Right. I'd like to use the ESP type code for the merged ESP+XBOOTLDR so that the firmware will pick it up properly. The only problem is when using the bootctl command to initialize that partition (/boot), it requires that I set the SYSTEMD_RELAX_XBOOTLDR_CHECKS variable. I don't think it should require setting that environment variable in that case. But maybe I'm using the command incorrectly? The command I'm running is:

SYSTEMD_RELAX_XBOOTLDR_CHECKS=1 bootctl install --boot-path=/boot --esp-path=/boot

I think you have to set both "--boot-path" and "--esp-path" to the same value to get the merged partition. If I leave off "--boot-path", then I don't have to set the variable. But I'm not sure that it will configure everything correctly in that case. Will it?