken to putting boot files in the EFI partition (didn't used to), which isn't good practice.

[ajgreeny]

What output do you get from command

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efibootmgr

I don't think I've ever seen so much in an efi partition before and you may be able to delete some entries using that.
I can't help with the Windows entries as I haven't used it seriously since 2005.

[fabien85]

Solus uses systemd-boot (formerly elilo iirc) which afaiu puts the kernel and initrd image on the EFI partition. That's why It can easily take up space, hence why they recommend the EFI partition to be at least 512 Mb in size (ref: https://getsol.us/articles/installation/disks/en/).
If you dont have Solus anymore, you can remove the corresponding folder on the EFI partition with: (run from a Mint terminal)

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sudo rm -r /boot/efi/EFI/com.solus-project

(of course if you have any Solus distro installed, it wont boot anymore after that command, so make sure that's what you want)
If you prefer to do it via a GUI, open the file manager, right click in blank space > open as root, enter your password, click the up-pointing arrow "go to parent folder" until you cannot anymore (you are at /), go to folder boot > efi > EFI, right click the folder com.solus-project > Delete, close the window.

[gbvoris]

Sorry about the delay I'm very remote and there is no regular internet here, my system is not working as it should and there are long dead times.

greg@greg-E5450:~$ efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0003,0007,0008,0001,0002,0004,0005
Boot0000* ubuntu
Boot0001* Diskette Drive
Boot0002* Internal HDD
Boot0003* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0004* CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive
Boot0005* Onboard NIC
Boot0007* UEFI: Hard Drive
Boot0008* USB Storage Device
greg@greg-E5450:~$

[gbvoris]

greg@greg-E5450:~$ sudo rm -r /boot/efi/EFI/com.solus-project
[sudo] password for greg:
greg@greg-E5450:~$

This looks like it fixed it. I replied before reboot to be able to copy and paste.
I'll be back to mark solved or update, soon if the connection holds.

Solus uses systemd-boot (formerly elilo iirc) which afaiu puts the kernel and initrd image on the EFI partition. That's why It can easily take up space, hence why they recommend the EFI partition to be at least 512 Mb in size (ref: https://getsol.us/articles/installation/disks/en/).
If you dont have Solus anymore, you can remove the corresponding folder on the EFI partition with: (run from a Mint terminal)

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sudo rm -r /boot/efi/EFI/com.solus-project

(of course if you have any Solus distro installed, it wont boot anymore after that command, so make sure that's what you want)
If you prefer to do it via a GUI, open the file manager, right click in blank space > open as root, enter your password, click the up-pointing arrow "go to parent folder" until you cannot anymore (you are at /), go to folder boot > efi > EFI, right click the folder com.solus-project > Delete, close the window.