Encrypted disk in Fedora 13

[bogstad-e+AXbWqSrlAAvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org (Bill Bogstad)]

On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 2:39 PM, Daniel Feenberg <feenberg-fCu/yNAGv6M at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>
> Is there a route through the GUI to encrypt an existing partion in Fedora
> 13?

I doubt it.   The 'standard' LuKS format for encrypted linux disks
requires space at the beginning of the disk partition to store keys
and other information.   For a previously created partition, there is
no space for this info.   So the filesystem would have to be resized
first.  This Ubuntu entry has some info about how to do it manually as
well as a script to help automate the process.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EncryptedFilesystemHowto7

I've never done in place encryption myself, but I have upgraded the
hard drive in my laptop with encrypted boot filesystems and I have to
say it was a painful process.   Multiple reboots off of LiveCDs,
digging into LuKS command line documentation, and a lot of praying...

Assuming that this isn't a boot filesystem, I would highly recommend
copying the data off to a scratch disk and recreating the filesystem
rather then trying to encrypt in place.

> I have plowed through dozens of online documents showing how to arrange
> for a partition to be encryted at the time the OS is installed, but none
> mention how to add a partion on a new disk, or encrypt an existing (non
> OS) partition. A search through the menus doesn't turn up anything either.

This seems like the Fedora info on post-install creation of encrypted
filesystems:

http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/13/html/Installation_Guide/apcs04.html

Unfortunately, it is not very detailed...

Good Luck,
Bill Bogstad