3 ms·

What’s the story with full disk encryption on Ubuntu these days? Last time I checked (a while ago) it was a bit clunky, but now I’m considering a Linux desktop

by drej 6y ago

What’s the story with full disk encryption on Ubuntu these days? Last time I checked (a while ago) it was a bit clunky, but now I’m considering a Linux desktop after 10 yrs of macOS and filevault, so checking my options. Thanks!

pedrocr 6y ago
What was clunky? The installer supports it and then all you have to do is insert the password on boot.
- lukeschlather 6y ago
  When I got a XPS 13 ~4 years ago full disk encryption didn't work at all on Ubuntu due to the NVME drive and Dell support had no workarounds and neither did the internet. I certainly hope it's fixed by now.
  - nmstoker 6y ago
    Interesting, I've had no problems with full disk encryption on my XPS 13 from around then but I did switch to Arch Linux at the same time I was setting it up.
- input_sh 6y ago
  The initial setup is definitely easy, but I wish additional setup would have a graphical interface. Notably, changing or removing a passphrase, both of which should be tucked away somewhere in the settings. Your current options are gnome-disks and cryptsetup, and the former simply didn't work with long passphrases last time I dabbled with it. It's also quite difficult to encrypt an existing setup without formatting the drive. You'd need to unmount your root partition, and since you can't do that from a running system, you'd need to boot off of a USB stick first. BitLocker is definitely easier in that regard.
  - kadoban 6y ago
    I stopped using it recently, but cryptsetup (with luks if it matters) definitely allows passphrases. I think my longest was ~50 characters? Not sure if you were going beyond that. I can't seem to find any old (or new) complaints about it limiting, or anything about a fix for same. You sure it was that?
    - input_sh 6y ago
      My mistake, I wanted to write that gnome-disks struggled with longer passphrases, not cryptsetup. I've edited my comment above to fix that mistake.
blfr 6y ago
The installer will create an encrypted LVM for you. Zero hassle.
RandomBacon 6y ago
It's click-and-go, unless you want to manually set up different partitions for home, root, etc.

by drej 6y ago

pedrocr 6y ago

What was clunky? The installer supports it and then all you have to do is insert the password on boot.

lukeschlather 6y ago
When I got a XPS 13 ~4 years ago full disk encryption didn't work at all on Ubuntu due to the NVME drive and Dell support had no workarounds and neither did the internet. I certainly hope it's fixed by now.
- nmstoker 6y ago
  Interesting, I've had no problems with full disk encryption on my XPS 13 from around then but I did switch to Arch Linux at the same time I was setting it up.
input_sh 6y ago
The initial setup is definitely easy, but I wish additional setup would have a graphical interface. Notably, changing or removing a passphrase, both of which should be tucked away somewhere in the settings. Your current options are gnome-disks and cryptsetup, and the former simply didn't work with long passphrases last time I dabbled with it. It's also quite difficult to encrypt an existing setup without formatting the drive. You'd need to unmount your root partition, and since you can't do that from a running system, you'd need to boot off of a USB stick first. BitLocker is definitely easier in that regard.
- kadoban 6y ago
  I stopped using it recently, but cryptsetup (with luks if it matters) definitely allows passphrases. I think my longest was ~50 characters? Not sure if you were going beyond that. I can't seem to find any old (or new) complaints about it limiting, or anything about a fix for same. You sure it was that?
  - input_sh 6y ago
    My mistake, I wanted to write that gnome-disks struggled with longer passphrases, not cryptsetup. I've edited my comment above to fix that mistake.

blfr 6y ago

The installer will create an encrypted LVM for you. Zero hassle.

RandomBacon 6y ago

It's click-and-go, unless you want to manually set up different partitions for home, root, etc.