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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
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body {
background:#fff;
color:#000;
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div.important {
background-color:#ccc;
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</style>
<title>Installing Parabola GNU/Linux with full disk encryption (including /boot)</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1>Installing Parabola GNU/Linux with full disk encryption (including /boot)</h1>
<aside>Or <a href="../index.html">back to main index</a></aside>
</header>
<p>
Because GRUB is installed directly as a payload of libreboot (or coreboot), you don't need an unencrypted /boot partition
when setting up an encrypted system. This means that your machine can really secure data while powered off.
</p>
<p>
Boot Parabola's install environment. <a href="grub_boot_installer.html">How to boot a GNU/Linux installer</a>.
</p>
<p>
Parabola is much more flexible than Trisquel, but also more involved to setup. Use Parabola. It's 10 million times better than Trisquel.
</p>
<p>
Firstly if you use an SSD, beware there are issues with TRIM (not enabled through luks) and security issues if you do enable it.
See <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Specialties#Discard.2FTRIM_support_for_solid_state_drives_.28SSD.29">this page</a>
for more info.
</p>
<p>
Wipe the MBR (if you use MBR):<br/>
# <b>lsblk</b><br/>
Your HDD is probably /dev/sda:
# <b>dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1</b><br/>
Never use SeaBIOS! The MBR section can easily be changed with malicious code, which SeaBIOS will blindly execute.
This guide is for libreboot with GRUB-as-payload only.
</p>
<p>
Securely wipe the drive:<br/>
# <b>dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda</b>
</p>
<p>
This guide will go through the installation steps taken at the time of writing, which may or may not change due to
the volatile nature of Parabola (it changes all the time). In general most of it should remain the same. If you spot mistakes,
please say so! This guide will be ported to the Parabola wiki at a later date. For up to date Parabola install guide, go to
the Parabola wiki. This guide essentially cherry picks the useful information (valid at the time of writing: 2014-09-15).
</p>
<h2>
Change keyboard layout
</h2>
<p>
Parabola live shell assumes US Qwerty. If you have something different, use:<br/>
# <b>loadkeys LAYOUT</b><br/>
For me, LAYOUT would have been dvorak-uk.
</p>
<h2>Getting started</h2>
<p>
The beginning is based on <a href="https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/Installation_Guide">https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/Installation_Guide</a>.
Then I referred to <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Partitioning">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Partitioning</a> at first.
</p>
<h2>dm-mod</h2>
<p>
device-mapper will be used - a lot. Make sure that the kernel module is loaded:<br/>
# <b>modprobe dm-mod</b>
</p>
<h2>Create LUKS partition</h2>
<p>
I am using MBR partitioning, so I use cfdisk:<br/>
# <b>cfdisk /dev/sda</b>
</p>
<p>
I create a single large sda1 filling the whole drive, leaving it as the default type 'Linux' (83).
</p>
<p>
Now I refer to <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Drive_preparation#Partitioning">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Drive_preparation#Partitioning</a>:<br/>
I am then directed to <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Device_encryption">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Device_encryption</a>.
</p>
<p>
Parabola forces you to RTFM.
</p>
<p>
It tells me to run:<br/>
# <b>cryptsetup benchmark</b> (for making sure the list below is populated)<br/>
Then:<br/>
# <b>cat /proc/crypto</b><br/>
This gives me crypto options that I can use. It also provides a representation of the best way to setup LUKS (in this case, security is a priority; speed, a distant second).
To gain a better understanding, I am also reading:<br/>
# <b>man cryptsetup</b>
</p>
<p>
Following that page, based on my requirements, I do the following based on
based on <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Device_encryption#Encryption_options_for_LUKS_mode">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Device_encryption#Encryption_options_for_LUKS_mode</a>.
Reading through, it seems like Serpent (encryption) and Whirlpool (hash) is the best option.
</p>
<p>
I am initializing LUKS with the following:<br/>
# <b>cryptsetup -v --cipher serpent-xts-plain64 --key-size 512 --hash whirlpool --use-random --verify-passphrase luksFormat /dev/sda1</b>
-- choose a <b>secure</b> passphrase here. Ideally lots of lowercase/uppercase numbers, letters, symbols etc all in a random pattern. The password
length should be as long as you are able to handle without writing it down or storing it anywhere. Ideally, 100 characters or more.
It might take you a while to memorize a long passphrase before beginning this step.
</p>
<h2>Create LVM</h2>
<p>
Now I refer to <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LVM">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LVM</a>.
</p>
<p>
Open the LUKS partition:<br/>
# <b>cryptsetup open --type luks /dev/sda1 lvm</b><br/>
(it will be available at /dev/mapper/lvm)<br/>
I'm told that the above is old syntax, which is what I did anyway. You could also try:<br/>
# <b>cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda1 lvm</b>
</p>
<p>
Create LVM partition:<br/>
# <b>pvcreate /dev/mapper/lvm</b><br/>
Show that you just created it:<br/>
# <b>pvdisplay</b>
</p>
<p>
Now I create the volume group, inside of which the logical volumes will be created:<br/>
# <b>vgcreate matrix /dev/mapper/lvm</b> (volume group name is 'matrix')<br/>
Show that you created it:<br/>
# <b>vgdisplay</b>
</p>
<p>
Now create the logical volumes:<br/>
# <b>lvcreate -L 2G matrix -n swapvol</b> (2G swap partition, named <u>swapvol</u>)<br/>
# <b>lvcreate -l +100%FREE matrix -n rootvol</b> (single large partition in the rest of the space, named <u>rootvol</u>)<br/>
You can also be flexible here, for example you can specify a /boot, a /, a /home, a /var, a /usr, etc. For example,
if you will be running a web/mail server then you want /var in it's own partition (so that if it fills up with logs, it won't crash your system).
For a home/laptop system (typical use case), a root and a swap will do (really).
</p>
<p>
Verify that the logical volumes were created, using the following command:<br/>
# <b>lvdisplay</b>
</p>
<h2>Create / and swap partitions</h2>
<p>
For the swapvol LV I use:<br/>
# <b>mkswap /dev/mapper/matrix-swapvol</b>
</p>
<p>
For the rootvol LV I use:<br/>
# <b>mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/matrix-rootvol</b>
</p>
<h2>Continue with Parabola installation</h2>
<p>
Mount the root (/) partition:<br/>
# <b>mount /dev/matrix/rootvol /mnt</b><br/>
</p>
<p>
This guide is really about GRUB, Parabola and cryptomount. I have to show how to install Parabola
so that the guide can continue.
</p>
<p>
Now I am following the rest of <a href="https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/Installation_Guide">https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/Installation_Guide</a>.
I also also cross referencing <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_guide">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_guide</a>.
</p>
<p>
Create /home and /boot on rootvol mountpoint:<br/>
# <b>mkdir /mnt/home</b><br/>
# <b>mkdir /mnt/boot</b>
</p>
<p>
The wiki says to enable the swap so that it can be detected by 'genfstab':<br/>
# <b>swapon /dev/matrix/swapvol</b>
</p>
<p>
DHCP was already working for me, so I had internet during the install. Therefore, I ignore the 'Connect to the Internet' section of the install guide.
I also ignore wifi, since I can set that up after the install. For now, I am just using ethernet.
Otherwise, refer to <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Configuring_Network">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Configuring_Network</a>.
You can test to see if internet is already working by pinging a few domains.
</p>
<p>
The following is based on 'Verification of package signatures' in the Parabola install guide. Check there first to see if steps differ by now.
Now you have to update the default Parabola keyring. This is used for signing and verifying packages:<br/>
# <b>pacman -Sy parabola-keyring</b><br/>
It says that you you get GPG errors, it's probably an expired key so do:<br/>
# <b>pacman-key --populate parabola</b><br/>
# <b>pacman-key --refresh-keys</b><br/>
# <b>pacman -Sy parabola-keyring</b><br/>
To be honest, you should do the above anyway. Parabola has a lot of maintainers, and a lot of keys. Really!<br/>
Also, it says that if the clock is set incorrectly then you have to manually set the correct time (if keys are listed as expired because of it):<br/>
# <b>date MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]</b>
</p>
<h3>Install the base system</h3>
<p>
I commented out all lines except the Server line for the UK Parabola server (main server) in <b>/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist</b> and then did:<br/>
# <b>pacman -Syu</b><br/>
I also had to upgrade pacman and then do the above again:<br/>
# <b>pacman -Sy pacman</b>
</p>
<p>
I also like to install other packages (base-devel, compilers and so on) and wpa_supplicant/dialog are needed for wireless after the install:<br/>
# <b>pacstrap /mnt base base-devel wpa_supplicant dialog</b>
</p>
<h3>Configure the system</h3>
<p>
From the Parabola installation guide (Arch's one was identical):<br/>
# <b>genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab</b>
</p>
<p>
Chroot into new system:<br/>
# <b>arch-chroot /mnt</b>
</p>
<p>
It's a good idea to have this installed:<br/>
# <b>pacman -S linux-libre-lts</b>
</p>
<p>
It was also suggested that you should install this kernel (read up on what GRSEC is):<br/>
# <b>pacman -S linux-libre-grsec</b>
</p>
<p>
This is another kernel that sits inside /boot, which you can use. LTS means 'long-term support'. These are so-called 'stable' kernels
that can be used as a fallback during updates, if a bad kernel causes issues for you.
</p>
<p>
Parabola does not have wget. This is sinister. Install it:<br/>
# <b>pacman -S wget</b>
</p>
<ul>
<li>Write your hostname to /etc/hostname</li>
<li>
Symlink /etc/localtime to /usr/share/zoneinfo/Zone/SubZone. Replace Zone and Subzone to your liking. For example:
<ul>
<li># <b>ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/London /etc/localtime</b></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Set <a href="https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/Locale#Setting_system-wide_locale">locale</a> preferences in /etc/locale.conf. In my case, I did:<br/>
<i>
LANG="en_GB.UTF-8"<br/>
# Keep the default sort order (e.g. files starting with a '.'<br/>
# should appear at the start of a directory listing.)<br/>
LC_COLLATE="C"<br/>
# Set the short date to YYYY-MM-DD (test with "date +%c")<br/>
LC_TIME="en_GB.UTF-8"
</i>
</li>
<li>
Add <a href="https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/KEYMAP">console keymap and font</a> preferences in /etc/vconsole.conf. In my case:<br/>
<i>
KEYMAP=dvorak-uk<br/>
FONT=Lat2-Terminus16
</i>
</li>
<li>
Uncomment the selected locale (same as what you specified in /etc/locale.conf) in /etc/locale.gen and generate it with:
<ul>
<li># <b>locale-gen</b></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Configure /etc/mkinitcpio.conf as needed (see <a href="https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/Mkinitcpio">mkinitcpio</a>)
Specifically, for this use case:<br/>
<ul>
<li>
add <b>i915</b> to the MODULES array (forces the driver to load earlier, so that the consolefont isn't wiped out after getting to login).<br/>
add <b>encrypt</b> and <b>lvm2</b> in that order, before the 'filesystems' entry in the HOOKS array.<br/>
add <b>keymap</b>, <b>consolefont</b> and <b>shutdown</b> to the end of the HOOKS array in that order.<br/>
move <b>keyboard</b>, <b>keymap</b> and <b>consolefont</b> in that order, to go before 'encrypt' in the HOOKS array.<br/>
At the end your HOOKS array will look like this:<br/>
<i>HOOKS="base udev autodetect modconf block keyboard keymap consolefont encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck shutdown"</i>
<ul>
<li>keymap adds to initramfs the keymap that you specified in /etc/vconsole.conf</li>
<li>consolefont adds to initramfs the font that you specified in /etc/vconsole.conf</li>
<li>encrypt adds LUKS support to the initramfs - needed to unlock your disks at boot time</li>
<li>lvm2 adds LVM support to the initramfs - needed to mount the LVM partitions at boot time</li>
<li>shutdown is needed according to Parabola wiki for unmounting devices (such as LUKS/LVM) during shutdown</li>
<li>
Runtime modules can be found in /usr/lib/initcpio/hooks, and build hooks can be found in
/usr/lib/initcpio/install.
</li>
<li><b>mkinitcpio -H hookname</b> gives information about each hook.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Now using mkinitcpio, you can create the kernel and ramdisk for booting with (note, this is different than Arch, specifying linux-libre instead of linux):<br/>
# <b>mkinitcpio -p linux-libre</b><br/>
Also do it for linux-libre-lts:<br/>
# <b>mkinitcpio -p linux-libre-lts</b><br/>
Also do it for linux-libre-grsec:<br/>
# <b>mkinitcpio -p linux-libre-grsec</b>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Set a root password</h3>
<p>
At the time of writing, Parabola used SHA512 by default for it's password hashing.
</p>
<p>
I referred to <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SHA_password_hashes">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SHA_password_hashes</a>.
</p>
<p>
Open /etc/pam.d/passwd and add rounds=65536 at the end of the uncommented 'password' line.
</p>
<p>
# <b>passwd root</b><br/>
Make sure to set a secure password! Also, it must never be the same as your LUKS password.
</p>
<h3>Extra security tweaks</h3>
<p>
Based on <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Security">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Security</a>.
</p>
<p>
Restrict access to important directories:<br/>
# <b>chmod 700 /boot /etc/{iptables,arptables}</b>
</p>
<p>
Lockout user after three failed login attempts:<br/>
Edit the file /etc/pam.d/system-login and comment out that line:<br/>
<i># auth required pam_tally.so onerr=succeed file=/var/log/faillog</i><br/>
Or just delete it. Above it, put:<br/>
<i>auth required pam_tally.so deny=2 unlock_time=600 onerr=succeed file=/var/log/faillog</i><br/>
To unlock a user manually (if a password attempt is failed 3 times), do:<br/>
# <b>pam_tally --user --reset</b>
What the above configuration does is lock the user out for 10 minutes, if they make 3 failed login attempts.
</p>
<p>
Configure sudo - not covered here. Will be covered post-installation in another tutorial, at a later date.
If this is a single-user system, you don't really need sudo.
</p>
<h3>Unmount, reboot!</h3>
<p>
Exit from chroot:<br/>
# <b>exit</b>
</p>
<p>
unmount:<br/>
# <b>umount /mnt</b><br/>
# <b>swapoff -a</b>
</p>
<p>
deactivate the lvm lv's:<br/>
# <b>lvchange -an /dev/matrix/rootvol</b><br/>
# <b>lvchange -an /dev/matrix/swapvol</b><br/>
</p>
<p>
Lock the encrypted partition (close it):<br/>
# <b>cryptsetup luksClose lvm</b>
</p>
<p>
# <b>shutdown -h now</b><br/>
Then boot up again.
</p>
<h3>Booting from GRUB</h3>
<p>
Initially you will have to boot manually. Press C to get to the GRUB command line. The underlined parts are optional
(using those 2 underlines will boot lts kernel instead of normal).
</p>
<p>
grub> <b>cryptomount -a (ahci0,msdos1)</b><br/>
grub> <b>set root='lvm/matrix-rootvol'</b><br/>
grub> <b>linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux-libre<u>-lts</u> root=/dev/matrix/rootvol cryptdevice=/dev/sda1:root</b><br/>
grub> <b>initrd /boot/initramfs-linux-libre<u>-lts</u>.img</b><br/>
grub> <b>boot</b><br/>
</p>
<p>
You could also make it load /boot/vmlinuz-linux-libre-grsec and /boot/initramfs-linux-libre-grsec.img
</p>
<hr/>
<h2>Modify grub.cfg inside the ROM</h2>
<p>
Now you need to modify the ROM, so that Parabola can boot automatically with this configuration.
<a href="grub_cbfs.html">grub_cbfs.html</a> shows you how. Follow that guide, using the configuration details below.
</p>
<p>
Inside the 'Load Operating System' menu entry, change the contents to:<br/>
<b><i>
cryptomount -a (ahci0,msdos1)<br/>
set root='lvm/matrix-rootvol'<br/>
linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux-libre<u>-lts</u> root=/dev/matrix/rootvol cryptdevice=/dev/sda1:root<br/>
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux-libre<u>-lts</u>.img
</i></b>
</p>
<p>
Note: the underlined parts above (-lts) can also be removed, to boot the latest kernel instead of LTS (long-term support) kernels.
You could also copy the menu entry and in one have -lts, and without in the other menuentry.
You could also create a menu entry to load /boot/vmlinuz-linux-libre-grsec and /boot/initramfs-linux-libre-grsec.img
</p>
<p>
Above the 'Load Operating System' menu entry you should also add a GRUB password, like so:
</p>
<pre><b><i>set superusers="root"
password_pbkdf2 root grub.pbkdf2.sha512.10000.711F186347156BC105CD83A2ED7AF1EB971AA2B1EB2640172F34B0DEFFC97E654AF48E5F0C3B7622502B76458DA494270CC0EA6504411D676E6752FD1651E749.8DD11178EB8D1F633308FD8FCC64D0B243F949B9B99CCEADE2ECA11657A757D22025986B0FA116F1D5191E0A22677674C994EDBFADE62240E9D161688266A711
</i></b></pre>
<p>
Note that the above entry specifies user 'root'; this is just a username for GRUB. You don't even need to use root.
Change root on both of those 2 lines to whatever you want.
</p>
<p>
Start dhcp on ethernet:<br/>
# <b>systemctl start dhcpcd.service</b>
This is just for the step below. I won't cover network configuration here. That is for another Parabola article.
</p>
<p>
The password hash (it's <b>password</b>, by the way) after <i>'password_pbkdf2 root'</i> <i>should be changed</i> and is created by the <b>grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2</b> utility, which you need to install or otherwise compile,
like so:<br/>
# <b>pacman -S grub</b>
</p>
<p>
GRUB isn't needed for booting, since it's already included as a payload in libreboot. This is only so that the utility needed becomes available. Get your hash
by entering your chosen password at the prompt, when running this command:<br/>
# <b>grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2</b>
</p>
<p>
It will output the hash for the password that you entered. Make sure to specify a password that is different from both your LUKS *and* your root/user password.
Use it to replace the default hash mentioned above.
</p>
<p>
With this setup, you will have to enter a password at boot time, in GRUB, before being able to use any of the menu entries or switch to the terminal.
This protects your system from an attacker simply booting a live usb distro and re-flashing the boot firmware.
</p>
<p>
You probably only need base-devel (compilers and so on) to build and use cbfstool. It was already installed if you followed this tutorial, but here it is:<br/>
# <b>pacman -S base-devel</b>
</p>
<p>
For flashing the modified ROM, I just used flashrom from the Parabola repo's:<br/>
# <b>pacman -S flashrom</b><br/>
I also installed dmidecode:<br/>
# <b>pacman -S dmidecode</b>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
If you followed all that correctly, you should now have a fully encrypted Parabola installation.
This is a very barebones Parabola install (the default one). Refer to the wiki for how to do the rest
(desktop, etc).
</p>
<hr/>
<h2>Further security tips</h2>
<p>
<a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Security">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Security</a>.<br/>
<a href="https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/User:GNUtoo/laptop">https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/User:GNUtoo/laptop</a>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
Copyright © 2014 Francis Rowe <info@gluglug.org.uk><br/>
This document is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License and all future versions.
A copy of the license can be found at <a href="../license.txt">../license.txt</a>.
</p>
<p>
This document is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See <a href="../license.txt">../license.txt</a> for more information.
</p>
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