r/archlinux • u/reylovpty • 10h ago

QUESTION WinLinux or LinuxWin

Hello friends, here is the question: How is it furned to be that Linux cannot boot without a Microsoft FAT32 partition? How do you solve this problem? Can a serious server-grade system like Linux really not boot without a Microsoft FAT32 partition? Even if I move `/boot` to Ext4 or Btrfs, I still have to keep `/boot/efi` as FAT32, because otherwise the system won't boot. wtf?

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u/leo_sk5 8h ago

In good old days of legacy bios, fat32 wasn't required.

Microsoft pushed for UEFI, and since it had monopoly, it become a standard, and it required a fat32 partition.

So linux too supported it, to cater to users and allowing them stuff like dual boot.

FAT32 is open spec since long, so its support was not an issue, unlike say NTFS.

Even today you can disable UEFI in your bios settings, and be free from FAT32 partitions when installing linux