Encryption Questions in MX-17

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hilltop_yodeler
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2018 2:54 pm

Encryption Questions in MX-17

#1 Post by hilltop_yodeler »

Hi, I'm a long-time Linux user but am new to MX (loving MX-17 so far!).

With Debian, Solus, and BunsenLabs (Debian...), during the installation if I usually select the option to use the entire hard drive, to create an LVM and encrypt using LUKS. Part of the process during installation involves a long wait while it wipes the hard drive clean prior to encrypting it (or you can click the Cancel button if you don't care if old data is removed); you are also asked to set up a password for the encryption layer. Upon boot-up, as the bios does its thing, the user is presented with a black screen and is asked to authenticate in order to unlock the encryption layer and complete the boot process prior to being presented with a user login screen.

However, with MX-17, I was surprised to find that when I selected the encryption option during the installation, there was no option to create a password for encryption, and there was no long wait while existing data was removed from the hard drive. Then upon boot-up, of course there is no prompt for unlocking the encryption layer - only the login screen for the OS is presented to the user.

- So, I'm just wanting to learn a little bit about how the encryption is set up on MX-17 please.
- Seeing as how it's a Debian OS, I anticipated that the encryption would be set up in the same way that I am used to but that was not the case.
- Does MX still create an LVM and apply LUKS for encryption?
- Why is there no encryption password?
- If there is an encryption failure (not a HDD failure, but a failure with the encryption layer), will I be able to still mount the HD and access my data?

Thank you in advance for your insight, time, patience, and guidance!

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dolphin_oracle
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Re: Encryption Questions in MX-17

#2 Post by dolphin_oracle »

Only the home folder is encrypted via encryptfs at this time (indeed, the checkbox option is "encrypt home folder". In the same way as ubuntu, so the user password is used to unlock the home folder encryption at login. LVM and luks are not included in our installer at this time. Its an oft requested feature.
http://www.youtube.com/runwiththedolphin
lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 - MX-23
FYI: mx "test" repo is not the same thing as debian testing repo.

hilltop_yodeler
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2018 2:54 pm

Re: Encryption Questions in MX-17

#3 Post by hilltop_yodeler »

dolphin_oracle wrote:Only the home folder is encrypted via encryptfs at this time (indeed, the checkbox option is "encrypt home folder". In the same way as ubuntu, so the user password is used to unlock the home folder encryption at login. LVM and luks are not included in our installer at this time. Its an oft requested feature.
Thank you @dolphin_oracle for clarifying. I don't believe that I've used encryptfs before; looking forward to learning more about it. Thanks!

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Topher
Posts: 82
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2008 5:37 pm

Re: Encryption Questions in MX-17

#4 Post by Topher »

As a follow on question. What about if a new user is added; is the new user's home also encrypted with their own password?

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Adrian
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Joined: Wed Jul 12, 2006 1:42 am

Re: Encryption Questions in MX-17

#5 Post by Adrian »

No, I think you need to run manually something like "ecryptfs-migrate-home -u username"

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