I would like to use systemd-boot. I have a new lapop and it's all EFI. So I would like to use systemd-boot since it is at least 10 times faster than grub.
I have installed Elive on a USB 128G key. There is a small efi partition (220M), a boot partition (420MB) and the rest on an encrypted partition with root and swap. I think the best way would be to group the small efi and the boot partition on only one efi partition. Then install systemd-boot and configure it to boot elive.
I have done something similar for my arch base other distro and it boot now in less than 10 sec including the time I take to enter passwords. It's very fast. I would like to do the same with Elive.
Any hints ?
Regards,
BT
I don't know about the boot speed of systemd-boot (in general my boot time is around 10-20 secs, depending on the machine) but I do know that it's restricted to UEFI only ......
Meaning that legacy machines are left out in the cold if only systemd-boot is used.
I'm not entirely sure but I think that Elive/Debian already installs systemd-boot if it sees an existing EFI partition. 
That's not a good idea.
The reason the boot partition is there, is because the rest of the file system is encrypted and they cannot be decrypted w.o some base system running.
Also be aware that EFI and boot partitions are two different file-systems and that there are some size restrictions there.
Interesting. I will take some time to read about systemd boot. I had understood that the kernel image and the initrd image have to be on the efi partition. If not then you need a hook to decrypt the root partition at startup since the kernel and its stuff are encrypted.
All this is not clear for me now. I need to read.
Thank you for your answer,
BT
PS: My boot time is very, very, very long since I have reinstalled elive for my new laptop.
After I have given the encryption passphrase the screen blacken and it takes at least 1m30 secs to bring me the login screen. I will try to take look at this with systemd-analyze and may be start another thread for that.
That's definitely not how it should be .... there's something wrong there.
I have reinstalled last version of Elive on a USB ssd disk and it boot more fastly now.
It's a new laptop and I'm having small glitches, But globally I'd it's way faster than before.
My old laptop was born in 2012. Now it's way faster but the lappy has new hardware I must learn to deal with.
Systemd give me this analyze:
Startup finished in 9.282s (firmware) + 4.152s (loader) + 22.096s (kernel) + 26.346s (userspace) = 1min 1.876s
graphical.target reached after 26.338s in userspace
So its slower than what I get with systemd-boot (less than 10 sec), but not awfull.
My previous USB key was the culprit I would say. I have used it intensely for at least 4 years and it's may be near the end of its usefull life.
Regards,
Bernard
There's an interesting tool to check flashdrives.
Either "badblocks" that'is already installed or else "f3" which you'll need to install yourself.
They harken back to ye old days of using FAT with windows and fragmentation checking., except that on a flashdrive a badblock cannot be repaired. 
Here's a description/how-to: https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-check-the-physical-health-of-a-usb-stick-flash-drive/
I have ran badblock and then f3write followed by f3read and no error where found on the usb stick.
It was a good quality stick 128Gb from Samsung that I bought about 4 years ago.