I recently bought a laptop and wanted to install multiple Linux flavors alongside the provided Windows 11.

In a video tutorial, they suggest creating a separate EFI partition and selecting it as the EFI partition for later Linux installations, with the option to update so that all boot information is kept.

However, my laptop already had an EFI partition labeled something like "Windows boot partition," and I didn't want to risk interfering with Windows. So, during the installation of the first Linux distro (Ubuntu), I created a new 500MB EFI partition and set it to be used for EFI. The installation finished smoothly, and both Windows and Ubuntu were available in the grub menu.

Now, when I inspect the partitions(table below), it seems that Ubuntu has updated the existing EFI partition (/dev/nvme0np1) instead of using the one I created (which is /dev/nvme0np10 and not mounted). My first question is if my assumption is correct? Secondly, I'm planning to install Arch Linux. Should I point the installation to the existing EFI partition, or should I not worry about it and let Arch figure it out?

https://ibb.co/fnx974n

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1 2048 616447 614400 300M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2 616448 878591 262144 128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/nvme0n1p3 878592 480931839 480053248 228.9G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p4 951971840 953999359 2027520 990M Windows recovery environment
/dev/nvme0n1p5 953999360 997167103 43167744 20.6G Windows recovery environment
/dev/nvme0n1p6 997169152 1000214527 3045376 1.5G Windows recovery environment
/dev/nvme0n1p7 935587840 951971839 16384000 7.8G Linux swap
/dev/nvme0n1p8 481980416 726691839 244711424 116.7G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p9 726691840 935587839 208896000 99.6G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p10 480931840 481980415 1048576 512M EFI System

No point assuming anything - go have a look in /boot/efi. Then you'll know for sure. Then mount p10 and see what it has in it - hopefully nothing.

The [U]EFI firmware (aka BIOS in the old days) determines what EFI partition is used for boot - and IMHO you don't need more than one. Certainly not on a single disk/SSD. You are the one that will ultimately get confused, not the the machine.
Where you might come unstuck is if you attempt to install 2 distros with the same heritage - say Ubuntu and Mint. You'll likely wind up with 2 entries for Ubuntu in the boot menu. It'll work, but carbon based life-forms are easy to addle.

i'm moving this thread from "newbie" to expert, admin access code 935587840 951971839

efi requires allot of standards and standards are continually broken by politically funded "supergroups", also major OS makers, for ... `reasons'

You already have a large EFI partition, /dev/nvme0n1p1. There is no need to have more than one, really. One computer, one EFI partition.