How to expand partition and avoid erasing boot loader

Question

I would like the help of someone more experienced to expand the partition where my Manjaro is installed. That's how it looks like currently:

I have three OSs installed: Windows, Manjaro and PopOS. I would like to completely erase PopOS, but I'm not sure how to find out where is it located. If I'm not mistaken I believe I can erase 5, 6 and 7, but I'm not completely sure.

After I make some room on my SSD, can I resize the partition 8 (where Manjaro is located) without having to unmount it?

I'm also not sure where the boot loader is installed. I have used bootinfoscript to try to find out, but I'm not sure. That's the output of it:

                 Boot Info Script 0.78      [09 October 2019]


============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================


============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================

no valid partition table found
"blkid" output: ________________________________________________________________

Device           UUID                                   TYPE       LABEL

/dev/loop0                                              squashfs   
/dev/loop1                                              squashfs   
/dev/loop10                                             squashfs   
/dev/loop11                                             squashfs   
/dev/loop12                                             squashfs   
/dev/loop13                                             squashfs   
/dev/loop14                                             squashfs   
/dev/loop15                                             squashfs   
/dev/loop2                                              squashfs   
/dev/loop3                                              squashfs   
/dev/loop4                                              squashfs   
/dev/loop5                                              squashfs   
/dev/loop6                                              squashfs   
/dev/loop7                                              squashfs   
/dev/loop8                                              squashfs   
/dev/mapper/luks-f4102623-de8d-4cec-86bd-d64d29b22184 9de3e57d-3790-4185-bed2-610c25aac706   ext4       
/dev/nvme0n1p1   68E0-33DD                              vfat       SYSTEM
/dev/nvme0n1p2                                                     
/dev/nvme0n1p3   4A02E27D02E26D7F                       ntfs       Windows
/dev/nvme0n1p4   0088E2AE88E2A200                       ntfs       WinRE_DRV
/dev/nvme0n1p5   C2C0-867A                              vfat       
/dev/nvme0n1p6   963740d2-49d0-42c9-96e9-07caa6842259   swap       
/dev/nvme0n1p7   96e749fd-e8bf-4155-95c9-dbeb41fe181f   ext4       
/dev/nvme0n1p8   f4102623-de8d-4cec-86bd-d64d29b22184   crypto_LUKS 

========================= "ls -l /dev/disk/by-id" output: ======================

total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Mar 27 19:38 dm-name-luks-f4102623-de8d-4cec-86bd-d64d29b22184 -> ../../dm-0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Mar 27 19:38 dm-uuid-CRYPT-LUKS1-f4102623de8d4cec86bdd64d29b22184-luks-f4102623-de8d-4cec-86bd-d64d29b22184 -> ../../dm-0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-eui.0025388a91c16bdc -> ../../nvme0n1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-eui.0025388a91c16bdc-part1 -> ../../nvme0n1p1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-eui.0025388a91c16bdc-part2 -> ../../nvme0n1p2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-eui.0025388a91c16bdc-part3 -> ../../nvme0n1p3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-eui.0025388a91c16bdc-part4 -> ../../nvme0n1p4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-eui.0025388a91c16bdc-part5 -> ../../nvme0n1p5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-eui.0025388a91c16bdc-part6 -> ../../nvme0n1p6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-eui.0025388a91c16bdc-part7 -> ../../nvme0n1p7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-eui.0025388a91c16bdc-part8 -> ../../nvme0n1p8
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-SAMSUNG_MZVLB512HBJQ-000L7_S4ENNF1MA04473 -> ../../nvme0n1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-SAMSUNG_MZVLB512HBJQ-000L7_S4ENNF1MA04473-part1 -> ../../nvme0n1p1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-SAMSUNG_MZVLB512HBJQ-000L7_S4ENNF1MA04473-part2 -> ../../nvme0n1p2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-SAMSUNG_MZVLB512HBJQ-000L7_S4ENNF1MA04473-part3 -> ../../nvme0n1p3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-SAMSUNG_MZVLB512HBJQ-000L7_S4ENNF1MA04473-part4 -> ../../nvme0n1p4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-SAMSUNG_MZVLB512HBJQ-000L7_S4ENNF1MA04473-part5 -> ../../nvme0n1p5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-SAMSUNG_MZVLB512HBJQ-000L7_S4ENNF1MA04473-part6 -> ../../nvme0n1p6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-SAMSUNG_MZVLB512HBJQ-000L7_S4ENNF1MA04473-part7 -> ../../nvme0n1p7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 27 19:38 nvme-SAMSUNG_MZVLB512HBJQ-000L7_S4ENNF1MA04473-part8 -> ../../nvme0n1p8

========================= "ls -R /dev/mapper/" output: =========================

/dev/mapper:
control
luks-f4102623-de8d-4cec-86bd-d64d29b22184

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device           Mount_Point              Type       Options

/dev/fuse        /run/user/1000/appimagelauncherfs fuse       (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)
/dev/fuse        /run/user/1000/doc       fuse       (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)
/dev/mapper/luks-f4102623-de8d-4cec-86bd-d64d29b22184 /run/timeshift/backup    ext4       (rw,relatime)
/dev/mapper/luks-f4102623-de8d-4cec-86bd-d64d29b22184 /                        ext4       (rw,noatime)
/dev/nvme0n1p1   /boot/efi                vfat       (rw,relatime,fmask=0077,dmask=0077,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/nvme0n1p3   /run/media/me/Windows fuseblk    (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,default_permissions,allow_other,blksize=4096,uhelper=udisks2)
/dev/nvme0n1p7   /run/media/me/96e749fd-e8bf-4155-95c9-dbeb41fe181f ext4       (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,uhelper=udisks2)


=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

mdadm: No arrays found in config file or automatically

Thanks

Answer 1

I'm also not sure where the boot loader is installed

You have an EFI system and a GPT-partitioned disk – the script doesn't understand any of that.

The bootloaders (there can be multiple) are stored as files – usually in the "EFI system partition", mounted at /boot/efi in your case. However, double-check the contents of all other FAT-formatted partitions, just in case.

The firmware stores paths to bootloader files in its NVRAM, which you can list using efibootmgr -v. Normally all entries belonging to installed OS should have the same HD(1,GPT,some_uuid) (i.e. point to the same partition-GUID), and that should match your EFI System Partition. Again, double-check that.

I would like to completely erase PopOS, but I'm not sure how to find out where is it located. If I'm not mistaken I believe I can erase 5, 6 and 7, but I'm not completely sure.

The PopOS rootfs is likely the ext4 partition #7. It's mounted, so you can check what's inside.

The swap partition #6 can belong to any Linux system and even be shared between systems.

The purpose of partition #5 is unclear. It might be that Pop_OS had created it as a 2nd "EFI System Partition", or it might be that it's empty.

After I make some room on my SSD, can I resize the partition 8 (where Manjaro is located) without having to unmount it?

You can grow it, but you cannot shrink it, and you probably cannot use GParted for this.

Growing a filesystem would be painless with resize2fs, but growing the partition (basically recreating it with exactly the same parameters except for end-sector) is annoying to do by hand and I don't know any tool that would automate this bit "online".

So it would be easier to boot into a GParted live CD instead and resize the partition from there (if I remember correctly, it should allow that even without unlocking). Then you can boot back into Manjaro and use resize2fs to grow the filesystem to fit the new size.