Arch Linux

keddad

Member

Registered: 2020-12-27

Posts: 7

[SOLVED] How to make LUKS password input screen "better"?

In Fedora/Ubuntu, if you create an encrypted install, on startup you will be presented with a nice menu which asks for an encryption password. It looks nice, and if you input the password wrong, it will ask for it again. However, on my encrypted Arch installation, password is asked via a simple text prompt. That would be fine, however, if I mistype and submit the wrong password, my laptop just goes to grub rescue mode, forcing me to reboot to enter the password again. How can I install more user-friendly "password input screen"?

Last edited by keddad (2021-08-27 07:37:02)

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,203

Re: [SOLVED] How to make LUKS password input screen "better"?

That is currently impossible if you have an encrypted boot partition. Those disitributions have the kernel in an ununecrypted location and do not use the encyrption support in grub, then the luks password is asked by the kernel initramfs (if you want graphics, configure it with plymouth)

Last edited by progandy (2021-08-26 13:42:03)

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SteffNC

Member

Registered: 2019-05-22

Posts: 14

Re: [SOLVED] How to make LUKS password input screen "better"?

If you simply want to avoid to get droped into the grub rescue shell and reboot, I would recommend to try systemd-boot. It is much faster than grub and let you mistype the password.
If you want to do the graphical thing, go like progandy suggested.

Raynman

Member

Registered: 2011-10-22

Posts: 1,539

Re: [SOLVED] How to make LUKS password input screen "better"?

AFAIK systemd-boot doesn't support encryption. There are two mkinitcpio hooks for encryption, though, one of which uses systemd in the initramfs.

Can't you get back to normal mode from a grub rescue shell? (I have very little experience with GRUB2, but there seems to be a `normal` command.)

Edit: seems you can: https://unix.stackexchange.com/question … n-reprompt

Maybe you could even script a loop around that if you write your own grub.cfg (might be complicated by normal<->rescue mode switch).

Last edited by Raynman (2021-08-26 17:18:00)

zpg443

Member

Registered: 2016-12-03

Posts: 271

Re: [SOLVED] How to make LUKS password input screen "better"?

I tried using plymouth and plymouth-git, neither of which worked. After 30 minutes of trying to make it work, I decided it is not worth all that trouble just to get a "prettier" login. Text prompt is good enough for me.

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,203

Re: [SOLVED] How to make LUKS password input screen "better"?

As I said, you seem to use an encrpted boot partition that includes the kernel. In that case, you have a password prompt from GRUB2, and it is impossible to allow multiple tries for that. There are some old patches on the grub mailing list, but they have to be ported to the current grub version: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/grub … 00133.html

If you want a pretty screen or a prompt with retries now, then you have to use an unencrypted boot partition. (grub will just load the kernel without a password, then the kernel will ask for the password for the root partition)

Last edited by progandy (2021-08-26 18:33:06)

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keddad

Member

Registered: 2020-12-27

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] How to make LUKS password input screen "better"?

I'll try to set up systemd-boot. I don't really care about graphics on startup, but I really want to be able to retype a password without rebooting or remembering some weird commands (I'm not familiar with grub shell). Hope that works.

cloverskull

Member

Registered: 2018-09-30

Posts: 172

Re: [SOLVED] How to make LUKS password input screen "better"?

Do you have an encrypted boot partition? I could be wrong but I don't think systemd-boot will work with an encrypted boot partition. I have a standalone boot partition which is for ESP and includes my bootloader and initramfs and I use systemd-boot with plymouth to achieve a graphical passphrase prompt.

alissonfl

Member

Registered: 2023-07-08

Posts: 1

Re: [SOLVED] How to make LUKS password input screen "better"?

In my case (and I have seen some threads too), this step (waiting for the input) does not have any timeout.

My laptop should always be on, but sometimes it wakes up in the middle of the night (I think it crashed and restarted itself) and stays at the input password screen all night, displaying a giant Dell logo.

When I enter the password and start my system, I can still see the Dell logo burned into my screen clearly for the rest of the day. I fear it could damage my screen or cause permanent burn-in.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,804

Re: [SOLVED] How to make LUKS password input screen "better"?

alissinfi, Welcome to the forums.  Watch the age of threads when you post.  This one is two years old. 
If you have a question, please start a new thread you will own.  Link back to this thread it you feel it is relevant.

Thanks.
Closing

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