title: Installing Parabola or Arch GNU+Linux-Libre, with Full-Disk Encryption (including /boot) x-toc-enable: true ...
This guide covers how to install Parabola GNU+Linux-Libre, with full disk encryption, including /boot (the boot directory). On most systems, /boot has to be left unencrypted, while the other partition(s) are encrypted. This is so that GRUB (and therefore the kernel) can be loaded and executed, because most firmware can’t open a LUKS volume; however, with libreboot, GRUB is already included as a payload, so even /boot can be encrypted; this protects /boot from tampering by someone with physical access to the system.
NOTE: This guide is only for the GRUB payload. If you use the depthcharge payload, ignore this section entirely.
This guide borrows heavily from the Parabola wiki, and will constantly link to it. For those new to Parabola GNU+Linux-Libre, check their Beginner section for an overview.
You can find the minimum requirements to run Parabola GNU+Linux here.
For this guide, I used the 2016.11.03 ISO; the most current image is available here.
If you are a complete beginner with GNU+Linux, choose the Mate Desktop ISO. it is easier to install Parabola with this version, because it allows you access to a web browser, so you can copy and paste commands right into the terminal, without worrying about typos.
NOTE: You should never blindly copy-and-paste any commands. In this guide,
copying and pasting is to ensure that no errors are made when entering the commands,
so that you don't effectively "brick" your installation, and have to start over.
It's important to understand what each command does before you use it,
so be sure to read the Parabola/Archi Wiki documentation on the command,
as well as its man
page.
If you are not a beginner, choose the Main Live ISO.
Only choose the TalkingParabola ISO, if you are blind or visually impaired.
Refer to the Parabola wiki, for finding and choosing the proper installation device, whether you are using an Optical Disk, or a USB drive.
After downloading the ISO, and creating some kind of bootable media, you will need to boot into the Live image. If you are unsure of how to do so, see How to boot a GNU+Linux installer, and move on to the next step; otherwise, just go to the next step.
Once booted into the environment, either open the MATE Terminal
application
(if using the MATE Desktop ISO), or simply just enter the commands listed below
(if using any of the other ISO's).
To begin the installation, you must first select the proper keyboard layout.
You will also need to set up a network connection, to install packages.
You need to prepare the storage device that we will use to install the operating system. You can use same device name that you used earlier, to determine the installation device for the ISO.
You want to make sure that the device you're using doesn't contain any plaintext copies of your personal data. If the drive is new, then you can skip the rest of this section; if it's not new, then there are two ways to handle it:
If the drive were not previously encrypted, securely wipe it with the dd
command;
you can either choose to fill it with zeroes or random data; I chose random data (e.g., urandom
),
because it's more secure. Depending on the size of the drive, this could take a while to complete:
If the drive were previously encrypted, all you need to do is wipe the LUKS header.
The size of the header depends upon the specific model of the hard drive;
you can find this information by doing some research online.
Refer to this article, for more information about LUKS headers.
You can either fill the header with zeroes, or with random data; again, I chose random data, using urandom
:
Also, if you're using an SSD, there are a two things you should keep in mind:
Now that all the personal data has been deleted from the disk, it's time to format it. We'll begin by creating a single, large partition on it, and then encrypting it using LUKS.
You will need the device-mapper
kernel module during the installation;
this will enable us to set up our encrypted disk. To load it, use the following command:
# modprobe dm-mod
We then need to select the device name of the drive we're installing the operating system on; see the above method, if needed, for figuring out device names.
Now that we have the name of the correct device, we need to create the partition on it.
For this, we will use the cfdisk
command:
# cfdisk /dev/sdX
Now that you have created the partition, it's time to create the encrypted volume on it,
using the cryptsetup
command, like this:
# cryptsetup -v --cipher serpent-xts-plain64 --key-size 512 --hash whirlpool \
>--iter-time 500 --use-random --verify-passphrase luksFormat /dev/sdXY
These are just recommended defaults; if you want to use anything else,
or to find out what options there are, run man cryptsetup
.
NOTE: the default iteration time is 2000ms (2 seconds), if not specified when running the cryptsetup command. You should set a lower time than this; otherwise, there will be an approximately 20-second delay when booting your system. We recommend 500ms (0.5 seconds), and this is included in the prepared
cryptsetup
command above. Keep in mind that the iteration time is for security purposes (it mitigates brute force attacks), so anything lower than 5 seconds is probably not very secure.
You will now be prompted to enter a passphrase; be sure to make it secure. For passphrase security, length is more important than complexity (e.g., correct-horse-battery-staple is more secure than bf20$3Jhy3), but it's helpful to include several different types of characters (e.g., uppercase/lowercase letters, numbers, special characters). The password length should be as long as you are able to remember, without having to write it down, or store it anywhere.
Use of the diceware method is recommended, for generating secure passphrases (rather than passwords).
The next step is to create two Logical Volumes within the LUKS-encrypted partition: one will contain your main installation, and the other will contain your swap space.
We will create this using, the Logical Volume Manager (LVM).
First, we need to open the LUKS partition, at /dev/mapper/lvm:
# cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sdXY lvm
Then, we create LVM partition:
# pvcreate /dev/mapper/lvm
Check to make sure tha the partition was created:
# pvdisplay
Next, we create the volume group, inside of which the logical volumes will be created. For this example, we will call this group matrix. You can call yours whatever you would like; just make sure that you remember its name:
# vgcreate matrix /dev/mapper/lvm
Check to make sure that the group was created:
# vgdisplay
Lastly, we need to create the logical volumes themselves, inside the volume group; one will be our swap, cleverly named swapvol, and the other will be our root partition, equally cleverly named as root.
We will create the swapvol first (again, choose your own name, if you like). Also, make sure to choose an appropriate swap size (e.g., 2G refers to two gigabytes; change this however you see fit):
Now, we will create a single, large partition in the rest of the space, for root:
You can also be flexible here, for example you can specify a /boot, a /, a /home, a /var, or a /usr volume. For example, if you will be running a web/mail server then you want /var (where logs are stored) in its own partition, so that if it fills up with logs, it won't crash your system. For a home/laptop system (typical use case), just a root and a swap will do.
Verify that the logical volumes were created correctly:
# lvdisplay
The last steps of setting up the drive for installation are turning swapvol into an active swap partition, and formatting root.
To make swapvol into a swap partition, we run the mkswap
(i.e., make swap) command:
# mkswap /dev/mapper/matrix-swapvol
Activate the swapvol, allowing it to now be used as swap,
using swapon
(i.e., turn swap on) command:
# swapon /dev/matrix/swapvol
Now I have to format root, to make it ready for installation;
I do this with the mkfs
(i.e., make file system) command.
I choose the ext4 filesystem, but you could use a different one,
depending on your use case:
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/matrix-root
Lastly, I need to mount root. Fortunately, GNU+Linux has a directory for this very purpose: /mnt:
# mount /dev/matrix/root /mnt
Now that you have mounted root, you need to create the two most important folders on it: /boot and /home; these folder contain your boot files, as well as each user's personal documents, videos, etc..
Since you mounted root at /mnt, this is where you must create them;
you will do so using mkdir
:
# mkdir -p /mnt/home
# mkdir -p /mnt/boot
You could also create two separate partitions for /boot and /home, but such a setup would be for advanced users, and is thus not covered in this guide. For more information on how to do this, refer to the Parabola/Arch wiki on partitions.
The setup of the drive and partitions is now complete; it's time to actually install Parabola.
The first step of the actual installation is to choose the server from where
we will need to download the packages; for this, we will again refer to the Parabola Wiki.
For beginners, I recommend that the edit the file using nano
(a command-line text editor);
you can learn more about it here; for non-beginners,
simply edit it with your favorite text editor.
We need to install the essential applications needed for your Parabola installation to run; refer to Install the Base System, on the Parabola wiki.
The next step in the process is to generate a file known as an fstab; the purpose of this file is for the operating system to identify the storage device used by your installation. Here are the instructions to generate that file.
Now, you need to chroot
into your new installation, to complete the setup
and installation process. Chrooting refers to changing the root directory
of an operating system to a different one; in this instance, it means changing your root
directory to the one you created in the previous steps, so that you can modify files
and install software onto it, as if it were the host operating system.
To chroot
into your installation, follow the instructions here.
Locale refers to the language that your operating system will use, as well as some other considerations related to the region in which you live. To set this up, follow the instructions here.
This will determine the keyboard layout of your new installation; follow the instructions here.
You'll need to set your current time zone in the operating system; this will enable applications that require accurate time to work properly (e.g., the web browser). To do this, follow the instructions here.
To make sure that your computer has the right time, you'll have to set the time in your computer's internal clock. Follow the instructions here to do that.
Now we need to make sure that the kernel has all the modules that it needs to boot the operating system. To do this, we need to edit a file called mkinitcpio.conf. More information about this file can be found here, but for the sake of this guide, you simply need to run the following command.
# nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
There are several modifications that we need to make to the file:
Change the value of the uncommented MODULES
line to i915
.
hid-generic
,
hid
, and hid-apple
inside the quotation marks, in order to have
a working keyboard when asked to enter the LUKS password.
Make sure to separate each module by one space.Change the value of the uncommented HOOKS
line to the following:
“base udev autodetect modconf block keyboard keymap consolefont encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck shutdown
”;
here's what each module does:
keymap
adds to initramfs the keymap that you specified in /etc/vconsole.confconsolefont
adds to initramfs the font that you specified in /etc/vconsole.confencrypt
adds LUKS support to the initramfs - needed to unlock your disks at boot timelvm2
adds LVM support to the initramfs - needed to mount the LVM partitions at boot timeshutdown
is needed according to Parabola wiki, for unmounting devices (such as LUKS/LVM) during shutdownAfter modifying the file and saving it, we need to update the kernel(s) with the new settings. Before doing this, we want to install a Long-Term Support (LTS) kernel as a backup, in the event that we encounter problems with the default Linux-Libre kernel (which is continually updated).
We will also install the grub
package, which we will need later,
to make our modifications to the GRUB configuration file:
# pacman -S linux-libre-lts grub
Then, we update both kernels like this, using the mkinitcpio
command:
# mkinitcpio -p linux-libre
# mkinitcpio -p linux-libre-lts
Now we need to set up the hostname for the system; this is so that our device
can be identified by the network. Refer to this section
of the Parabola wiki's Beginner's Guide. You can make the hostname anything you like;
for example, if you wanted to choose the hostname parabola,
you would run the echo
command, like this:
# echo parabola > /etc/hostname
And then you would modify /etc/hosts like this, adding the hostname to it:
# nano /etc/hosts
#<ip-address> <hostname.domain.org> <hostname>
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost parabola
::1 localhost.localdomain localhost parabola
Now that we have a hostname, we need to configure the settings for the rest of the network. Instructions for setting up a wired connection are here, and instructions for setting up a wireless connection are here.
The root account has control over all the files in the computer; for security,
we want to protect it with a password. The password requirements given above,
for the LUKS passphrase, apply here as well. You will set this password with the passwd
command:
# passwd
There are some final changes that we can make to the installation, to make it significantly more secure; these are based on the Security section of the Arch wiki.
We will want to open the configuration file for password settings, and increase the strength of our root password:
# nano /etc/pam.d/passwd
Add rounds=65536
at the end of the uncommented 'password' line; in simple terms,
this will force an attacker to take more time with each password guess, mitigating
the threat of brute force attacks.
You can prevent any user, other than the root user, from accessing the most important
directories in the system, using the chmod
command; to learn more about this command,
run man chmod
:
# chmod 700 /boot /etc/{iptables,arptables}
We can also setup the system to lock a user's account, after three failed login attempts.
To do this, we will need to edit the file /etc/pam.d/system-login, and comment out this line:
auth required pam\_tally.so onerr=succeed file=/var/log/faillog*\
You could also just delete it. Above it, put the following line:
auth required pam\_tally.so deny=2 unlock\_time=600 onerr=succeed file=/var/log/faillog
This configuration will lock the user out for ten minutes. You can unlock a user's account manually, using the root account, with this command:
# pam_tally --user *theusername* --reset
Congratulations! You have finished the installation of Parabola GNU+Linux-Libre. Now it is time to reboot the system, but first, there are several preliminary steps:
Exit from chroot
, using the exit
command:
# exit
Unmount all of the partitions from /mnt, and "turn off" the swap volume:
# umount -R /mnt
# swapoff -a
Deactivate the root and swapvol logical volumes:
# lvchange -an /dev/matrix/root
# lvchange -an /dev/matrix/swapvol
Lock the encrypted partition (i.e., close it):
# cryptsetup luksClose lvm
Shutdown the machine:
# shutdown -h now
After the machine is off, remove the installation media, and turn it on.
When starting your installation for the first time, you have to manually boot the system by entering a series of commands into the GRUB command line.
After the computer starts, Press C
to bring up the GRUB command line.
You can either boot the normal kernel, or the LTS kernel we installed;
here are the commands for the normal kernel:
grub> cryptomount -a
grub> set root='lvm/matrix-root'
grub> linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux-libre root=/dev/matrix/root cryptdevice=/dev/sda1:root
grub> initrd /boot/initramfs-linux-libre.img
grub> boot
If you're trying to boot the LTS kernel, simply add -lts to the end of each command that contains the kernel (e.g., /boot/vmlinuz-linux-libre would be /boot/vmlinuz/linux-libre-lts).
NOTE: on some Thinkpads, during boot, a faulty DVD drive can cause
the cryptomount -a
command to fail, as well as the error AHCI transfer timed out
(when the Thinkpad X200 is connected to an UltraBase). For both issues,
the workaround was to remove the DVD drive (if using the UltraBase,
then the whole device must be removed).
The next step of the setup process is to modify the configuration file that GRUB uses, so that we don't have to manually type in those commands above, each time we want to boot our system.
To make this process much easier, we need to install a graphical interface, as well as install some other packages that will make the system more user-friendly. These additions will also sharply reduce the probability of "bricking" our computer.
Configuring Parabola (Post-Install) provides an example setup, but don't feel as if you must follow it verbatim (of course, you can, if you want to); Parabola is user-centric and very customizable, which means that you have maximum control of the system, and a near-limitless number of options for setting it up. For more information, read The Arch Way (Parabola also follows it).
After setting up the graphical interface, refer to How to Modify GRUB Configuration, for instructions on doing just that, as well as flashing the ROM (if necessary).
Copyright © 2014, 2015, 2016 Leah Rowe info@minifree.org
Copyright © 2015 Jeroen Quint jezza@diplomail.ch
Copyright © 2017 Elijah Smith esmith1412@posteo.net
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections, no Front Cover Texts, and no Back Cover Texts. A copy of this license is found in ../fdl-1.3.md