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I have a dual boot system with following SSD disk partition :

  • Boot partition ( /boot/efi ) : 100 MB
  • linux root parition ( / ) : 100 GB
  • Windows install dir : 150 GB
  • Windoes dir : 125 GB
  • unallocated space : 100 GB

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Since the new release of elementary OS needs a fresh install, If any one can help me with following question before I install elementary OS Odin :

Question 1 : What shall I do with in my new install while choosing boot partition i.e while choosing the same boot partition shall I choose the option format and use or just use. Also What will happen to Windows boot loader if I choose to format my boot partition and the use it while installing the new OS version.

Question 2 : What is the recommended size of boot partition

Question 3 : As of now I don't have any swap partition and my RAM size is 8 GB, Shall I create a swap partition and what size shall I choose

Any help will be highly appreciable.

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  • You should be able to choose "Install alongside Windows" in the installer and select the 100GB of free space as the installation destination. The installer will do the rest of the work. As for swap partitions, those are not really necessary anymore unless you plan on "hibernating" the system. Swap files in the root partition are generally what's done now. Your Windows boot loader will remain intact, though grub will become the primary boot method, which will allow you to choose between Elementary OS and Windows.
    – matigo ♦
    Sep 14, 2021 at 13:00
  • @matigo , I am already running a dual boot system, with Elementary Hera installed. I want to upgrade to Elementary Odin now. So just wanted to know which option shall I choose for boot partition
    – sanjeev kumar
    Sep 14, 2021 at 18:22

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There are few things to know here. The default Windows EFI partition of 100MB is too small for Windows and Elementary - Elementary will not be able to install on it. You need to create a second EFI partition of 512MB, format it as FAT32 and with "boot,esp" flags, and then configure your BIOS to boot from the second EFI.

This means you need to select the advanced steps during the Elementary install, create the partitions manually in GParted in the empty space and then mount them from the Elementary installer:

  • one EFI partition of type FAT32 with 512MB mounted on /boot/efi,
  • one root partition of type ext4 or xfs mounted on /
  • one swap partition of 1GB

Regarding your questions:

  1. I assume you mean EFI partition when you are asking about "boot partition". You don't need boot partition mounted on /boot, just EFI partition mounted on /boot/efi. Do not format the existing one as that will delete the windows bootloader. Create new EFI partition for Elementary.

  2. EFI partition for elementary should be 512MB. Maybe a smaller could work (try 256MB), but too small will cause the installer to complain. I used 512MB

  3. It is always good to have some swap. 512MB-2GB should be sufficient for most cases. You can also install the package zram-tools ("apt install zram-tools") after Elementary is fully installed, which can use part of the RAM as compressed swap.

Here is a look of the partitions in my dual boot (Win10+Elementary): enter image description here

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  • Thanks, I will try to create another partition as you suggested.
    – sanjeev kumar
    Sep 19, 2021 at 23:18

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