Arch Linux

slughappy1

Member

Registered: 2009-03-20

Posts: 75

Questions before trying to install

First off, I am currently an Ubuntu user. I've heard many good things about Arch and want to try a distro that isn't so bloated. I have several questions first.

1) I need my entire hdd to be encrypted, but I am also a dual boot. I currently have Vista installed and encrypted using Truecrypt. Would this, http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sys … r_dm-crypt, be the best place to start with encrypting Arch? Also, I wanted to keep the MBR that Truecrypt installed. So in Ubuntu I followed the guide here, http://ph.ubuntuforums.com/showpost.php … stcount=10, and wanted to know what I should do to keep it set up that way. Since GRUB uses the MBR to boot.

2) What else should I know about converting? Drivers?

byte

Member

From: Düsseldorf (DE)

Registered: 2006-05-01

Posts: 2,046

Re: Questions before trying to install

Welcome!

I have several systems with a small (usually 32mb+ext2) primary partition for /boot and another one for the rest of the disk.
Setup would be as follows: The large partition gets encrypted with cryptsetup luksFormat. Then I'll luksOpen it and apply all that LVM magic (optional; a single mountpoint for / would work too). At last I'll create swap space and filesystems and after all this I'll start the Arch installer. After installation and before rebooting I'll edit /mnt/etc/fstab (I prefer mounting by filesystem LABEL, otherwise make sure to use /dev/mapper/...) and /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst (kernel line has to use "root=/dev/mapper..." and make sure to use the right "cryptdevice").

That wiki article is quite comprehensive and should cover everything you'd need.
I'm not sure if you could follow the Ubuntu posting to the letter, but the method seems to be right.

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Dieter@be

Forum Fellow

From: Belgium

Registered: 2006-11-05

Posts: 2,001

Website

Re: Questions before trying to install

Note that we have an installer in development (called aif) which has built-in support for dm_crypt and lvm.
A beta version (which works quite good btw) is included on 2009.02 and on the next release it should be the new official installer.

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slughappy1

Member

Registered: 2009-03-20

Posts: 75

Re: Questions before trying to install

How am I supposed to try and use AIF? I downloaded the latests install cd, but when I log in as root. It tells

-bash: aif: command not found

slughappy1

Member

Registered: 2009-03-20

Posts: 75

Re: Questions before trying to install

I ask because I wasn't given an option ( at least that I saw ) to actually use a lvm with encryption.

Ranguvar

Member

Registered: 2008-08-12

Posts: 2,549

Re: Questions before trying to install

If you aren't going to use TrueCrypt's hidden partition capabilities, try LUKS instead. It's infinitely more flexible.
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LUKS_Encrypted_Root

/arch/aif I believe. It's in the /arch/ directory, that I know.
I wouldn't use AIF... I haven't used it myself, but it's in beta and you can easily set up things just fine by following the Wiki article above and not letting /arch/setup do the partitioning for you, instead using the select mount points option or whatever.

slughappy1

Member

Registered: 2009-03-20

Posts: 75

Re: Questions before trying to install

I use TrueCrypt to encrypt the Vista Partition, not Linux.  I use LUKS with dm-crypt when I encrypt with Ubuntu Alternate CD. I don't think so, but were you saying to use LUKS with Vista? I thought LUKS was Linux only. Since it stands for Linux Unified Key Setup. When I went into /arch there wasn't an aif in there. At least I don't remember there being one. I am currently away from my computer so I can't check to be sure if it was on the CD or not.

If I am wrong about anything, please enlighten me :-)

Ranguvar

Member

Registered: 2008-08-12

Posts: 2,549

Re: Questions before trying to install

LUKS will work in Windows, sort of.
http://www.freeotfe.org/

slughappy1

Member

Registered: 2009-03-20

Posts: 75

Re: Questions before trying to install

I miss understood what you were saying I guess. I used to use freeotfe.org, but it doesn't play well LVM. I thought you were saying to use LUKS to encrypt the Vista partition.

slughappy1

Member

Registered: 2009-03-20

Posts: 75

Re: Questions before trying to install

So I ran into a road block. I want my hdd to be partitioned like,
sda1 -> Vista (Already installed)
sda2 -> boot
sda3 -> swap
sda4 -> lvm (root and home)

or

sda1 -> Vista (Already installed)
sda2 -> boot
sda3 -> lvm (root, swap and home)

Which would be faster?

Also, I tried to set up my computer like the first. But I got stuck at the Install Bootloader step. I wasn't sure how to set GRUB up, and it couldn't detect the settings.

slughappy1

Member

Registered: 2009-03-20

Posts: 75

Re: Questions before trying to install

Any ideas?

Lone_Wolf

Member

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 11,914

Re: Questions before trying to install

You indicated you wanted to keep the truecrypt MBR, that means you will have to install GRUB onto a partition.
Install grub on SDA2 (your boot partition).
You will then have to configure the truecrypt MBR to boot grub from that partition.

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

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