this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2025
160 points (99.4% liked)

Linux

49051 readers
1346 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
AgreeableLandscape@lemmy.ml
nooter692@lemmy.ml
MarcellusDrum@lemmy.ml
cypherpunks@lemmy.ml
cyclohexane@lemmy.ml
d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz
160
Do you encrypt your drives and why or why not? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 day ago by monovergent@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml
213 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I was recently intrigued to learn that only half of the respondents to a survey said that they used disk encryption. Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows have been increasingly using encryption by default. On the other hand, while most Linux installers I've encountered include the option to encrypt, it is not selected by default.

Whether it's a test bench, beater laptop, NAS, or daily driver, I encrypt for peace of mind. Whatever I end up doing on my machines, I can be pretty confident my data won't end up in the wrong hands if the drive is stolen or lost and can be erased by simply overwriting the LUKS header. Recovering from an unbootable state or copying files out from an encrypted boot drive only takes a couple more commands compared to an unencrypted setup.

But that's just me and I'm curious to hear what other reasons to encrypt or not to encrypt are out there.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.com 2 points 1 day ago (9 children)

I encrypt my laptop and desktops and I think it’s worth it. I regret encrypting my servers because they need passwords to turn on. I couldn’t figure out how to handle it when away.

[–] data1701d@startrek.website 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Do your servers have TPM? Clevis might be the way to go; I use it on my Thinkpad and it makes my life easy. If the servers don’t have TPM, Clevis also supports this weird thing called Tang, which from what I can tell basically assures that the servers can only be automatically decrypted on your local network. If Clevis fails, you can have it fall back to letting you enter the LVM password.

[–] ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.com 2 points 1 day ago

I have not tried any of those three things: TPM, Clevis, or Tang. Thanks for recommending.

I tried to setup a keyfile on /, /boot, and /root.

I tried a keyfile on a usb

I also tried to use dropbear to allow ssh unlock.

Sadly these didn’t work and drove me crazy for two nights.

load more comments (7 replies)