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Encrypted Install on Btrfs with Arch Linux on UEFI

Sat, May 1, 2021 01:00 CEST

Tags: Security, Encryption

So easy!

  • Bootloader: bootctl
    • Encryption: LUKS
    • Filesystem: Btrfs

Check you are in EFI mode

ls /sys/firmware/efi
...

Update the system clock

timedatectl set-ntp true

List disks

lsblk

Partition the storage device

gdisk /dev/sda
o
y
n
<enter>
<enter>
+512MiB
ef00
n
<enter>
<enter>
<enter>
8309
w
y

Format boot partition

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1

Encrypt main partition

cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/sda2
YES
<passphrase>
<passphrase>

Open main partition

cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda2 main
<passphrase>

Format Btrfs volume

mkfs.btrfs -d single -m single /dev/mapper/main

Mount Btrfs volume

mount /dev/mapper/main /mnt

Create Btrfs subvolumes

cd /mnt
btrfs subvolume create @
btrfs subvolume create @home
btrfs subvolume create @snapshots
btrfs subvolume create @swap

Mount Btrfs main volume, boot partition, and Btrfs subvolumes

cd
umount /mnt
mount -o noatime,subvol=@ /dev/mapper/main /mnt
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount -o fmask=0077,dmask=0077 /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
mkdir /mnt/home
mount -o noatime,subvol=@home /dev/mapper/main /mnt/home
mkdir /mnt/.snapshots
mount -o noatime,subvol=@snapshots /dev/mapper/main /mnt/.snapshots
mkdir /mnt/swap
mount -o noatime,subvol=@swap /dev/mapper/main /mnt/swap

Create swap file

btrfs filesystem mkswapfile --size 4g --uuid clear /mnt/swap/swapfile
swapon /mnt/swap/swapfile

Bootstrap installation (tweak /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist if too slow)

pacstrap /mnt mkinitcpio linux linux-firmware btrfs-progs base base-devel dhcpcd vi gvim git firefox iwd
pacstrap /mnt mkinitcpio linux linux-firmware btrfs-progs base base-devel dhcpcd vi gvim git firefox # without WiFi

Generate /etc/fstab

genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Chroot

arch-chroot /mnt

Configure time

rm /etc/localtime
ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Brussels /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc --utc

Create root password

passwd
<password>
<password>

Uncomment UTF8 and ISO-8859-1 en_US lines in /etc/locale.gen.

# /etc/locale.gen
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_US ISO-8859-1

Then

locale-gen
locale > /etc/locale.conf

Configure the hostname

echo "hostname" > /etc/hostname

Give keyboard access before mounting to type encryption password

# /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf kms keyboard block encrypt filesystems fsck)

Optionally throw in some consolefont and keymap hooks if you plan to customize them.

# /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf kms keyboard keymap consolefont block encrypt filesystems fsck)

Regenerate initramfs

mkinitcpio -p linux

Install the bootloader

bootctl --path=/boot install

Create boot loader

# /boot/loader/loader.conf
default arch.conf
timeout 3
editor 0
console-mode auto # see https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/8086/commits/68d4b8ac9b9673637fa198b735f6e64b78b35d3b
# console-mode max

Create boot loader entry

# /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options cryptdevice=UUID=<UUID>:main:allow-discards root=/dev/mapper/main rootflags=subvol=@ rw

NOTE: :allow-discards should not be used if not SSD storage.

Replace <UUID> with the UUID found in :read !blkid /dev/sda2.

Unmount and reboot

exit
cd
sync
swapoff /mnt/swap/swapfile
umount -R /mnt
reboot

Create an admin user (uncomment the appropriate %wheel line via visudo)

useradd -m -G wheel theadminusername
passwd theadminusername
<password>
<password>

Note that the login shell can be changed with

chsh -s <shell> <username>

The list of available shells is available at less /etc/shells.