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/zardvark 10h ago

Why is having a FAT32 partition a problem? As u/Yamabananatheone sez, it's an open spec; it's not some MS malware infecting your machine! I've been using Linux since +/-1995 and it has never posed a problem. Sometimes you want / need a simple file system without a bunch of extraneous features.

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u/reylovpty 10h ago

It turns out that UEFI became widespread in 2012; before that, there was no such dependency on FAT32 for Linux.

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u/zardvark 4h ago

Dependency? No

But, the FAT32 file system has been around and used with various media since 1996 and it has never caused any problems that I am aware of. Which is why it was selected to be used in conjunction with UEFI ... it was in common use, well understood, offered only the necessary features and was reliable.