HOWTO make encrypted home partition using LUKS work

Hello,

This is not a howto about how to create an encypted home partition, there are a lot of good ones there, on the internet (as an example: http://goodies.lemonsoftware.eu/goodie_content.php?id=224). But for some reason, mounting it automatically at the startup seems to be problematic in VL.

So, here is the solution:

1. create a new file in /etc/rc.d called rc.cryptinit

Code:

# file: /etc/rc.d/rc.cryptinit
# if this script is executed when home is opened, tries to close it;
# otherwise, tries to open it, for three times, then continue without
# opening it
if [ -b /dev/mapper/crypthome ]; then
/sbin/cryptsetup luksClose crypthome
else
i=3
while [ $i -gt 0 ]; do
let "i -= 1"
/sbin/cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/hda2 crypthome && i=0
done
fi

Of course, modify /dev/hda2 with your partition (/dev/sdXX, /dev/hdXX or whatever it is) and put instead of crypthome whatever you like. This will be the name used in /dev/mapper/...

2. make it executable

Code:

# chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.cryptinit

3. put a record about it in /etc/rc.d/rc.S
just before the line with "# Start file systems" (around line 60 at this moment), because we need it before actually begin to mount the filesystems.

Code:

# Creating device mapping for encrypted devices
/etc/rc.d/rc.cryptinit

4. In /etc/fstab you must have already

Code:

/dev/mapper/crypthome /home ext3 defaults 0 0

or something similiar.

Reboot and you should be prompted for LUKS passphrase. Otherwise, check again the steps. Good Luck!