Linux Full Disk Encryption?

[Katheudo]

I have recently installed Linux Mint and did not choose to encrypt my OS while installing it. So after installing Linux Mint I wanted to encrypt the whole disk, is this possible or not? I did some reading online and some people were saying you cannot because it requires random data on the hard drive. Because I am new to Linux I thought you could install VeraCrypt and do a full system encryption like on Windows, turns out no you cannot?

[gray-fox]

First, general tip on searching information regarding your Linux system, when your distro is smaller variant of some other distro. Like in this case, Mint is variant of Ubuntu(+debian) if you are searching info for Mint and you don't find anything useful, then try searching same stuff but how to do it on ubuntu(more documentation and info all over web). You can then quit directly apply that info on your Mint box. I use that same technique all the time when using Arch variants, so I directly look info from Arch wiki.

Secondly,  I guess you are talking about encrypting your home directory instead of whole drive? Maybe these will help you:
http://www.howtogeek.com/116032/how-to-encrypt-your-home-folder-after-installing-ubuntu/

http://superuser.com/questions/361212/can-i-encrypt-the-home-folder-after-i-have-installed-linux-mint-11

https://mytechnicalthoughts.wordpress.com/2014/05/22/how-to-encrypt-your-home-folder-in-ubuntu-or-linux-mint-after-installation-using-ecryptfs/

[Katheudo]

Thanks for the tip! I was looking to encrypt the whole drive, but as I found out on Linux after the install you cannot do that. However, how come you can do this on Windows, is it because of the way Linux works?

[proxx]

Thanks for the tip! I was looking to encrypt the whole drive, but as I found out on Linux after the install you cannot do that. However, how come you can do this on Windows, is it because of the way Linux works?

It is surely possible and I would recommend doing it on install and not after, too much pain.
Also it comes at a price, do you really need it ?
If your disk goes bad, and they do, you can have a bad day trying to rega access to bad data on a encrypted disk.

[gray-fox]

Just to add what proxx said if you do it with LUKS for example, AFAIK it wipes your personal data anyways(don't remember for sure) so you need to back it somewhere else, so then does it matter so much to do fresh install instead. If you have your whole file system on same partition at the moment, maybe you should do one  seperate partition and encrypt that only on new install(or with current one).Then keep most sensitive stuff on there. Not so much negative side effects that can come with full encrypted system.

[Katheudo]

It is looking like I will need to reinstall and use the LUKS on the install process of Linux Mint then Shame really as I have already setup Linux how I like it. But that is what you get when you don't research before hand.

[0E 800]

Before you do that, I would install Systemback.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/systemback/
Installation:

Code: [Select]

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nemh/systemback
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install systemback
Using systemback, create an ISO of your current OS - you could possibly use it later.

I havent played with Mint for some time, I found this:
http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/344

Here is how I would guess you can do it.

Use systemback, create a bootable ISO (keep in mind, if you have installed a kernel that didnt come originally with your OS, it most likely wont have AUFS module installed, which means it wont boot in live). So make sure your using the kernel that came from your source repo.

After you have your ISO, boot it, try to setup full disk encryption and then use systemback to install the OS.

If you dont want to try that. Then atleast compress your ~/.config, most customization's are there. Might as well compress /usr/share/themes and /usr/share/icons too.

[Katheudo]

Thanks for the advice! In the end I just installed Linux mint again and chose the encryption option at the install process. However I had to choose a password to start with which did not include any special characters, just letters because the first boot uses the US keyboard layout and I using a UK keyboard, so I had to change the password when I logged it...

[Stackprotector]

One of the best things on linux is is the separation between the home and root folder. You can backup your home folder on a external drive including a list of your installed packages. Then reinstall using a encrypted drive and restore your home folder.

[Katheudo]

Yeah I am so glad I have switched to Linux now.