From 8b3b731e1ad7d7160c03d310daf8997f5f8f20a5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Trent Palmer <trenttdually@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2020 20:28:57 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] add verify section to android tether instructions

---
 .../instructions-for-tethering-from-phone.md  |  11 +++++++
 .../index.html                                |  28 ++++++++++++++++++
 site/search/search_index.json                 |   2 +-
 site/sitemap.xml                              |  22 +++++++-------
 site/sitemap.xml.gz                           | Bin 201 -> 200 bytes
 5 files changed, 51 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone.md b/docs/posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone.md
index fc39018..20ec615 100644
--- a/docs/posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone.md
+++ b/docs/posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone.md
@@ -16,6 +16,17 @@ date: 2020-12-17
 ### Part Two
 1. Turn on wifi hotspot **or** usb tethering
 
+### **Verify!**
+You want to verify that you are connected to your Android hotspot.
+Android tether is a router that will stand up a subnet of `192.168.43.0/24` for wifi hotspot,
+and `192.168.42.0/24` for usb tether.
+
+* On linux open a terminal and type `ip addr`
+* on Windows open a `cmd` console and type `ipconfig`
+
+* If tethering via wifi hotspot you should see an ipv4 address of `192.168.43.XX`
+* If tethering via usb you should see an ipv4 address of `192.168.42.XX`
+
 ### **ACHTUNG Do Not!**
 * **DO NOT** turn on ethernet tethering
     * you probably don't have the physical equipment available to do that
diff --git a/site/posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone/index.html b/site/posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone/index.html
index edb6887..609944d 100644
--- a/site/posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone/index.html
+++ b/site/posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone/index.html
@@ -283,6 +283,13 @@
     Part Two
   </a>
   
+</li>
+        
+          <li class="md-nav__item">
+  <a href="#verify" class="md-nav__link">
+    Verify!
+  </a>
+  
 </li>
         
           <li class="md-nav__item">
@@ -490,6 +497,13 @@
     Part Two
   </a>
   
+</li>
+        
+          <li class="md-nav__item">
+  <a href="#verify" class="md-nav__link">
+    Verify!
+  </a>
+  
 </li>
         
           <li class="md-nav__item">
@@ -538,6 +552,20 @@
 <ol>
 <li>Turn on wifi hotspot <strong>or</strong> usb tethering</li>
 </ol>
+<h3 id="verify"><strong>Verify!</strong></h3>
+<p>You want to verify that you are connected to your Android hotspot.
+Android tether is a router that will stand up a subnet of <code>192.168.43.0/24</code> for wifi hotspot,
+and <code>192.168.42.0/24</code> for usb tether.</p>
+<ul>
+<li>On linux open a terminal and type <code>ip addr</code></li>
+<li>
+<p>on Windows open a <code>cmd</code> console and type <code>ipconfig</code></p>
+</li>
+<li>
+<p>If tethering via wifi hotspot you should see an ipv4 address of <code>192.168.43.XX</code></p>
+</li>
+<li>If tethering via usb you should see an ipv4 address of <code>192.168.42.XX</code></li>
+</ul>
 <h3 id="achtung-do-not"><strong>ACHTUNG Do Not!</strong></h3>
 <ul>
 <li><strong>DO NOT</strong> turn on ethernet tethering<ul>
diff --git a/site/search/search_index.json b/site/search/search_index.json
index ccf2e71..c59be15 100644
--- a/site/search/search_index.json
+++ b/site/search/search_index.json
@@ -1 +1 @@
-{"config":{"lang":["en"],"min_search_length":3,"prebuild_index":false,"separator":"[\\s\\-]+"},"docs":[{"location":"","text":"Trent's Blog Posts By Date 2020-12-17: Instructions for Tethering From Phone 2020-12-15: LMDE4 Custom Partitions Disk Encryption 2020-06-21: Linux Move Cursor With Keyboard 2019-05-12: Simplified Raspberry Streaming 2019-04-13: Clear Linux Encrypted xfs Root 2019-03-11: Clear Linux Guest Virt Manager 2019-02-11: Faster Partitioning With sgdisk 2019-01-25: LMDE3 xfs Full Disk Encryption 2019-01-25: Rewrite Hugo Themes Report in Python Links Links","title":"Home"},{"location":"#trents-blog","text":"","title":"Trent's Blog"},{"location":"#posts-by-date","text":"2020-12-17: Instructions for Tethering From Phone 2020-12-15: LMDE4 Custom Partitions Disk Encryption 2020-06-21: Linux Move Cursor With Keyboard 2019-05-12: Simplified Raspberry Streaming 2019-04-13: Clear Linux Encrypted xfs Root 2019-03-11: Clear Linux Guest Virt Manager 2019-02-11: Faster Partitioning With sgdisk 2019-01-25: LMDE3 xfs Full Disk Encryption 2019-01-25: Rewrite Hugo Themes Report in Python","title":"Posts By Date"},{"location":"#links","text":"Links","title":"Links"},{"location":"links/","text":"Trent's Blog Links Home GitHub Twitter Facebook Trent Docs Hugo Themes Report libre_gps_parser Concise PDX Free Code Camp Challenges Device Layout Oregon Hikers' Field Guide","title":"Links"},{"location":"links/#trents-blog","text":"","title":"Trent's Blog"},{"location":"links/#links","text":"Home GitHub Twitter Facebook Trent Docs Hugo Themes Report libre_gps_parser Concise PDX Free Code Camp Challenges Device Layout Oregon Hikers' Field Guide","title":"Links"},{"location":"posts/clear-linux-encrypted-xfs-root/","text":"date: 2019-04-13T21:44:37-07:00 Nothing to-it Burger I had intended to create a technical explanation how to install Clear Linux with disk encryption, with xfs. But that turned out to be unnecessary because the latest version of the installer handles setting that up automatically. Previously, I had written down the steps needed to get LMDE 3 installed using disk encryption with xfs , which required manual intervention. And indeed, a few months ago, the Clear Linux installer only supported xfs with disk encryption if you could supply some manual intervention. However, the latest Clear Linux installer can set up disk encryption with luks and xfs, automatically. Just follow the instructions , no special skills needed.","title":"Clear Linux Encrypted xfs Root"},{"location":"posts/clear-linux-encrypted-xfs-root/#nothing-to-it-burger","text":"I had intended to create a technical explanation how to install Clear Linux with disk encryption, with xfs. But that turned out to be unnecessary because the latest version of the installer handles setting that up automatically. Previously, I had written down the steps needed to get LMDE 3 installed using disk encryption with xfs , which required manual intervention. And indeed, a few months ago, the Clear Linux installer only supported xfs with disk encryption if you could supply some manual intervention. However, the latest Clear Linux installer can set up disk encryption with luks and xfs, automatically. Just follow the instructions , no special skills needed.","title":"Nothing to-it Burger"},{"location":"posts/clear-linux-guest-virt-manager/","text":"date: 2019-03-11T01:39:09-07:00 Introduction download, convert, and resize the provided kvm-legacy image create a virtual machine and launch it from virt-manager But it\u2019s not immediately clear from the instructions if you can use virt-manager , because they recommend their script which runs qemu-system-x86_64 directly. Which is fine, but maybe you find it easier to customize the options using the virt-manager gui interface. How To Assuming you have libvirt and kvm set up with virt-manager , you can: download the clear-*-legacy-kvm.img.xz verify the checksum extract it unxz clear-*-legacy-kvm.img.xz mv clear-*-legacy-kvm.img.xz /var/lib/libvirt/images/ create a virtual machine in virt-manager using the image There is not an os template for Clear Linux, but Fedora29 works fine for me. As a bonus, virsh console is configured and ready to go. Convert Raw -> Qcow2 and Resize The image has a gpt partition table. I am not sure if that is the reason why, but fdisk does not seem to work for resizing the partition. However, parted works fine. The image download is an 8gb sparse raw image. You may wish to convert that to qcow2 and and resize before creating the virtual machine. Here is how to do that. convert the sparse raw image to qcow2 qemu-img convert -f raw -O qcow2 clear*.img clear.qcow2 resize the image to taste qemu-img resize clear.qcow2 20G create the virtual machine in virt-manager gui boot the virtual machine: virsh start clearvm log in: virsh console clearvm install a bundle which contains parted swupd bundle-add clr-installer expand / partition and file system with parted and resize2fs parted /dev/vda resizepart > Fix/Ignore? Fix > Partition number? 1 > End? [ 8590MB ] ? 100 % > size2fs /dev/vda1","title":"Clear Linux Guest Virt Manager"},{"location":"posts/clear-linux-guest-virt-manager/#introduction","text":"download, convert, and resize the provided kvm-legacy image create a virtual machine and launch it from virt-manager But it\u2019s not immediately clear from the instructions if you can use virt-manager , because they recommend their script which runs qemu-system-x86_64 directly. Which is fine, but maybe you find it easier to customize the options using the virt-manager gui interface.","title":"Introduction"},{"location":"posts/clear-linux-guest-virt-manager/#how-to","text":"Assuming you have libvirt and kvm set up with virt-manager , you can: download the clear-*-legacy-kvm.img.xz verify the checksum extract it unxz clear-*-legacy-kvm.img.xz mv clear-*-legacy-kvm.img.xz /var/lib/libvirt/images/ create a virtual machine in virt-manager using the image There is not an os template for Clear Linux, but Fedora29 works fine for me. As a bonus, virsh console is configured and ready to go.","title":"How To"},{"location":"posts/clear-linux-guest-virt-manager/#convert-raw-qcow2-and-resize","text":"The image has a gpt partition table. I am not sure if that is the reason why, but fdisk does not seem to work for resizing the partition. However, parted works fine. The image download is an 8gb sparse raw image. You may wish to convert that to qcow2 and and resize before creating the virtual machine. Here is how to do that. convert the sparse raw image to qcow2 qemu-img convert -f raw -O qcow2 clear*.img clear.qcow2 resize the image to taste qemu-img resize clear.qcow2 20G create the virtual machine in virt-manager gui boot the virtual machine: virsh start clearvm log in: virsh console clearvm install a bundle which contains parted swupd bundle-add clr-installer expand / partition and file system with parted and resize2fs parted /dev/vda resizepart > Fix/Ignore? Fix > Partition number? 1 > End? [ 8590MB ] ? 100 % > size2fs /dev/vda1","title":"Convert Raw -&gt; Qcow2 and Resize"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/","text":"date: 2019-02-11T04:23:52-08:00 Disclaimer If any of this is wrong, let me know so I can fix it. No actual hard drives were harmed in the production of this blog post. The examples are easier to read if you turn your smart phone sideways. Command Line Is Faster Sure you can partition your discs using a GUI disk management application or an interactive, menu-driven terminal interface. But the command line is faster. gdisk vs sgdisk sgdisk is the scriptable version of gdisk (gptfdisk). what the manpage says If you\u2019re familiar with gdisk , you probably know how to interactively set the partition size and type. If you look at the man page for sgdisk you see that the relevant flags are -n and -t . The beginning and ending numbers are absolute, unless you prepend them with a + or - sign, in which case they become relative. # For New Partition: -n, --new=partnum:start:end # Change partition type: -t, --typecode=partnum:{hexcode|GUID} Example with Separate EFI and / Partitions BTW, gdisk is a partitioning tool intended to be used with a gpt partition table, so the assumption is that you would want an efi partition, (although the efi partition does not have to be on the disk you are partitioning or even on the same disk where your other system partitions are). Wipe any leftover filesystem metadata with wipefs. wipefs --all /dev/sdx Create a new GPT partition table. sgdisk /dev/sdx -o Create an efi partition of 512MB by specifying the end of the partition (relative) and the partition type, ef00 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 1::+512MiB -t 1:ef00 Create an / partition using the remainder of the disk, by not specifying the end or the beginning or partition type, which defaults to 8300. sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 2 Format the efi partition fat 32. mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1 Format the / partition ext4. mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx2 Practice With A Sparse Image If you don\u2019t want to partition a real hard drive, you can practice using an sparse image file, instead. # create a sparse image file truncate -S 100G practiceImage.img # partition the image file with sgdisk sgdisk practiceImage.img -o # etc Example with Separate /boot, EFI, and luks-encrypted / Partitions Wipe any leftover filesystem metadata with wipefs . wipefs --all /dev/sdx Create a new GPT partition table. sgdisk /dev/sdx -o Create an efi partition of 512MB by specifying the end of the partition (relative) and the partition type, ef00 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 1::+512MiB -t 1:ef00 Create a /boot partition of 1GB, by specifying the end of the partition (relative), but not specifying the partition type which defaults to 8300 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 2::+1GiB Create an / partition using the remainder of the disk, by not specifying the end or the beginning or partition type, which defaults to 8300 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 3 Format the efi partition fat 32. mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1 Format the /boot partition ext4. mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx2 Encrypt the / partition. cryptsetup -y -v luksFormat --type luks2 /dev/sdx3 Decrypt the / device. cryptsetup open /dev/sdx3 cryptroot Format the / device. mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/cryptroot What About Swap? I prefer to use a swap file inside the luks-encrypted / partition. But you can make a separate swap partition if you like. Example with 2GB swap partition Wipe the disc. wipefs --all /dev/sdx Create a new GPT partition table. sgdisk /dev/sdx -o Create an EFI partition. sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 1::+512MiB -t 1:ef00 Create a /boot partition. sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 2::+1GiB Create a / partition with a relative negative end. sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 3::-2GiB Create a swap partion type 8200 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 4 -t 4:8200 format the partitions. mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1 mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx2 mkfs.xfs /dev/sdx3 mkswap /dev/sdx4 Conclusion Good luck to you. Backup your data first. Kind Regards, Trent","title":"Faster Partitioning With sgdisk"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#disclaimer","text":"If any of this is wrong, let me know so I can fix it. No actual hard drives were harmed in the production of this blog post. The examples are easier to read if you turn your smart phone sideways.","title":"Disclaimer"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#command-line-is-faster","text":"Sure you can partition your discs using a GUI disk management application or an interactive, menu-driven terminal interface. But the command line is faster.","title":"Command Line Is Faster"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#gdisk-vs-sgdisk","text":"sgdisk is the scriptable version of gdisk (gptfdisk).","title":"gdisk vs sgdisk"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#what-the-manpage-says","text":"If you\u2019re familiar with gdisk , you probably know how to interactively set the partition size and type. If you look at the man page for sgdisk you see that the relevant flags are -n and -t . The beginning and ending numbers are absolute, unless you prepend them with a + or - sign, in which case they become relative. # For New Partition: -n, --new=partnum:start:end # Change partition type: -t, --typecode=partnum:{hexcode|GUID}","title":"what the manpage says"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#example-with-separate-efi-and-partitions","text":"BTW, gdisk is a partitioning tool intended to be used with a gpt partition table, so the assumption is that you would want an efi partition, (although the efi partition does not have to be on the disk you are partitioning or even on the same disk where your other system partitions are). Wipe any leftover filesystem metadata with wipefs. wipefs --all /dev/sdx Create a new GPT partition table. sgdisk /dev/sdx -o Create an efi partition of 512MB by specifying the end of the partition (relative) and the partition type, ef00 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 1::+512MiB -t 1:ef00 Create an / partition using the remainder of the disk, by not specifying the end or the beginning or partition type, which defaults to 8300. sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 2 Format the efi partition fat 32. mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1 Format the / partition ext4. mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx2","title":"Example with Separate EFI and / Partitions"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#practice-with-a-sparse-image","text":"If you don\u2019t want to partition a real hard drive, you can practice using an sparse image file, instead. # create a sparse image file truncate -S 100G practiceImage.img # partition the image file with sgdisk sgdisk practiceImage.img -o # etc","title":"Practice With A Sparse Image"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#example-with-separate-boot-efi-and-luks-encrypted-partitions","text":"Wipe any leftover filesystem metadata with wipefs . wipefs --all /dev/sdx Create a new GPT partition table. sgdisk /dev/sdx -o Create an efi partition of 512MB by specifying the end of the partition (relative) and the partition type, ef00 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 1::+512MiB -t 1:ef00 Create a /boot partition of 1GB, by specifying the end of the partition (relative), but not specifying the partition type which defaults to 8300 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 2::+1GiB Create an / partition using the remainder of the disk, by not specifying the end or the beginning or partition type, which defaults to 8300 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 3 Format the efi partition fat 32. mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1 Format the /boot partition ext4. mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx2 Encrypt the / partition. cryptsetup -y -v luksFormat --type luks2 /dev/sdx3 Decrypt the / device. cryptsetup open /dev/sdx3 cryptroot Format the / device. mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/cryptroot","title":"Example with Separate /boot, EFI, and luks-encrypted / Partitions"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#what-about-swap","text":"I prefer to use a swap file inside the luks-encrypted / partition. But you can make a separate swap partition if you like.","title":"What About Swap?"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#example-with-2gb-swap-partition","text":"Wipe the disc. wipefs --all /dev/sdx Create a new GPT partition table. sgdisk /dev/sdx -o Create an EFI partition. sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 1::+512MiB -t 1:ef00 Create a /boot partition. sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 2::+1GiB Create a / partition with a relative negative end. sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 3::-2GiB Create a swap partion type 8200 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 4 -t 4:8200 format the partitions. mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1 mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx2 mkfs.xfs /dev/sdx3 mkswap /dev/sdx4","title":"Example with 2GB swap partition"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#conclusion","text":"Good luck to you. Backup your data first. Kind Regards, Trent","title":"Conclusion"},{"location":"posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone/","text":"date: 2020-12-17 Instructions Part One Turn off blutooth on computer Turn off blutooth on phone Turn off Wifi on phone Part Two Turn on wifi hotspot or usb tethering ACHTUNG Do Not! DO NOT turn on ethernet tethering you probably don't have the physical equipment available to do that DO NOT turn on blutooth tethering $# ?# DUH!! DO NOT turn on blutooth Your phone's radio hardware already has enough to do, trying to simultaneously maintain an LTE uplink to your mobile carrier and a wifi downlink to your computer DO NOT turn on wifi Don't let your phone try to connect to something that isn't working right now DO NOT forget to turn off blutooth Your phone's radio hardware already has enough to do, trying to simultaneously maintain an LTE uplink to your mobile carrier and a wifi downlink to your computer DO NOT forget to turn off wifi Don't let your phone try to connect to something that isn't working right now Blutooth If you leave blutooth on while trying to tether, your phone could get hot, your battery could go dead, and your hotspot could fail to work properly. Be surprised it it doesn't crash and soft-reboot.","title":"Instructions For Tethering From Phone"},{"location":"posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone/#instructions","text":"","title":"Instructions"},{"location":"posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone/#part-one","text":"Turn off blutooth on computer Turn off blutooth on phone Turn off Wifi on phone","title":"Part One"},{"location":"posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone/#part-two","text":"Turn on wifi hotspot or usb tethering","title":"Part Two"},{"location":"posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone/#achtung-do-not","text":"DO NOT turn on ethernet tethering you probably don't have the physical equipment available to do that DO NOT turn on blutooth tethering $# ?# DUH!! DO NOT turn on blutooth Your phone's radio hardware already has enough to do, trying to simultaneously maintain an LTE uplink to your mobile carrier and a wifi downlink to your computer DO NOT turn on wifi Don't let your phone try to connect to something that isn't working right now DO NOT forget to turn off blutooth Your phone's radio hardware already has enough to do, trying to simultaneously maintain an LTE uplink to your mobile carrier and a wifi downlink to your computer DO NOT forget to turn off wifi Don't let your phone try to connect to something that isn't working right now","title":"ACHTUNG Do Not!"},{"location":"posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone/#blutooth","text":"If you leave blutooth on while trying to tether, your phone could get hot, your battery could go dead, and your hotspot could fail to work properly. Be surprised it it doesn't crash and soft-reboot.","title":"Blutooth"},{"location":"posts/linux-move-cursor-with-keyboard/","text":"date: 2020-06-21T22:01:35-07:00 Introduction Linux just makes everything so easy. On a laptop it can be tricky to place your mouse cursor on exactly the correct pixel, using the touchpad. This became apparent to myself while using GIMP to create some png button files for a little tkinter project, but there must be other use-cases as well. xdo commands for moving the cursor move the cursor one pixel left: xdotool mousemove_relative -- -1 0 move the cursor one pixel right: xdotool mousemove_relative -- 1 0 move the cursor one pixel up: xdotool mousemove_relative -- 0 -1 move the cursor one pixel down: xdotool mousemove_relative -- 0 1 map keyboard shortcuts Now, in your keyboard settings, map the above commands to new custom shortcuts. For instance, I find the Ctrl + Super + Up Ctrl + Super + Down Ctrl + Super + Left Ctrl + Super + Right combinations to be convenient in the Mate Desktop. Enjoy!","title":"Linux Move Cursor With Keyboard"},{"location":"posts/linux-move-cursor-with-keyboard/#introduction","text":"Linux just makes everything so easy. On a laptop it can be tricky to place your mouse cursor on exactly the correct pixel, using the touchpad. This became apparent to myself while using GIMP to create some png button files for a little tkinter project, but there must be other use-cases as well.","title":"Introduction"},{"location":"posts/linux-move-cursor-with-keyboard/#xdo-commands-for-moving-the-cursor","text":"move the cursor one pixel left: xdotool mousemove_relative -- -1 0 move the cursor one pixel right: xdotool mousemove_relative -- 1 0 move the cursor one pixel up: xdotool mousemove_relative -- 0 -1 move the cursor one pixel down: xdotool mousemove_relative -- 0 1","title":"xdo commands for moving the cursor"},{"location":"posts/linux-move-cursor-with-keyboard/#map-keyboard-shortcuts","text":"Now, in your keyboard settings, map the above commands to new custom shortcuts. For instance, I find the Ctrl + Super + Up Ctrl + Super + Down Ctrl + Super + Left Ctrl + Super + Right combinations to be convenient in the Mate Desktop. Enjoy!","title":"map keyboard shortcuts"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/","text":"date: 2019-01-25T23:25:36-08:00 Introduction Linux Mint Debian Edition is the alternate version of Linux Mint, but built on a Debian base. The result is quite pleasant: the stability of desktop Debian, but with the rough edges polished smooth, nicely configured fonts and ui, and all the multi-media codecs included. Unfortunately, the LMDE 3 installer does not support disk encryption, but manually setting this up by hand is pretty straightforward. On the other hand, manually setting up your partitions by hand allows extra freedom and flexibility, and so I have chosen a simple luks-encrypted / partition formatted xfs. As far as swap is concerned, my preference is to use a swap file instead of a swap partition. Having a swap file instead of a swap partition is more flexible because obviously you can easily recreate a different size swap file whenever you like (or use none at all), and the encryption requires no extra set up because the / partition is encrypted anyway. Will this work with a dual-boot set up? Of course! Because you have to manually configure the partitions anyway, just arrange them exactly how you would need for dual-boot. Assumes uefi-configured boot, with separate partitions for /boot formatted ext4, /boot/efi formatted fat32, and a regular luks-encrypted partition for / formatted xfs. Prepare The Installation Media Visit the Linux Mint Website and download the iso file for LMDE 3 64bit. Download from torrents if possible, to save bandwidth. verify the sha256 sum of the iso file sha256sum lmde-3-201808-cinnamon-64bit.iso Identify the thumb drive you are going to install from. type lsblk , note the output, and then insert the thumb drive then type lsblk again and note the additional output # lsblk /dev/sdb NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT sdb 8:32 1 14.5G 0 disk \u251c\u2500sdb1 8:33 1 3.4G 0 part /media/trent/Debian 9.6.0 amd64 \u2514\u2500sdb2 8:34 1 416K 0 part In the above example output we see that our thumb drive is identified as /dev/sdb , and partition /dev/sdb1 is automatically mounted. Take special care that you have accurately identified the thumb drive before proceeding. For the sake of example, we will proceed on the assumption that our thumb drive is identified as /dev/sdb , but you need to compensate accordingly. unmount any partition of the thumb drive that are automatically mounted umount /dev/sdb1 write the disk image to the thumb drive ddrescue -D --force lmde-3-201808-cinnamon-64bit.iso /dev/sdb Boot The Install Disc boot into bios to disable fastboot and secureboot invoke your machine's device boot menu and boot the install disc in uefi mode confirm that you have booted in uefi mode by listing efivars ls /sys/firmware/efi/vars Partition The Hard Drive If you recall we are assuming the target hard drive is /dev/sda , as an example. So, make adjustments as necessary. If you would rather use a different partition tool, make sure the efi partition is an efi partition type, and you definitely need a separate /boot partition. if needed you can clear the drive with wipefs wipefs --all /dev/sda create a new partition table for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda -o create a new efi partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=1::+512MiB --typecode=1:ef00 create a new /boot partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=2::+1G create a new / partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=3 verify your partition work sgdisk /dev/sda -p format the efi partition mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda1 format the /boot partition mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2 encrypt the / partition, you will be prompted for a password cryptsetup -y -v luksFormat --type luks2 /dev/sda3 decrypt the / partition, you will be prompted for a password cryptsetup open /dev/sda3 cryptroot format the / device mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/cryptroot Mount The Hard Drive This takes advantage of expert mode in the LMDE installer. create an /target directory mkdir /target mount the / device at /target mount /dev/mapper/cryptroot /target create an /target/boot directory mkdir /target/boot mount the /boot partition at /target/boot mount /dev/sda2 /target/boot create an /target/boot/efi directory mkdir /target/boot/efi mount the efi partition at /target/boot/efi mount /dev/sda1 /target/boot/efi Run The Installer App At this point you're ready to run the live installer. You can click the disc icon on the desktop. The first three pages of the live-installer cover Language,Timezone, and Keymap. The fourth page of the live-installer covers name, password, and hostname. On the fifth page of the live-installer, you come to a partition configuration page. But there is nothing to do, so select expert mode at the bottom of the page. Again select forward , and when you come to the page where you configure the location to install grub, that should be the efi partition, i.e. /dev/sda1 . Select forward one more time, and then select install. The installation will run for a few minutes and will then pause. During the pause you need to manually configure fstab and crypttab . Configure Fstab find the UUID of the efi partition blkid /dev/sda1 -s UUID find the UUID of the /boot partition blkid /dev/sda2 -s UUID find the UUID of the / device blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot -s UUID And when you find the correct UUID numbers, use them to configure /etc/fstab which is actually currently at /target/etc/fstab . # /etc/fstab ############### # efi partition # run the command `blkid /dev/sda1 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda1: UUID=\"17C4-215D\", from which derive UUID=17C4-215D /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 2 # /boot partition # run the command `blkid /dev/sda2 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda2: UUID=\"f2509fff-4854-4721-b546-0274c89e6aec\", from which derive UUID=f2509fff-4854-4721-b546-0274c89e6aec /boot ext4 defaults 0 2 # \"/\" device # run the command `blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/mapper/cryptroot: UUID=\"72241377-cd65-43a6-8363-1afce5bd93f6\", from which derive UUID=72241377-cd65-43a6-8363-1afce5bd93f6 / xfs defaults 0 1 Configure Crypttab But before the file systems can be mounted, crypttab needs to mount /dev/sda3 at /dev/mapper/cryptroot . Configure /etc/crypttab which is actually currently at /target/etc/crypttab find the UUID of the partition that will be mounted at /dev/mapper/crypttab blkid /dev/sda3 -s UUID And when you find the correct UUID number for /dev/sda3 , use that to configure /etc/crypttab which is actually currently at /target/etc/crypttab . # /etc/crypttab # run the command `blkid /dev/sda3 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda3: UUID=\"da3e0967-711f-4159-85ac-7d5743a75201\", from which derive # <target name> <source device> <key file> <options> cryptroot UUID=da3e0967-711f-4159-85ac-7d5743a75201 none luks Resume Installer App At this point finish running the live installer, and you'll be done. UEFI Fix On some machines, such as HP Laptops, UEFI is broken and efi boot entries don't persist. remount the efi parition mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/ ; cd /mnt/EFI/ create a default efi executable mkdir BOOT ; cp linuxmint/grubx64.efi BOOT/BOOTX64.efi Optional Swap File Visit the Arch Wiki and they will hook you up.","title":"LMDE3 xfs Full Disk Encryption"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#introduction","text":"Linux Mint Debian Edition is the alternate version of Linux Mint, but built on a Debian base. The result is quite pleasant: the stability of desktop Debian, but with the rough edges polished smooth, nicely configured fonts and ui, and all the multi-media codecs included. Unfortunately, the LMDE 3 installer does not support disk encryption, but manually setting this up by hand is pretty straightforward. On the other hand, manually setting up your partitions by hand allows extra freedom and flexibility, and so I have chosen a simple luks-encrypted / partition formatted xfs. As far as swap is concerned, my preference is to use a swap file instead of a swap partition. Having a swap file instead of a swap partition is more flexible because obviously you can easily recreate a different size swap file whenever you like (or use none at all), and the encryption requires no extra set up because the / partition is encrypted anyway. Will this work with a dual-boot set up? Of course! Because you have to manually configure the partitions anyway, just arrange them exactly how you would need for dual-boot. Assumes uefi-configured boot, with separate partitions for /boot formatted ext4, /boot/efi formatted fat32, and a regular luks-encrypted partition for / formatted xfs.","title":"Introduction"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#prepare-the-installation-media","text":"Visit the Linux Mint Website and download the iso file for LMDE 3 64bit. Download from torrents if possible, to save bandwidth. verify the sha256 sum of the iso file sha256sum lmde-3-201808-cinnamon-64bit.iso Identify the thumb drive you are going to install from. type lsblk , note the output, and then insert the thumb drive then type lsblk again and note the additional output # lsblk /dev/sdb NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT sdb 8:32 1 14.5G 0 disk \u251c\u2500sdb1 8:33 1 3.4G 0 part /media/trent/Debian 9.6.0 amd64 \u2514\u2500sdb2 8:34 1 416K 0 part In the above example output we see that our thumb drive is identified as /dev/sdb , and partition /dev/sdb1 is automatically mounted. Take special care that you have accurately identified the thumb drive before proceeding. For the sake of example, we will proceed on the assumption that our thumb drive is identified as /dev/sdb , but you need to compensate accordingly. unmount any partition of the thumb drive that are automatically mounted umount /dev/sdb1 write the disk image to the thumb drive ddrescue -D --force lmde-3-201808-cinnamon-64bit.iso /dev/sdb","title":"Prepare The Installation Media"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#boot-the-install-disc","text":"boot into bios to disable fastboot and secureboot invoke your machine's device boot menu and boot the install disc in uefi mode confirm that you have booted in uefi mode by listing efivars ls /sys/firmware/efi/vars","title":"Boot The Install Disc"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#partition-the-hard-drive","text":"If you recall we are assuming the target hard drive is /dev/sda , as an example. So, make adjustments as necessary. If you would rather use a different partition tool, make sure the efi partition is an efi partition type, and you definitely need a separate /boot partition. if needed you can clear the drive with wipefs wipefs --all /dev/sda create a new partition table for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda -o create a new efi partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=1::+512MiB --typecode=1:ef00 create a new /boot partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=2::+1G create a new / partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=3 verify your partition work sgdisk /dev/sda -p format the efi partition mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda1 format the /boot partition mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2 encrypt the / partition, you will be prompted for a password cryptsetup -y -v luksFormat --type luks2 /dev/sda3 decrypt the / partition, you will be prompted for a password cryptsetup open /dev/sda3 cryptroot format the / device mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/cryptroot","title":"Partition The Hard Drive"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#mount-the-hard-drive","text":"This takes advantage of expert mode in the LMDE installer. create an /target directory mkdir /target mount the / device at /target mount /dev/mapper/cryptroot /target create an /target/boot directory mkdir /target/boot mount the /boot partition at /target/boot mount /dev/sda2 /target/boot create an /target/boot/efi directory mkdir /target/boot/efi mount the efi partition at /target/boot/efi mount /dev/sda1 /target/boot/efi","title":"Mount The Hard Drive"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#run-the-installer-app","text":"At this point you're ready to run the live installer. You can click the disc icon on the desktop. The first three pages of the live-installer cover Language,Timezone, and Keymap. The fourth page of the live-installer covers name, password, and hostname. On the fifth page of the live-installer, you come to a partition configuration page. But there is nothing to do, so select expert mode at the bottom of the page. Again select forward , and when you come to the page where you configure the location to install grub, that should be the efi partition, i.e. /dev/sda1 . Select forward one more time, and then select install. The installation will run for a few minutes and will then pause. During the pause you need to manually configure fstab and crypttab .","title":"Run The Installer App"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#configure-fstab","text":"find the UUID of the efi partition blkid /dev/sda1 -s UUID find the UUID of the /boot partition blkid /dev/sda2 -s UUID find the UUID of the / device blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot -s UUID And when you find the correct UUID numbers, use them to configure /etc/fstab which is actually currently at /target/etc/fstab . # /etc/fstab ############### # efi partition # run the command `blkid /dev/sda1 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda1: UUID=\"17C4-215D\", from which derive UUID=17C4-215D /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 2 # /boot partition # run the command `blkid /dev/sda2 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda2: UUID=\"f2509fff-4854-4721-b546-0274c89e6aec\", from which derive UUID=f2509fff-4854-4721-b546-0274c89e6aec /boot ext4 defaults 0 2 # \"/\" device # run the command `blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/mapper/cryptroot: UUID=\"72241377-cd65-43a6-8363-1afce5bd93f6\", from which derive UUID=72241377-cd65-43a6-8363-1afce5bd93f6 / xfs defaults 0 1","title":"Configure Fstab"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#configure-crypttab","text":"But before the file systems can be mounted, crypttab needs to mount /dev/sda3 at /dev/mapper/cryptroot . Configure /etc/crypttab which is actually currently at /target/etc/crypttab find the UUID of the partition that will be mounted at /dev/mapper/crypttab blkid /dev/sda3 -s UUID And when you find the correct UUID number for /dev/sda3 , use that to configure /etc/crypttab which is actually currently at /target/etc/crypttab . # /etc/crypttab # run the command `blkid /dev/sda3 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda3: UUID=\"da3e0967-711f-4159-85ac-7d5743a75201\", from which derive # <target name> <source device> <key file> <options> cryptroot UUID=da3e0967-711f-4159-85ac-7d5743a75201 none luks","title":"Configure Crypttab"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#resume-installer-app","text":"At this point finish running the live installer, and you'll be done.","title":"Resume Installer App"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#uefi-fix","text":"On some machines, such as HP Laptops, UEFI is broken and efi boot entries don't persist. remount the efi parition mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/ ; cd /mnt/EFI/ create a default efi executable mkdir BOOT ; cp linuxmint/grubx64.efi BOOT/BOOTX64.efi","title":"UEFI Fix"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#optional-swap-file","text":"Visit the Arch Wiki and they will hook you up.","title":"Optional Swap File"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/","text":"date: 2020-12-15 Introduction Linux Mint Debian Edition is the alternate version of Linux Mint, but built on a Debian base. The result is quite pleasant: the stability of desktop Debian, but with the rough edges polished smooth, nicely configured fonts and ui, and all the multi-media codecs included. Previously, I wrote a guide for installing LMDE3 with disk encryption . The installer for LMDE 4 is different in that it includes support for disk encryption, but not if you need custom partitions such as for a dual-boot configuration . With this in mind, the examples presented below assume that you have Windows 10 installed in 4 partitions, and thus you would want to make 3 partitions (5,6,7) after that, for LMDE4. As with before, with separate partitions for /boot formatted ext4, /boot/efi formatted fat32, and a regular luks-encrypted partition for / formatted xfs. With a separate efi partition for LMDE4, you can then use the computer's device boot menu to select which efi boot entry you want to boot. There is also an advantage in having Windows use the first efi partition, in that if something happens to the Windows efi boot entry, you can fall back to the default efi executable. Whereas, if the efi boot entry for Linux somehow gets wiped, you could repair that easily enough via chroot . Prepare The Installation Media Visit the Linux Mint Website and download the iso file for LMDE 4 64bit. Download from torrents if possible, to save bandwidth. verify the sha256 sum of the iso file sha256sum lmde-4-cinnamon-64bit.iso Identify the thumb drive you are going to install from. type lsblk , note the output, and then insert the thumb drive then type lsblk again and note the additional output # lsblk /dev/sdb NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT sdb 8:32 1 14.5G 0 disk \u251c\u2500sdb1 8:33 1 3.4G 0 part /media/trent/Debian 9.6.0 amd64 \u2514\u2500sdb2 8:34 1 416K 0 part In the above example output we see that our thumb drive is identified as /dev/sdb , and partition /dev/sdb1 is automatically mounted. Take special care that you have accurately identified the thumb drive before proceeding. For the sake of example, we will proceed on the assumption that our thumb drive is identified as /dev/sdb , but you need to compensate accordingly. unmount any partition of the thumb drive that are automatically mounted umount /dev/sdb1 write the disk image to the thumb drive ddrescue -D --force lmde-4-cinnamon-64bit.iso /dev/sdb Boot The Install Disc boot into bios to disable fastboot and secureboot invoke your machine's device boot menu and boot the install disc in uefi mode confirm that you have booted in uefi mode by listing efivars ls /sys/firmware/efi/vars Partition The Hard Drive If you recall we are assuming the target hard drive is /dev/sda , as an example. So, make adjustments as necessary. If you would rather use a different partition tool, make sure the efi partition is an efi partition type, and you definitely need a separate /boot partition. If indeed, you are installing a dual-boot and are installing alongside another operating system, then skip steps 1 and 2 , obviously. if needed you can clear the drive with wipefs wipefs --all /dev/sda create a new partition table for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda -o create a new efi partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=5::+512MiB --typecode=1:ef00 create a new /boot partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=6::+1G create a new / partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=7 verify your partition work sgdisk /dev/sda -p format the efi partition mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda5 format the /boot partition mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda6 encrypt the / partition, you will be prompted for a password cryptsetup -y -v luksFormat --type luks2 /dev/sda7 decrypt the / partition, you will be prompted for a password cryptsetup open /dev/sda7 cryptroot format the / device mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/cryptroot Mount The Hard Drive This takes advantage of expert mode in the LMDE installer. create an /target directory mkdir /target mount the / device at /target mount /dev/mapper/cryptroot /target create an /target/boot directory mkdir /target/boot mount the /boot partition at /target/boot mount /dev/sda6 /target/boot create an /target/boot/efi directory mkdir /target/boot/efi mount the efi partition at /target/boot/efi mount /dev/sda5 /target/boot/efi Run The Installer App From Command Line At this point you're ready to run the live installer. But you need to run the installer from the command line in order to use expert-mode : live-installer --expert-mode The first three pages of the live-installer cover Language,Timezone, and Keymap. The fourth page of the live-installer covers name, password, and hostname. After this select manual partitioning . On the seventh page of the live-installer, you come to a partition configuration page. But there is nothing to do here. The partition-configuration doesn't even recognize your encrypted partitions. But no matter, because you have already mounted the target file system relative to /target/ , so select expert mode at the bottom of the page. the installer doesn't even recognize the encrypted partitions ... ignore everything on this screen and click the `Expert mode` button Again select forward , and when you come to the page where you configure the location to install grub, that should be the efi partition, i.e. /dev/sda5 . select the efi partition as the location to install grub Then continue with the installation. The installation will run for a few minutes and will then pause. There will be a popup informing you that the installation has paused. During the pause you need to manually configure fstab and crypttab . Configure Fstab find the UUID of the efi partition blkid /dev/sda5 -s UUID find the UUID of the /boot partition blkid /dev/sda6 -s UUID find the UUID of the / device blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot -s UUID And when you find the correct UUID numbers, use them to configure /etc/fstab which is actually currently at /target/etc/fstab . # /etc/fstab ############### # efi partition # run the command `blkid /dev/sda1 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda5: UUID=\"17C4-215D\", from which derive UUID=17C4-215D /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 2 # /boot partition # run the command `blkid /dev/sda2 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda6: UUID=\"f2509fff-4854-4721-b546-0274c89e6aec\", from which derive UUID=f2509fff-4854-4721-b546-0274c89e6aec /boot ext4 defaults 0 2 # \"/\" device # run the command `blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/mapper/cryptroot: UUID=\"72241377-cd65-43a6-8363-1afce5bd93f6\", from which derive UUID=72241377-cd65-43a6-8363-1afce5bd93f6 / xfs defaults 0 1 Configure Crypttab But before the file systems can be mounted, crypttab needs to mount /dev/sda3 at /dev/mapper/cryptroot . Configure /etc/crypttab which is actually currently at /target/etc/crypttab Sorry, that's actually an over-simplification. But you need to configure crypttab now, because when the installer continues running again, it installs the bootloader and builds the initramfs, and mkinitramfs parses crypttab , and builds and configures the initramfs in such a way that it knows to decrypt your / partition so it can then hand it off to the kernel at boot time (I think). find the UUID of the partition that will be mounted at /dev/mapper/crypttab blkid /dev/sda3 -s UUID And when you find the correct UUID number for /dev/sda3 , use that to configure /etc/crypttab which is actually currently at /target/etc/crypttab . # /etc/crypttab # run the command `blkid /dev/sda7 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda7: UUID=\"da3e0967-711f-4159-85ac-7d5743a75201\", from which derive # <target name> <source device> <key file> <options> cryptroot UUID=da3e0967-711f-4159-85ac-7d5743a75201 none luks Resume Installer App At this point finish running the live installer, and you'll be done. UEFI Fix Well, actually there isn't one. In this scenario having two efi partitions, we rely on the motherboard correctly persisting efi boot entries. So if you are unlucky enough to have one of the HP laptops that forgets efi boot entries, I guess you are out of luck. You might try using a single efi partition instead of two, and maybe that will work. Presumably this would require using VeraCrypt for Windows, instead of Bitlocker (because Bitlocker won't allow Grub to load the Windows bootloader?) Optional Swap File Visit the Arch Wiki and they will hook you up.","title":"LMDE4 Custom Partitions Disk Encryption"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#introduction","text":"Linux Mint Debian Edition is the alternate version of Linux Mint, but built on a Debian base. The result is quite pleasant: the stability of desktop Debian, but with the rough edges polished smooth, nicely configured fonts and ui, and all the multi-media codecs included. Previously, I wrote a guide for installing LMDE3 with disk encryption . The installer for LMDE 4 is different in that it includes support for disk encryption, but not if you need custom partitions such as for a dual-boot configuration . With this in mind, the examples presented below assume that you have Windows 10 installed in 4 partitions, and thus you would want to make 3 partitions (5,6,7) after that, for LMDE4. As with before, with separate partitions for /boot formatted ext4, /boot/efi formatted fat32, and a regular luks-encrypted partition for / formatted xfs. With a separate efi partition for LMDE4, you can then use the computer's device boot menu to select which efi boot entry you want to boot. There is also an advantage in having Windows use the first efi partition, in that if something happens to the Windows efi boot entry, you can fall back to the default efi executable. Whereas, if the efi boot entry for Linux somehow gets wiped, you could repair that easily enough via chroot .","title":"Introduction"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#prepare-the-installation-media","text":"Visit the Linux Mint Website and download the iso file for LMDE 4 64bit. Download from torrents if possible, to save bandwidth. verify the sha256 sum of the iso file sha256sum lmde-4-cinnamon-64bit.iso Identify the thumb drive you are going to install from. type lsblk , note the output, and then insert the thumb drive then type lsblk again and note the additional output # lsblk /dev/sdb NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT sdb 8:32 1 14.5G 0 disk \u251c\u2500sdb1 8:33 1 3.4G 0 part /media/trent/Debian 9.6.0 amd64 \u2514\u2500sdb2 8:34 1 416K 0 part In the above example output we see that our thumb drive is identified as /dev/sdb , and partition /dev/sdb1 is automatically mounted. Take special care that you have accurately identified the thumb drive before proceeding. For the sake of example, we will proceed on the assumption that our thumb drive is identified as /dev/sdb , but you need to compensate accordingly. unmount any partition of the thumb drive that are automatically mounted umount /dev/sdb1 write the disk image to the thumb drive ddrescue -D --force lmde-4-cinnamon-64bit.iso /dev/sdb","title":"Prepare The Installation Media"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#boot-the-install-disc","text":"boot into bios to disable fastboot and secureboot invoke your machine's device boot menu and boot the install disc in uefi mode confirm that you have booted in uefi mode by listing efivars ls /sys/firmware/efi/vars","title":"Boot The Install Disc"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#partition-the-hard-drive","text":"If you recall we are assuming the target hard drive is /dev/sda , as an example. So, make adjustments as necessary. If you would rather use a different partition tool, make sure the efi partition is an efi partition type, and you definitely need a separate /boot partition. If indeed, you are installing a dual-boot and are installing alongside another operating system, then skip steps 1 and 2 , obviously. if needed you can clear the drive with wipefs wipefs --all /dev/sda create a new partition table for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda -o create a new efi partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=5::+512MiB --typecode=1:ef00 create a new /boot partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=6::+1G create a new / partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=7 verify your partition work sgdisk /dev/sda -p format the efi partition mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda5 format the /boot partition mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda6 encrypt the / partition, you will be prompted for a password cryptsetup -y -v luksFormat --type luks2 /dev/sda7 decrypt the / partition, you will be prompted for a password cryptsetup open /dev/sda7 cryptroot format the / device mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/cryptroot","title":"Partition The Hard Drive"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#mount-the-hard-drive","text":"This takes advantage of expert mode in the LMDE installer. create an /target directory mkdir /target mount the / device at /target mount /dev/mapper/cryptroot /target create an /target/boot directory mkdir /target/boot mount the /boot partition at /target/boot mount /dev/sda6 /target/boot create an /target/boot/efi directory mkdir /target/boot/efi mount the efi partition at /target/boot/efi mount /dev/sda5 /target/boot/efi","title":"Mount The Hard Drive"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#run-the-installer-app-from-command-line","text":"At this point you're ready to run the live installer. But you need to run the installer from the command line in order to use expert-mode : live-installer --expert-mode The first three pages of the live-installer cover Language,Timezone, and Keymap. The fourth page of the live-installer covers name, password, and hostname. After this select manual partitioning . On the seventh page of the live-installer, you come to a partition configuration page. But there is nothing to do here. The partition-configuration doesn't even recognize your encrypted partitions. But no matter, because you have already mounted the target file system relative to /target/ , so select expert mode at the bottom of the page. the installer doesn't even recognize the encrypted partitions ... ignore everything on this screen and click the `Expert mode` button Again select forward , and when you come to the page where you configure the location to install grub, that should be the efi partition, i.e. /dev/sda5 . select the efi partition as the location to install grub Then continue with the installation. The installation will run for a few minutes and will then pause. There will be a popup informing you that the installation has paused. During the pause you need to manually configure fstab and crypttab .","title":"Run The Installer App From Command Line"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#configure-fstab","text":"find the UUID of the efi partition blkid /dev/sda5 -s UUID find the UUID of the /boot partition blkid /dev/sda6 -s UUID find the UUID of the / device blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot -s UUID And when you find the correct UUID numbers, use them to configure /etc/fstab which is actually currently at /target/etc/fstab . # /etc/fstab ############### # efi partition # run the command `blkid /dev/sda1 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda5: UUID=\"17C4-215D\", from which derive UUID=17C4-215D /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 2 # /boot partition # run the command `blkid /dev/sda2 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda6: UUID=\"f2509fff-4854-4721-b546-0274c89e6aec\", from which derive UUID=f2509fff-4854-4721-b546-0274c89e6aec /boot ext4 defaults 0 2 # \"/\" device # run the command `blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/mapper/cryptroot: UUID=\"72241377-cd65-43a6-8363-1afce5bd93f6\", from which derive UUID=72241377-cd65-43a6-8363-1afce5bd93f6 / xfs defaults 0 1","title":"Configure Fstab"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#configure-crypttab","text":"But before the file systems can be mounted, crypttab needs to mount /dev/sda3 at /dev/mapper/cryptroot . Configure /etc/crypttab which is actually currently at /target/etc/crypttab Sorry, that's actually an over-simplification. But you need to configure crypttab now, because when the installer continues running again, it installs the bootloader and builds the initramfs, and mkinitramfs parses crypttab , and builds and configures the initramfs in such a way that it knows to decrypt your / partition so it can then hand it off to the kernel at boot time (I think). find the UUID of the partition that will be mounted at /dev/mapper/crypttab blkid /dev/sda3 -s UUID And when you find the correct UUID number for /dev/sda3 , use that to configure /etc/crypttab which is actually currently at /target/etc/crypttab . # /etc/crypttab # run the command `blkid /dev/sda7 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda7: UUID=\"da3e0967-711f-4159-85ac-7d5743a75201\", from which derive # <target name> <source device> <key file> <options> cryptroot UUID=da3e0967-711f-4159-85ac-7d5743a75201 none luks","title":"Configure Crypttab"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#resume-installer-app","text":"At this point finish running the live installer, and you'll be done.","title":"Resume Installer App"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#uefi-fix","text":"Well, actually there isn't one. In this scenario having two efi partitions, we rely on the motherboard correctly persisting efi boot entries. So if you are unlucky enough to have one of the HP laptops that forgets efi boot entries, I guess you are out of luck. You might try using a single efi partition instead of two, and maybe that will work. Presumably this would require using VeraCrypt for Windows, instead of Bitlocker (because Bitlocker won't allow Grub to load the Windows bootloader?)","title":"UEFI Fix"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#optional-swap-file","text":"Visit the Arch Wiki and they will hook you up.","title":"Optional Swap File"},{"location":"posts/rewrite-hugo-themes-report-in-python/","text":"date: 2019-01-25T01:02:57-08:00 Ranking Hugo Themes by Stars, Commit Date A while back I was grazing the selfhosted subreddit, and noticed Hugo coming up in conversation. I recalled that hugo requires a third-party theme in order to function. But was a bit of a challenge, because how do you know what is a good Hugo theme? First Version in Bash I ended up writing a little bash script (now deprecated) that scrapes the Github api and generates a little report about Hugo themes. It basically curled json from the Github api, and parsed it with grep, awk, and sed, and eventually spat out a plain text file. Rewrite in Python It was about a year later that I decided to rewrite the script in Python, using sqlite as a database. I discovered how to use the python requests module, got some practice with sqlite, and discovered how to make conditional request against the Github api using ETags and \u2018If-Modified-Since\u2019 (ETags are easier). But this was my first time using python like this. And I have to tell you, it\u2019s a lot moar fun than recursive fibonacci tutorials! Building an HTML5 Table (bootstrap, actually) By the time I had figured out how to collect the data I needed, I realized that I could simply generate an html table right in the python script. rank_hugo_themes.py runs in a cronjob every night, and you can view Hugo Themes Report here. And you can see the script on Github .","title":"Rewrite Hugo Themes Report in Python"},{"location":"posts/rewrite-hugo-themes-report-in-python/#ranking-hugo-themes-by-stars-commit-date","text":"A while back I was grazing the selfhosted subreddit, and noticed Hugo coming up in conversation. I recalled that hugo requires a third-party theme in order to function. But was a bit of a challenge, because how do you know what is a good Hugo theme?","title":"Ranking Hugo Themes by Stars, Commit Date"},{"location":"posts/rewrite-hugo-themes-report-in-python/#first-version-in-bash","text":"I ended up writing a little bash script (now deprecated) that scrapes the Github api and generates a little report about Hugo themes. It basically curled json from the Github api, and parsed it with grep, awk, and sed, and eventually spat out a plain text file.","title":"First Version in Bash"},{"location":"posts/rewrite-hugo-themes-report-in-python/#rewrite-in-python","text":"It was about a year later that I decided to rewrite the script in Python, using sqlite as a database. I discovered how to use the python requests module, got some practice with sqlite, and discovered how to make conditional request against the Github api using ETags and \u2018If-Modified-Since\u2019 (ETags are easier). But this was my first time using python like this. And I have to tell you, it\u2019s a lot moar fun than recursive fibonacci tutorials!","title":"Rewrite in Python"},{"location":"posts/rewrite-hugo-themes-report-in-python/#building-an-html5-table-bootstrap-actually","text":"By the time I had figured out how to collect the data I needed, I realized that I could simply generate an html table right in the python script. rank_hugo_themes.py runs in a cronjob every night, and you can view Hugo Themes Report here. And you can see the script on Github .","title":"Building an HTML5 Table (bootstrap, actually)"},{"location":"posts/simplified-raspberry-streaming/","text":"date: 2019-05-12T18:32:55-07:00 RaspberryPi is a Great MPD Appliance I\u2019m really pleased with the RaspberryPi as an MPD (music player daemon), appliance. I have it hooked up to the home surround-sound system via spdif, digital optical cable hat, btw, running Arch Linux ARM , with the / file system on a dual-thumbdrive, btrfs raid1 (mirror) device . It plays music around the clock, reliably, without breaking a sweat. And the mpd daemon is easy to remote control, either from the command line with ncmpcpp , or using M.A.L.P for Android . And/Or as an Internet Radio Streaming Client The beauty of this setup it in the simplicity. All you have to do is create an plain text *m3u file with the address:port of the internet radio stream you want, and place that in /var/lib/mpd/playlists directory. You can find various internet radio lists on the internet, and many offer example *m3u playlist files that you can download. However, the important thing is that your m3u playlist file has to contain the exact streaming address, so if the m3u file you download points to a pls file, you may have to download that pls file to look for the streaming address.","title":"Simplified Raspberry Streaming"},{"location":"posts/simplified-raspberry-streaming/#raspberrypi-is-a-great-mpd-appliance","text":"I\u2019m really pleased with the RaspberryPi as an MPD (music player daemon), appliance. I have it hooked up to the home surround-sound system via spdif, digital optical cable hat, btw, running Arch Linux ARM , with the / file system on a dual-thumbdrive, btrfs raid1 (mirror) device . It plays music around the clock, reliably, without breaking a sweat. And the mpd daemon is easy to remote control, either from the command line with ncmpcpp , or using M.A.L.P for Android .","title":"RaspberryPi is a Great MPD Appliance"},{"location":"posts/simplified-raspberry-streaming/#andor-as-an-internet-radio-streaming-client","text":"The beauty of this setup it in the simplicity. All you have to do is create an plain text *m3u file with the address:port of the internet radio stream you want, and place that in /var/lib/mpd/playlists directory. You can find various internet radio lists on the internet, and many offer example *m3u playlist files that you can download. However, the important thing is that your m3u playlist file has to contain the exact streaming address, so if the m3u file you download points to a pls file, you may have to download that pls file to look for the streaming address.","title":"And/Or as an Internet Radio Streaming Client"}]}
\ No newline at end of file
+{"config":{"lang":["en"],"min_search_length":3,"prebuild_index":false,"separator":"[\\s\\-]+"},"docs":[{"location":"","text":"Trent's Blog Posts By Date 2020-12-17: Instructions for Tethering From Phone 2020-12-15: LMDE4 Custom Partitions Disk Encryption 2020-06-21: Linux Move Cursor With Keyboard 2019-05-12: Simplified Raspberry Streaming 2019-04-13: Clear Linux Encrypted xfs Root 2019-03-11: Clear Linux Guest Virt Manager 2019-02-11: Faster Partitioning With sgdisk 2019-01-25: LMDE3 xfs Full Disk Encryption 2019-01-25: Rewrite Hugo Themes Report in Python Links Links","title":"Home"},{"location":"#trents-blog","text":"","title":"Trent's Blog"},{"location":"#posts-by-date","text":"2020-12-17: Instructions for Tethering From Phone 2020-12-15: LMDE4 Custom Partitions Disk Encryption 2020-06-21: Linux Move Cursor With Keyboard 2019-05-12: Simplified Raspberry Streaming 2019-04-13: Clear Linux Encrypted xfs Root 2019-03-11: Clear Linux Guest Virt Manager 2019-02-11: Faster Partitioning With sgdisk 2019-01-25: LMDE3 xfs Full Disk Encryption 2019-01-25: Rewrite Hugo Themes Report in Python","title":"Posts By Date"},{"location":"#links","text":"Links","title":"Links"},{"location":"links/","text":"Trent's Blog Links Home GitHub Twitter Facebook Trent Docs Hugo Themes Report libre_gps_parser Concise PDX Free Code Camp Challenges Device Layout Oregon Hikers' Field Guide","title":"Links"},{"location":"links/#trents-blog","text":"","title":"Trent's Blog"},{"location":"links/#links","text":"Home GitHub Twitter Facebook Trent Docs Hugo Themes Report libre_gps_parser Concise PDX Free Code Camp Challenges Device Layout Oregon Hikers' Field Guide","title":"Links"},{"location":"posts/clear-linux-encrypted-xfs-root/","text":"date: 2019-04-13T21:44:37-07:00 Nothing to-it Burger I had intended to create a technical explanation how to install Clear Linux with disk encryption, with xfs. But that turned out to be unnecessary because the latest version of the installer handles setting that up automatically. Previously, I had written down the steps needed to get LMDE 3 installed using disk encryption with xfs , which required manual intervention. And indeed, a few months ago, the Clear Linux installer only supported xfs with disk encryption if you could supply some manual intervention. However, the latest Clear Linux installer can set up disk encryption with luks and xfs, automatically. Just follow the instructions , no special skills needed.","title":"Clear Linux Encrypted xfs Root"},{"location":"posts/clear-linux-encrypted-xfs-root/#nothing-to-it-burger","text":"I had intended to create a technical explanation how to install Clear Linux with disk encryption, with xfs. But that turned out to be unnecessary because the latest version of the installer handles setting that up automatically. Previously, I had written down the steps needed to get LMDE 3 installed using disk encryption with xfs , which required manual intervention. And indeed, a few months ago, the Clear Linux installer only supported xfs with disk encryption if you could supply some manual intervention. However, the latest Clear Linux installer can set up disk encryption with luks and xfs, automatically. Just follow the instructions , no special skills needed.","title":"Nothing to-it Burger"},{"location":"posts/clear-linux-guest-virt-manager/","text":"date: 2019-03-11T01:39:09-07:00 Introduction download, convert, and resize the provided kvm-legacy image create a virtual machine and launch it from virt-manager But it\u2019s not immediately clear from the instructions if you can use virt-manager , because they recommend their script which runs qemu-system-x86_64 directly. Which is fine, but maybe you find it easier to customize the options using the virt-manager gui interface. How To Assuming you have libvirt and kvm set up with virt-manager , you can: download the clear-*-legacy-kvm.img.xz verify the checksum extract it unxz clear-*-legacy-kvm.img.xz mv clear-*-legacy-kvm.img.xz /var/lib/libvirt/images/ create a virtual machine in virt-manager using the image There is not an os template for Clear Linux, but Fedora29 works fine for me. As a bonus, virsh console is configured and ready to go. Convert Raw -> Qcow2 and Resize The image has a gpt partition table. I am not sure if that is the reason why, but fdisk does not seem to work for resizing the partition. However, parted works fine. The image download is an 8gb sparse raw image. You may wish to convert that to qcow2 and and resize before creating the virtual machine. Here is how to do that. convert the sparse raw image to qcow2 qemu-img convert -f raw -O qcow2 clear*.img clear.qcow2 resize the image to taste qemu-img resize clear.qcow2 20G create the virtual machine in virt-manager gui boot the virtual machine: virsh start clearvm log in: virsh console clearvm install a bundle which contains parted swupd bundle-add clr-installer expand / partition and file system with parted and resize2fs parted /dev/vda resizepart > Fix/Ignore? Fix > Partition number? 1 > End? [ 8590MB ] ? 100 % > size2fs /dev/vda1","title":"Clear Linux Guest Virt Manager"},{"location":"posts/clear-linux-guest-virt-manager/#introduction","text":"download, convert, and resize the provided kvm-legacy image create a virtual machine and launch it from virt-manager But it\u2019s not immediately clear from the instructions if you can use virt-manager , because they recommend their script which runs qemu-system-x86_64 directly. Which is fine, but maybe you find it easier to customize the options using the virt-manager gui interface.","title":"Introduction"},{"location":"posts/clear-linux-guest-virt-manager/#how-to","text":"Assuming you have libvirt and kvm set up with virt-manager , you can: download the clear-*-legacy-kvm.img.xz verify the checksum extract it unxz clear-*-legacy-kvm.img.xz mv clear-*-legacy-kvm.img.xz /var/lib/libvirt/images/ create a virtual machine in virt-manager using the image There is not an os template for Clear Linux, but Fedora29 works fine for me. As a bonus, virsh console is configured and ready to go.","title":"How To"},{"location":"posts/clear-linux-guest-virt-manager/#convert-raw-qcow2-and-resize","text":"The image has a gpt partition table. I am not sure if that is the reason why, but fdisk does not seem to work for resizing the partition. However, parted works fine. The image download is an 8gb sparse raw image. You may wish to convert that to qcow2 and and resize before creating the virtual machine. Here is how to do that. convert the sparse raw image to qcow2 qemu-img convert -f raw -O qcow2 clear*.img clear.qcow2 resize the image to taste qemu-img resize clear.qcow2 20G create the virtual machine in virt-manager gui boot the virtual machine: virsh start clearvm log in: virsh console clearvm install a bundle which contains parted swupd bundle-add clr-installer expand / partition and file system with parted and resize2fs parted /dev/vda resizepart > Fix/Ignore? Fix > Partition number? 1 > End? [ 8590MB ] ? 100 % > size2fs /dev/vda1","title":"Convert Raw -&gt; Qcow2 and Resize"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/","text":"date: 2019-02-11T04:23:52-08:00 Disclaimer If any of this is wrong, let me know so I can fix it. No actual hard drives were harmed in the production of this blog post. The examples are easier to read if you turn your smart phone sideways. Command Line Is Faster Sure you can partition your discs using a GUI disk management application or an interactive, menu-driven terminal interface. But the command line is faster. gdisk vs sgdisk sgdisk is the scriptable version of gdisk (gptfdisk). what the manpage says If you\u2019re familiar with gdisk , you probably know how to interactively set the partition size and type. If you look at the man page for sgdisk you see that the relevant flags are -n and -t . The beginning and ending numbers are absolute, unless you prepend them with a + or - sign, in which case they become relative. # For New Partition: -n, --new=partnum:start:end # Change partition type: -t, --typecode=partnum:{hexcode|GUID} Example with Separate EFI and / Partitions BTW, gdisk is a partitioning tool intended to be used with a gpt partition table, so the assumption is that you would want an efi partition, (although the efi partition does not have to be on the disk you are partitioning or even on the same disk where your other system partitions are). Wipe any leftover filesystem metadata with wipefs. wipefs --all /dev/sdx Create a new GPT partition table. sgdisk /dev/sdx -o Create an efi partition of 512MB by specifying the end of the partition (relative) and the partition type, ef00 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 1::+512MiB -t 1:ef00 Create an / partition using the remainder of the disk, by not specifying the end or the beginning or partition type, which defaults to 8300. sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 2 Format the efi partition fat 32. mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1 Format the / partition ext4. mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx2 Practice With A Sparse Image If you don\u2019t want to partition a real hard drive, you can practice using an sparse image file, instead. # create a sparse image file truncate -S 100G practiceImage.img # partition the image file with sgdisk sgdisk practiceImage.img -o # etc Example with Separate /boot, EFI, and luks-encrypted / Partitions Wipe any leftover filesystem metadata with wipefs . wipefs --all /dev/sdx Create a new GPT partition table. sgdisk /dev/sdx -o Create an efi partition of 512MB by specifying the end of the partition (relative) and the partition type, ef00 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 1::+512MiB -t 1:ef00 Create a /boot partition of 1GB, by specifying the end of the partition (relative), but not specifying the partition type which defaults to 8300 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 2::+1GiB Create an / partition using the remainder of the disk, by not specifying the end or the beginning or partition type, which defaults to 8300 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 3 Format the efi partition fat 32. mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1 Format the /boot partition ext4. mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx2 Encrypt the / partition. cryptsetup -y -v luksFormat --type luks2 /dev/sdx3 Decrypt the / device. cryptsetup open /dev/sdx3 cryptroot Format the / device. mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/cryptroot What About Swap? I prefer to use a swap file inside the luks-encrypted / partition. But you can make a separate swap partition if you like. Example with 2GB swap partition Wipe the disc. wipefs --all /dev/sdx Create a new GPT partition table. sgdisk /dev/sdx -o Create an EFI partition. sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 1::+512MiB -t 1:ef00 Create a /boot partition. sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 2::+1GiB Create a / partition with a relative negative end. sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 3::-2GiB Create a swap partion type 8200 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 4 -t 4:8200 format the partitions. mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1 mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx2 mkfs.xfs /dev/sdx3 mkswap /dev/sdx4 Conclusion Good luck to you. Backup your data first. Kind Regards, Trent","title":"Faster Partitioning With sgdisk"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#disclaimer","text":"If any of this is wrong, let me know so I can fix it. No actual hard drives were harmed in the production of this blog post. The examples are easier to read if you turn your smart phone sideways.","title":"Disclaimer"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#command-line-is-faster","text":"Sure you can partition your discs using a GUI disk management application or an interactive, menu-driven terminal interface. But the command line is faster.","title":"Command Line Is Faster"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#gdisk-vs-sgdisk","text":"sgdisk is the scriptable version of gdisk (gptfdisk).","title":"gdisk vs sgdisk"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#what-the-manpage-says","text":"If you\u2019re familiar with gdisk , you probably know how to interactively set the partition size and type. If you look at the man page for sgdisk you see that the relevant flags are -n and -t . The beginning and ending numbers are absolute, unless you prepend them with a + or - sign, in which case they become relative. # For New Partition: -n, --new=partnum:start:end # Change partition type: -t, --typecode=partnum:{hexcode|GUID}","title":"what the manpage says"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#example-with-separate-efi-and-partitions","text":"BTW, gdisk is a partitioning tool intended to be used with a gpt partition table, so the assumption is that you would want an efi partition, (although the efi partition does not have to be on the disk you are partitioning or even on the same disk where your other system partitions are). Wipe any leftover filesystem metadata with wipefs. wipefs --all /dev/sdx Create a new GPT partition table. sgdisk /dev/sdx -o Create an efi partition of 512MB by specifying the end of the partition (relative) and the partition type, ef00 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 1::+512MiB -t 1:ef00 Create an / partition using the remainder of the disk, by not specifying the end or the beginning or partition type, which defaults to 8300. sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 2 Format the efi partition fat 32. mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1 Format the / partition ext4. mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx2","title":"Example with Separate EFI and / Partitions"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#practice-with-a-sparse-image","text":"If you don\u2019t want to partition a real hard drive, you can practice using an sparse image file, instead. # create a sparse image file truncate -S 100G practiceImage.img # partition the image file with sgdisk sgdisk practiceImage.img -o # etc","title":"Practice With A Sparse Image"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#example-with-separate-boot-efi-and-luks-encrypted-partitions","text":"Wipe any leftover filesystem metadata with wipefs . wipefs --all /dev/sdx Create a new GPT partition table. sgdisk /dev/sdx -o Create an efi partition of 512MB by specifying the end of the partition (relative) and the partition type, ef00 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 1::+512MiB -t 1:ef00 Create a /boot partition of 1GB, by specifying the end of the partition (relative), but not specifying the partition type which defaults to 8300 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 2::+1GiB Create an / partition using the remainder of the disk, by not specifying the end or the beginning or partition type, which defaults to 8300 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 3 Format the efi partition fat 32. mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1 Format the /boot partition ext4. mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx2 Encrypt the / partition. cryptsetup -y -v luksFormat --type luks2 /dev/sdx3 Decrypt the / device. cryptsetup open /dev/sdx3 cryptroot Format the / device. mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/cryptroot","title":"Example with Separate /boot, EFI, and luks-encrypted / Partitions"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#what-about-swap","text":"I prefer to use a swap file inside the luks-encrypted / partition. But you can make a separate swap partition if you like.","title":"What About Swap?"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#example-with-2gb-swap-partition","text":"Wipe the disc. wipefs --all /dev/sdx Create a new GPT partition table. sgdisk /dev/sdx -o Create an EFI partition. sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 1::+512MiB -t 1:ef00 Create a /boot partition. sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 2::+1GiB Create a / partition with a relative negative end. sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 3::-2GiB Create a swap partion type 8200 . sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 4 -t 4:8200 format the partitions. mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1 mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx2 mkfs.xfs /dev/sdx3 mkswap /dev/sdx4","title":"Example with 2GB swap partition"},{"location":"posts/faster-partitioning-with-sgdisk/#conclusion","text":"Good luck to you. Backup your data first. Kind Regards, Trent","title":"Conclusion"},{"location":"posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone/","text":"date: 2020-12-17 Instructions Part One Turn off blutooth on computer Turn off blutooth on phone Turn off Wifi on phone Part Two Turn on wifi hotspot or usb tethering Verify! You want to verify that you are connected to your Android hotspot. Android tether is a router that will stand up a subnet of 192.168.43.0/24 for wifi hotspot, and 192.168.42.0/24 for usb tether. On linux open a terminal and type ip addr on Windows open a cmd console and type ipconfig If tethering via wifi hotspot you should see an ipv4 address of 192.168.43.XX If tethering via usb you should see an ipv4 address of 192.168.42.XX ACHTUNG Do Not! DO NOT turn on ethernet tethering you probably don't have the physical equipment available to do that DO NOT turn on blutooth tethering $# ?# DUH!! DO NOT turn on blutooth Your phone's radio hardware already has enough to do, trying to simultaneously maintain an LTE uplink to your mobile carrier and a wifi downlink to your computer DO NOT turn on wifi Don't let your phone try to connect to something that isn't working right now DO NOT forget to turn off blutooth Your phone's radio hardware already has enough to do, trying to simultaneously maintain an LTE uplink to your mobile carrier and a wifi downlink to your computer DO NOT forget to turn off wifi Don't let your phone try to connect to something that isn't working right now Blutooth If you leave blutooth on while trying to tether, your phone could get hot, your battery could go dead, and your hotspot could fail to work properly. Be surprised it it doesn't crash and soft-reboot.","title":"Instructions For Tethering From Phone"},{"location":"posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone/#instructions","text":"","title":"Instructions"},{"location":"posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone/#part-one","text":"Turn off blutooth on computer Turn off blutooth on phone Turn off Wifi on phone","title":"Part One"},{"location":"posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone/#part-two","text":"Turn on wifi hotspot or usb tethering","title":"Part Two"},{"location":"posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone/#verify","text":"You want to verify that you are connected to your Android hotspot. Android tether is a router that will stand up a subnet of 192.168.43.0/24 for wifi hotspot, and 192.168.42.0/24 for usb tether. On linux open a terminal and type ip addr on Windows open a cmd console and type ipconfig If tethering via wifi hotspot you should see an ipv4 address of 192.168.43.XX If tethering via usb you should see an ipv4 address of 192.168.42.XX","title":"Verify!"},{"location":"posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone/#achtung-do-not","text":"DO NOT turn on ethernet tethering you probably don't have the physical equipment available to do that DO NOT turn on blutooth tethering $# ?# DUH!! DO NOT turn on blutooth Your phone's radio hardware already has enough to do, trying to simultaneously maintain an LTE uplink to your mobile carrier and a wifi downlink to your computer DO NOT turn on wifi Don't let your phone try to connect to something that isn't working right now DO NOT forget to turn off blutooth Your phone's radio hardware already has enough to do, trying to simultaneously maintain an LTE uplink to your mobile carrier and a wifi downlink to your computer DO NOT forget to turn off wifi Don't let your phone try to connect to something that isn't working right now","title":"ACHTUNG Do Not!"},{"location":"posts/instructions-for-tethering-from-phone/#blutooth","text":"If you leave blutooth on while trying to tether, your phone could get hot, your battery could go dead, and your hotspot could fail to work properly. Be surprised it it doesn't crash and soft-reboot.","title":"Blutooth"},{"location":"posts/linux-move-cursor-with-keyboard/","text":"date: 2020-06-21T22:01:35-07:00 Introduction Linux just makes everything so easy. On a laptop it can be tricky to place your mouse cursor on exactly the correct pixel, using the touchpad. This became apparent to myself while using GIMP to create some png button files for a little tkinter project, but there must be other use-cases as well. xdo commands for moving the cursor move the cursor one pixel left: xdotool mousemove_relative -- -1 0 move the cursor one pixel right: xdotool mousemove_relative -- 1 0 move the cursor one pixel up: xdotool mousemove_relative -- 0 -1 move the cursor one pixel down: xdotool mousemove_relative -- 0 1 map keyboard shortcuts Now, in your keyboard settings, map the above commands to new custom shortcuts. For instance, I find the Ctrl + Super + Up Ctrl + Super + Down Ctrl + Super + Left Ctrl + Super + Right combinations to be convenient in the Mate Desktop. Enjoy!","title":"Linux Move Cursor With Keyboard"},{"location":"posts/linux-move-cursor-with-keyboard/#introduction","text":"Linux just makes everything so easy. On a laptop it can be tricky to place your mouse cursor on exactly the correct pixel, using the touchpad. This became apparent to myself while using GIMP to create some png button files for a little tkinter project, but there must be other use-cases as well.","title":"Introduction"},{"location":"posts/linux-move-cursor-with-keyboard/#xdo-commands-for-moving-the-cursor","text":"move the cursor one pixel left: xdotool mousemove_relative -- -1 0 move the cursor one pixel right: xdotool mousemove_relative -- 1 0 move the cursor one pixel up: xdotool mousemove_relative -- 0 -1 move the cursor one pixel down: xdotool mousemove_relative -- 0 1","title":"xdo commands for moving the cursor"},{"location":"posts/linux-move-cursor-with-keyboard/#map-keyboard-shortcuts","text":"Now, in your keyboard settings, map the above commands to new custom shortcuts. For instance, I find the Ctrl + Super + Up Ctrl + Super + Down Ctrl + Super + Left Ctrl + Super + Right combinations to be convenient in the Mate Desktop. Enjoy!","title":"map keyboard shortcuts"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/","text":"date: 2019-01-25T23:25:36-08:00 Introduction Linux Mint Debian Edition is the alternate version of Linux Mint, but built on a Debian base. The result is quite pleasant: the stability of desktop Debian, but with the rough edges polished smooth, nicely configured fonts and ui, and all the multi-media codecs included. Unfortunately, the LMDE 3 installer does not support disk encryption, but manually setting this up by hand is pretty straightforward. On the other hand, manually setting up your partitions by hand allows extra freedom and flexibility, and so I have chosen a simple luks-encrypted / partition formatted xfs. As far as swap is concerned, my preference is to use a swap file instead of a swap partition. Having a swap file instead of a swap partition is more flexible because obviously you can easily recreate a different size swap file whenever you like (or use none at all), and the encryption requires no extra set up because the / partition is encrypted anyway. Will this work with a dual-boot set up? Of course! Because you have to manually configure the partitions anyway, just arrange them exactly how you would need for dual-boot. Assumes uefi-configured boot, with separate partitions for /boot formatted ext4, /boot/efi formatted fat32, and a regular luks-encrypted partition for / formatted xfs. Prepare The Installation Media Visit the Linux Mint Website and download the iso file for LMDE 3 64bit. Download from torrents if possible, to save bandwidth. verify the sha256 sum of the iso file sha256sum lmde-3-201808-cinnamon-64bit.iso Identify the thumb drive you are going to install from. type lsblk , note the output, and then insert the thumb drive then type lsblk again and note the additional output # lsblk /dev/sdb NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT sdb 8:32 1 14.5G 0 disk \u251c\u2500sdb1 8:33 1 3.4G 0 part /media/trent/Debian 9.6.0 amd64 \u2514\u2500sdb2 8:34 1 416K 0 part In the above example output we see that our thumb drive is identified as /dev/sdb , and partition /dev/sdb1 is automatically mounted. Take special care that you have accurately identified the thumb drive before proceeding. For the sake of example, we will proceed on the assumption that our thumb drive is identified as /dev/sdb , but you need to compensate accordingly. unmount any partition of the thumb drive that are automatically mounted umount /dev/sdb1 write the disk image to the thumb drive ddrescue -D --force lmde-3-201808-cinnamon-64bit.iso /dev/sdb Boot The Install Disc boot into bios to disable fastboot and secureboot invoke your machine's device boot menu and boot the install disc in uefi mode confirm that you have booted in uefi mode by listing efivars ls /sys/firmware/efi/vars Partition The Hard Drive If you recall we are assuming the target hard drive is /dev/sda , as an example. So, make adjustments as necessary. If you would rather use a different partition tool, make sure the efi partition is an efi partition type, and you definitely need a separate /boot partition. if needed you can clear the drive with wipefs wipefs --all /dev/sda create a new partition table for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda -o create a new efi partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=1::+512MiB --typecode=1:ef00 create a new /boot partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=2::+1G create a new / partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=3 verify your partition work sgdisk /dev/sda -p format the efi partition mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda1 format the /boot partition mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2 encrypt the / partition, you will be prompted for a password cryptsetup -y -v luksFormat --type luks2 /dev/sda3 decrypt the / partition, you will be prompted for a password cryptsetup open /dev/sda3 cryptroot format the / device mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/cryptroot Mount The Hard Drive This takes advantage of expert mode in the LMDE installer. create an /target directory mkdir /target mount the / device at /target mount /dev/mapper/cryptroot /target create an /target/boot directory mkdir /target/boot mount the /boot partition at /target/boot mount /dev/sda2 /target/boot create an /target/boot/efi directory mkdir /target/boot/efi mount the efi partition at /target/boot/efi mount /dev/sda1 /target/boot/efi Run The Installer App At this point you're ready to run the live installer. You can click the disc icon on the desktop. The first three pages of the live-installer cover Language,Timezone, and Keymap. The fourth page of the live-installer covers name, password, and hostname. On the fifth page of the live-installer, you come to a partition configuration page. But there is nothing to do, so select expert mode at the bottom of the page. Again select forward , and when you come to the page where you configure the location to install grub, that should be the efi partition, i.e. /dev/sda1 . Select forward one more time, and then select install. The installation will run for a few minutes and will then pause. During the pause you need to manually configure fstab and crypttab . Configure Fstab find the UUID of the efi partition blkid /dev/sda1 -s UUID find the UUID of the /boot partition blkid /dev/sda2 -s UUID find the UUID of the / device blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot -s UUID And when you find the correct UUID numbers, use them to configure /etc/fstab which is actually currently at /target/etc/fstab . # /etc/fstab ############### # efi partition # run the command `blkid /dev/sda1 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda1: UUID=\"17C4-215D\", from which derive UUID=17C4-215D /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 2 # /boot partition # run the command `blkid /dev/sda2 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda2: UUID=\"f2509fff-4854-4721-b546-0274c89e6aec\", from which derive UUID=f2509fff-4854-4721-b546-0274c89e6aec /boot ext4 defaults 0 2 # \"/\" device # run the command `blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/mapper/cryptroot: UUID=\"72241377-cd65-43a6-8363-1afce5bd93f6\", from which derive UUID=72241377-cd65-43a6-8363-1afce5bd93f6 / xfs defaults 0 1 Configure Crypttab But before the file systems can be mounted, crypttab needs to mount /dev/sda3 at /dev/mapper/cryptroot . Configure /etc/crypttab which is actually currently at /target/etc/crypttab find the UUID of the partition that will be mounted at /dev/mapper/crypttab blkid /dev/sda3 -s UUID And when you find the correct UUID number for /dev/sda3 , use that to configure /etc/crypttab which is actually currently at /target/etc/crypttab . # /etc/crypttab # run the command `blkid /dev/sda3 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda3: UUID=\"da3e0967-711f-4159-85ac-7d5743a75201\", from which derive # <target name> <source device> <key file> <options> cryptroot UUID=da3e0967-711f-4159-85ac-7d5743a75201 none luks Resume Installer App At this point finish running the live installer, and you'll be done. UEFI Fix On some machines, such as HP Laptops, UEFI is broken and efi boot entries don't persist. remount the efi parition mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/ ; cd /mnt/EFI/ create a default efi executable mkdir BOOT ; cp linuxmint/grubx64.efi BOOT/BOOTX64.efi Optional Swap File Visit the Arch Wiki and they will hook you up.","title":"LMDE3 xfs Full Disk Encryption"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#introduction","text":"Linux Mint Debian Edition is the alternate version of Linux Mint, but built on a Debian base. The result is quite pleasant: the stability of desktop Debian, but with the rough edges polished smooth, nicely configured fonts and ui, and all the multi-media codecs included. Unfortunately, the LMDE 3 installer does not support disk encryption, but manually setting this up by hand is pretty straightforward. On the other hand, manually setting up your partitions by hand allows extra freedom and flexibility, and so I have chosen a simple luks-encrypted / partition formatted xfs. As far as swap is concerned, my preference is to use a swap file instead of a swap partition. Having a swap file instead of a swap partition is more flexible because obviously you can easily recreate a different size swap file whenever you like (or use none at all), and the encryption requires no extra set up because the / partition is encrypted anyway. Will this work with a dual-boot set up? Of course! Because you have to manually configure the partitions anyway, just arrange them exactly how you would need for dual-boot. Assumes uefi-configured boot, with separate partitions for /boot formatted ext4, /boot/efi formatted fat32, and a regular luks-encrypted partition for / formatted xfs.","title":"Introduction"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#prepare-the-installation-media","text":"Visit the Linux Mint Website and download the iso file for LMDE 3 64bit. Download from torrents if possible, to save bandwidth. verify the sha256 sum of the iso file sha256sum lmde-3-201808-cinnamon-64bit.iso Identify the thumb drive you are going to install from. type lsblk , note the output, and then insert the thumb drive then type lsblk again and note the additional output # lsblk /dev/sdb NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT sdb 8:32 1 14.5G 0 disk \u251c\u2500sdb1 8:33 1 3.4G 0 part /media/trent/Debian 9.6.0 amd64 \u2514\u2500sdb2 8:34 1 416K 0 part In the above example output we see that our thumb drive is identified as /dev/sdb , and partition /dev/sdb1 is automatically mounted. Take special care that you have accurately identified the thumb drive before proceeding. For the sake of example, we will proceed on the assumption that our thumb drive is identified as /dev/sdb , but you need to compensate accordingly. unmount any partition of the thumb drive that are automatically mounted umount /dev/sdb1 write the disk image to the thumb drive ddrescue -D --force lmde-3-201808-cinnamon-64bit.iso /dev/sdb","title":"Prepare The Installation Media"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#boot-the-install-disc","text":"boot into bios to disable fastboot and secureboot invoke your machine's device boot menu and boot the install disc in uefi mode confirm that you have booted in uefi mode by listing efivars ls /sys/firmware/efi/vars","title":"Boot The Install Disc"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#partition-the-hard-drive","text":"If you recall we are assuming the target hard drive is /dev/sda , as an example. So, make adjustments as necessary. If you would rather use a different partition tool, make sure the efi partition is an efi partition type, and you definitely need a separate /boot partition. if needed you can clear the drive with wipefs wipefs --all /dev/sda create a new partition table for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda -o create a new efi partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=1::+512MiB --typecode=1:ef00 create a new /boot partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=2::+1G create a new / partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=3 verify your partition work sgdisk /dev/sda -p format the efi partition mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda1 format the /boot partition mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2 encrypt the / partition, you will be prompted for a password cryptsetup -y -v luksFormat --type luks2 /dev/sda3 decrypt the / partition, you will be prompted for a password cryptsetup open /dev/sda3 cryptroot format the / device mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/cryptroot","title":"Partition The Hard Drive"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#mount-the-hard-drive","text":"This takes advantage of expert mode in the LMDE installer. create an /target directory mkdir /target mount the / device at /target mount /dev/mapper/cryptroot /target create an /target/boot directory mkdir /target/boot mount the /boot partition at /target/boot mount /dev/sda2 /target/boot create an /target/boot/efi directory mkdir /target/boot/efi mount the efi partition at /target/boot/efi mount /dev/sda1 /target/boot/efi","title":"Mount The Hard Drive"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#run-the-installer-app","text":"At this point you're ready to run the live installer. You can click the disc icon on the desktop. The first three pages of the live-installer cover Language,Timezone, and Keymap. The fourth page of the live-installer covers name, password, and hostname. On the fifth page of the live-installer, you come to a partition configuration page. But there is nothing to do, so select expert mode at the bottom of the page. Again select forward , and when you come to the page where you configure the location to install grub, that should be the efi partition, i.e. /dev/sda1 . Select forward one more time, and then select install. The installation will run for a few minutes and will then pause. During the pause you need to manually configure fstab and crypttab .","title":"Run The Installer App"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#configure-fstab","text":"find the UUID of the efi partition blkid /dev/sda1 -s UUID find the UUID of the /boot partition blkid /dev/sda2 -s UUID find the UUID of the / device blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot -s UUID And when you find the correct UUID numbers, use them to configure /etc/fstab which is actually currently at /target/etc/fstab . # /etc/fstab ############### # efi partition # run the command `blkid /dev/sda1 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda1: UUID=\"17C4-215D\", from which derive UUID=17C4-215D /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 2 # /boot partition # run the command `blkid /dev/sda2 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda2: UUID=\"f2509fff-4854-4721-b546-0274c89e6aec\", from which derive UUID=f2509fff-4854-4721-b546-0274c89e6aec /boot ext4 defaults 0 2 # \"/\" device # run the command `blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/mapper/cryptroot: UUID=\"72241377-cd65-43a6-8363-1afce5bd93f6\", from which derive UUID=72241377-cd65-43a6-8363-1afce5bd93f6 / xfs defaults 0 1","title":"Configure Fstab"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#configure-crypttab","text":"But before the file systems can be mounted, crypttab needs to mount /dev/sda3 at /dev/mapper/cryptroot . Configure /etc/crypttab which is actually currently at /target/etc/crypttab find the UUID of the partition that will be mounted at /dev/mapper/crypttab blkid /dev/sda3 -s UUID And when you find the correct UUID number for /dev/sda3 , use that to configure /etc/crypttab which is actually currently at /target/etc/crypttab . # /etc/crypttab # run the command `blkid /dev/sda3 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda3: UUID=\"da3e0967-711f-4159-85ac-7d5743a75201\", from which derive # <target name> <source device> <key file> <options> cryptroot UUID=da3e0967-711f-4159-85ac-7d5743a75201 none luks","title":"Configure Crypttab"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#resume-installer-app","text":"At this point finish running the live installer, and you'll be done.","title":"Resume Installer App"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#uefi-fix","text":"On some machines, such as HP Laptops, UEFI is broken and efi boot entries don't persist. remount the efi parition mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/ ; cd /mnt/EFI/ create a default efi executable mkdir BOOT ; cp linuxmint/grubx64.efi BOOT/BOOTX64.efi","title":"UEFI Fix"},{"location":"posts/lmde3-xfs-full-disk-encryption/#optional-swap-file","text":"Visit the Arch Wiki and they will hook you up.","title":"Optional Swap File"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/","text":"date: 2020-12-15 Introduction Linux Mint Debian Edition is the alternate version of Linux Mint, but built on a Debian base. The result is quite pleasant: the stability of desktop Debian, but with the rough edges polished smooth, nicely configured fonts and ui, and all the multi-media codecs included. Previously, I wrote a guide for installing LMDE3 with disk encryption . The installer for LMDE 4 is different in that it includes support for disk encryption, but not if you need custom partitions such as for a dual-boot configuration . With this in mind, the examples presented below assume that you have Windows 10 installed in 4 partitions, and thus you would want to make 3 partitions (5,6,7) after that, for LMDE4. As with before, with separate partitions for /boot formatted ext4, /boot/efi formatted fat32, and a regular luks-encrypted partition for / formatted xfs. With a separate efi partition for LMDE4, you can then use the computer's device boot menu to select which efi boot entry you want to boot. There is also an advantage in having Windows use the first efi partition, in that if something happens to the Windows efi boot entry, you can fall back to the default efi executable. Whereas, if the efi boot entry for Linux somehow gets wiped, you could repair that easily enough via chroot . Prepare The Installation Media Visit the Linux Mint Website and download the iso file for LMDE 4 64bit. Download from torrents if possible, to save bandwidth. verify the sha256 sum of the iso file sha256sum lmde-4-cinnamon-64bit.iso Identify the thumb drive you are going to install from. type lsblk , note the output, and then insert the thumb drive then type lsblk again and note the additional output # lsblk /dev/sdb NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT sdb 8:32 1 14.5G 0 disk \u251c\u2500sdb1 8:33 1 3.4G 0 part /media/trent/Debian 9.6.0 amd64 \u2514\u2500sdb2 8:34 1 416K 0 part In the above example output we see that our thumb drive is identified as /dev/sdb , and partition /dev/sdb1 is automatically mounted. Take special care that you have accurately identified the thumb drive before proceeding. For the sake of example, we will proceed on the assumption that our thumb drive is identified as /dev/sdb , but you need to compensate accordingly. unmount any partition of the thumb drive that are automatically mounted umount /dev/sdb1 write the disk image to the thumb drive ddrescue -D --force lmde-4-cinnamon-64bit.iso /dev/sdb Boot The Install Disc boot into bios to disable fastboot and secureboot invoke your machine's device boot menu and boot the install disc in uefi mode confirm that you have booted in uefi mode by listing efivars ls /sys/firmware/efi/vars Partition The Hard Drive If you recall we are assuming the target hard drive is /dev/sda , as an example. So, make adjustments as necessary. If you would rather use a different partition tool, make sure the efi partition is an efi partition type, and you definitely need a separate /boot partition. If indeed, you are installing a dual-boot and are installing alongside another operating system, then skip steps 1 and 2 , obviously. if needed you can clear the drive with wipefs wipefs --all /dev/sda create a new partition table for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda -o create a new efi partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=5::+512MiB --typecode=1:ef00 create a new /boot partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=6::+1G create a new / partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=7 verify your partition work sgdisk /dev/sda -p format the efi partition mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda5 format the /boot partition mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda6 encrypt the / partition, you will be prompted for a password cryptsetup -y -v luksFormat --type luks2 /dev/sda7 decrypt the / partition, you will be prompted for a password cryptsetup open /dev/sda7 cryptroot format the / device mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/cryptroot Mount The Hard Drive This takes advantage of expert mode in the LMDE installer. create an /target directory mkdir /target mount the / device at /target mount /dev/mapper/cryptroot /target create an /target/boot directory mkdir /target/boot mount the /boot partition at /target/boot mount /dev/sda6 /target/boot create an /target/boot/efi directory mkdir /target/boot/efi mount the efi partition at /target/boot/efi mount /dev/sda5 /target/boot/efi Run The Installer App From Command Line At this point you're ready to run the live installer. But you need to run the installer from the command line in order to use expert-mode : live-installer --expert-mode The first three pages of the live-installer cover Language,Timezone, and Keymap. The fourth page of the live-installer covers name, password, and hostname. After this select manual partitioning . On the seventh page of the live-installer, you come to a partition configuration page. But there is nothing to do here. The partition-configuration doesn't even recognize your encrypted partitions. But no matter, because you have already mounted the target file system relative to /target/ , so select expert mode at the bottom of the page. the installer doesn't even recognize the encrypted partitions ... ignore everything on this screen and click the `Expert mode` button Again select forward , and when you come to the page where you configure the location to install grub, that should be the efi partition, i.e. /dev/sda5 . select the efi partition as the location to install grub Then continue with the installation. The installation will run for a few minutes and will then pause. There will be a popup informing you that the installation has paused. During the pause you need to manually configure fstab and crypttab . Configure Fstab find the UUID of the efi partition blkid /dev/sda5 -s UUID find the UUID of the /boot partition blkid /dev/sda6 -s UUID find the UUID of the / device blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot -s UUID And when you find the correct UUID numbers, use them to configure /etc/fstab which is actually currently at /target/etc/fstab . # /etc/fstab ############### # efi partition # run the command `blkid /dev/sda1 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda5: UUID=\"17C4-215D\", from which derive UUID=17C4-215D /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 2 # /boot partition # run the command `blkid /dev/sda2 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda6: UUID=\"f2509fff-4854-4721-b546-0274c89e6aec\", from which derive UUID=f2509fff-4854-4721-b546-0274c89e6aec /boot ext4 defaults 0 2 # \"/\" device # run the command `blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/mapper/cryptroot: UUID=\"72241377-cd65-43a6-8363-1afce5bd93f6\", from which derive UUID=72241377-cd65-43a6-8363-1afce5bd93f6 / xfs defaults 0 1 Configure Crypttab But before the file systems can be mounted, crypttab needs to mount /dev/sda3 at /dev/mapper/cryptroot . Configure /etc/crypttab which is actually currently at /target/etc/crypttab Sorry, that's actually an over-simplification. But you need to configure crypttab now, because when the installer continues running again, it installs the bootloader and builds the initramfs, and mkinitramfs parses crypttab , and builds and configures the initramfs in such a way that it knows to decrypt your / partition so it can then hand it off to the kernel at boot time (I think). find the UUID of the partition that will be mounted at /dev/mapper/crypttab blkid /dev/sda3 -s UUID And when you find the correct UUID number for /dev/sda3 , use that to configure /etc/crypttab which is actually currently at /target/etc/crypttab . # /etc/crypttab # run the command `blkid /dev/sda7 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda7: UUID=\"da3e0967-711f-4159-85ac-7d5743a75201\", from which derive # <target name> <source device> <key file> <options> cryptroot UUID=da3e0967-711f-4159-85ac-7d5743a75201 none luks Resume Installer App At this point finish running the live installer, and you'll be done. UEFI Fix Well, actually there isn't one. In this scenario having two efi partitions, we rely on the motherboard correctly persisting efi boot entries. So if you are unlucky enough to have one of the HP laptops that forgets efi boot entries, I guess you are out of luck. You might try using a single efi partition instead of two, and maybe that will work. Presumably this would require using VeraCrypt for Windows, instead of Bitlocker (because Bitlocker won't allow Grub to load the Windows bootloader?) Optional Swap File Visit the Arch Wiki and they will hook you up.","title":"LMDE4 Custom Partitions Disk Encryption"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#introduction","text":"Linux Mint Debian Edition is the alternate version of Linux Mint, but built on a Debian base. The result is quite pleasant: the stability of desktop Debian, but with the rough edges polished smooth, nicely configured fonts and ui, and all the multi-media codecs included. Previously, I wrote a guide for installing LMDE3 with disk encryption . The installer for LMDE 4 is different in that it includes support for disk encryption, but not if you need custom partitions such as for a dual-boot configuration . With this in mind, the examples presented below assume that you have Windows 10 installed in 4 partitions, and thus you would want to make 3 partitions (5,6,7) after that, for LMDE4. As with before, with separate partitions for /boot formatted ext4, /boot/efi formatted fat32, and a regular luks-encrypted partition for / formatted xfs. With a separate efi partition for LMDE4, you can then use the computer's device boot menu to select which efi boot entry you want to boot. There is also an advantage in having Windows use the first efi partition, in that if something happens to the Windows efi boot entry, you can fall back to the default efi executable. Whereas, if the efi boot entry for Linux somehow gets wiped, you could repair that easily enough via chroot .","title":"Introduction"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#prepare-the-installation-media","text":"Visit the Linux Mint Website and download the iso file for LMDE 4 64bit. Download from torrents if possible, to save bandwidth. verify the sha256 sum of the iso file sha256sum lmde-4-cinnamon-64bit.iso Identify the thumb drive you are going to install from. type lsblk , note the output, and then insert the thumb drive then type lsblk again and note the additional output # lsblk /dev/sdb NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT sdb 8:32 1 14.5G 0 disk \u251c\u2500sdb1 8:33 1 3.4G 0 part /media/trent/Debian 9.6.0 amd64 \u2514\u2500sdb2 8:34 1 416K 0 part In the above example output we see that our thumb drive is identified as /dev/sdb , and partition /dev/sdb1 is automatically mounted. Take special care that you have accurately identified the thumb drive before proceeding. For the sake of example, we will proceed on the assumption that our thumb drive is identified as /dev/sdb , but you need to compensate accordingly. unmount any partition of the thumb drive that are automatically mounted umount /dev/sdb1 write the disk image to the thumb drive ddrescue -D --force lmde-4-cinnamon-64bit.iso /dev/sdb","title":"Prepare The Installation Media"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#boot-the-install-disc","text":"boot into bios to disable fastboot and secureboot invoke your machine's device boot menu and boot the install disc in uefi mode confirm that you have booted in uefi mode by listing efivars ls /sys/firmware/efi/vars","title":"Boot The Install Disc"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#partition-the-hard-drive","text":"If you recall we are assuming the target hard drive is /dev/sda , as an example. So, make adjustments as necessary. If you would rather use a different partition tool, make sure the efi partition is an efi partition type, and you definitely need a separate /boot partition. If indeed, you are installing a dual-boot and are installing alongside another operating system, then skip steps 1 and 2 , obviously. if needed you can clear the drive with wipefs wipefs --all /dev/sda create a new partition table for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda -o create a new efi partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=5::+512MiB --typecode=1:ef00 create a new /boot partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=6::+1G create a new / partition for /dev/sda sgdisk /dev/sda --new=7 verify your partition work sgdisk /dev/sda -p format the efi partition mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda5 format the /boot partition mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda6 encrypt the / partition, you will be prompted for a password cryptsetup -y -v luksFormat --type luks2 /dev/sda7 decrypt the / partition, you will be prompted for a password cryptsetup open /dev/sda7 cryptroot format the / device mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/cryptroot","title":"Partition The Hard Drive"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#mount-the-hard-drive","text":"This takes advantage of expert mode in the LMDE installer. create an /target directory mkdir /target mount the / device at /target mount /dev/mapper/cryptroot /target create an /target/boot directory mkdir /target/boot mount the /boot partition at /target/boot mount /dev/sda6 /target/boot create an /target/boot/efi directory mkdir /target/boot/efi mount the efi partition at /target/boot/efi mount /dev/sda5 /target/boot/efi","title":"Mount The Hard Drive"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#run-the-installer-app-from-command-line","text":"At this point you're ready to run the live installer. But you need to run the installer from the command line in order to use expert-mode : live-installer --expert-mode The first three pages of the live-installer cover Language,Timezone, and Keymap. The fourth page of the live-installer covers name, password, and hostname. After this select manual partitioning . On the seventh page of the live-installer, you come to a partition configuration page. But there is nothing to do here. The partition-configuration doesn't even recognize your encrypted partitions. But no matter, because you have already mounted the target file system relative to /target/ , so select expert mode at the bottom of the page. the installer doesn't even recognize the encrypted partitions ... ignore everything on this screen and click the `Expert mode` button Again select forward , and when you come to the page where you configure the location to install grub, that should be the efi partition, i.e. /dev/sda5 . select the efi partition as the location to install grub Then continue with the installation. The installation will run for a few minutes and will then pause. There will be a popup informing you that the installation has paused. During the pause you need to manually configure fstab and crypttab .","title":"Run The Installer App From Command Line"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#configure-fstab","text":"find the UUID of the efi partition blkid /dev/sda5 -s UUID find the UUID of the /boot partition blkid /dev/sda6 -s UUID find the UUID of the / device blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot -s UUID And when you find the correct UUID numbers, use them to configure /etc/fstab which is actually currently at /target/etc/fstab . # /etc/fstab ############### # efi partition # run the command `blkid /dev/sda1 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda5: UUID=\"17C4-215D\", from which derive UUID=17C4-215D /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 2 # /boot partition # run the command `blkid /dev/sda2 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda6: UUID=\"f2509fff-4854-4721-b546-0274c89e6aec\", from which derive UUID=f2509fff-4854-4721-b546-0274c89e6aec /boot ext4 defaults 0 2 # \"/\" device # run the command `blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/mapper/cryptroot: UUID=\"72241377-cd65-43a6-8363-1afce5bd93f6\", from which derive UUID=72241377-cd65-43a6-8363-1afce5bd93f6 / xfs defaults 0 1","title":"Configure Fstab"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#configure-crypttab","text":"But before the file systems can be mounted, crypttab needs to mount /dev/sda3 at /dev/mapper/cryptroot . Configure /etc/crypttab which is actually currently at /target/etc/crypttab Sorry, that's actually an over-simplification. But you need to configure crypttab now, because when the installer continues running again, it installs the bootloader and builds the initramfs, and mkinitramfs parses crypttab , and builds and configures the initramfs in such a way that it knows to decrypt your / partition so it can then hand it off to the kernel at boot time (I think). find the UUID of the partition that will be mounted at /dev/mapper/crypttab blkid /dev/sda3 -s UUID And when you find the correct UUID number for /dev/sda3 , use that to configure /etc/crypttab which is actually currently at /target/etc/crypttab . # /etc/crypttab # run the command `blkid /dev/sda7 -s UUID` which outputs # /dev/sda7: UUID=\"da3e0967-711f-4159-85ac-7d5743a75201\", from which derive # <target name> <source device> <key file> <options> cryptroot UUID=da3e0967-711f-4159-85ac-7d5743a75201 none luks","title":"Configure Crypttab"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#resume-installer-app","text":"At this point finish running the live installer, and you'll be done.","title":"Resume Installer App"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#uefi-fix","text":"Well, actually there isn't one. In this scenario having two efi partitions, we rely on the motherboard correctly persisting efi boot entries. So if you are unlucky enough to have one of the HP laptops that forgets efi boot entries, I guess you are out of luck. You might try using a single efi partition instead of two, and maybe that will work. Presumably this would require using VeraCrypt for Windows, instead of Bitlocker (because Bitlocker won't allow Grub to load the Windows bootloader?)","title":"UEFI Fix"},{"location":"posts/lmde4-custom-partitions-disk-encryption/#optional-swap-file","text":"Visit the Arch Wiki and they will hook you up.","title":"Optional Swap File"},{"location":"posts/rewrite-hugo-themes-report-in-python/","text":"date: 2019-01-25T01:02:57-08:00 Ranking Hugo Themes by Stars, Commit Date A while back I was grazing the selfhosted subreddit, and noticed Hugo coming up in conversation. I recalled that hugo requires a third-party theme in order to function. But was a bit of a challenge, because how do you know what is a good Hugo theme? First Version in Bash I ended up writing a little bash script (now deprecated) that scrapes the Github api and generates a little report about Hugo themes. It basically curled json from the Github api, and parsed it with grep, awk, and sed, and eventually spat out a plain text file. Rewrite in Python It was about a year later that I decided to rewrite the script in Python, using sqlite as a database. I discovered how to use the python requests module, got some practice with sqlite, and discovered how to make conditional request against the Github api using ETags and \u2018If-Modified-Since\u2019 (ETags are easier). But this was my first time using python like this. And I have to tell you, it\u2019s a lot moar fun than recursive fibonacci tutorials! Building an HTML5 Table (bootstrap, actually) By the time I had figured out how to collect the data I needed, I realized that I could simply generate an html table right in the python script. rank_hugo_themes.py runs in a cronjob every night, and you can view Hugo Themes Report here. And you can see the script on Github .","title":"Rewrite Hugo Themes Report in Python"},{"location":"posts/rewrite-hugo-themes-report-in-python/#ranking-hugo-themes-by-stars-commit-date","text":"A while back I was grazing the selfhosted subreddit, and noticed Hugo coming up in conversation. I recalled that hugo requires a third-party theme in order to function. But was a bit of a challenge, because how do you know what is a good Hugo theme?","title":"Ranking Hugo Themes by Stars, Commit Date"},{"location":"posts/rewrite-hugo-themes-report-in-python/#first-version-in-bash","text":"I ended up writing a little bash script (now deprecated) that scrapes the Github api and generates a little report about Hugo themes. It basically curled json from the Github api, and parsed it with grep, awk, and sed, and eventually spat out a plain text file.","title":"First Version in Bash"},{"location":"posts/rewrite-hugo-themes-report-in-python/#rewrite-in-python","text":"It was about a year later that I decided to rewrite the script in Python, using sqlite as a database. I discovered how to use the python requests module, got some practice with sqlite, and discovered how to make conditional request against the Github api using ETags and \u2018If-Modified-Since\u2019 (ETags are easier). But this was my first time using python like this. And I have to tell you, it\u2019s a lot moar fun than recursive fibonacci tutorials!","title":"Rewrite in Python"},{"location":"posts/rewrite-hugo-themes-report-in-python/#building-an-html5-table-bootstrap-actually","text":"By the time I had figured out how to collect the data I needed, I realized that I could simply generate an html table right in the python script. rank_hugo_themes.py runs in a cronjob every night, and you can view Hugo Themes Report here. And you can see the script on Github .","title":"Building an HTML5 Table (bootstrap, actually)"},{"location":"posts/simplified-raspberry-streaming/","text":"date: 2019-05-12T18:32:55-07:00 RaspberryPi is a Great MPD Appliance I\u2019m really pleased with the RaspberryPi as an MPD (music player daemon), appliance. I have it hooked up to the home surround-sound system via spdif, digital optical cable hat, btw, running Arch Linux ARM , with the / file system on a dual-thumbdrive, btrfs raid1 (mirror) device . It plays music around the clock, reliably, without breaking a sweat. And the mpd daemon is easy to remote control, either from the command line with ncmpcpp , or using M.A.L.P for Android . And/Or as an Internet Radio Streaming Client The beauty of this setup it in the simplicity. All you have to do is create an plain text *m3u file with the address:port of the internet radio stream you want, and place that in /var/lib/mpd/playlists directory. You can find various internet radio lists on the internet, and many offer example *m3u playlist files that you can download. However, the important thing is that your m3u playlist file has to contain the exact streaming address, so if the m3u file you download points to a pls file, you may have to download that pls file to look for the streaming address.","title":"Simplified Raspberry Streaming"},{"location":"posts/simplified-raspberry-streaming/#raspberrypi-is-a-great-mpd-appliance","text":"I\u2019m really pleased with the RaspberryPi as an MPD (music player daemon), appliance. I have it hooked up to the home surround-sound system via spdif, digital optical cable hat, btw, running Arch Linux ARM , with the / file system on a dual-thumbdrive, btrfs raid1 (mirror) device . It plays music around the clock, reliably, without breaking a sweat. And the mpd daemon is easy to remote control, either from the command line with ncmpcpp , or using M.A.L.P for Android .","title":"RaspberryPi is a Great MPD Appliance"},{"location":"posts/simplified-raspberry-streaming/#andor-as-an-internet-radio-streaming-client","text":"The beauty of this setup it in the simplicity. All you have to do is create an plain text *m3u file with the address:port of the internet radio stream you want, and place that in /var/lib/mpd/playlists directory. You can find various internet radio lists on the internet, and many offer example *m3u playlist files that you can download. However, the important thing is that your m3u playlist file has to contain the exact streaming address, so if the m3u file you download points to a pls file, you may have to download that pls file to look for the streaming address.","title":"And/Or as an Internet Radio Streaming Client"}]}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/site/sitemap.xml b/site/sitemap.xml
index 018d05a..255d585 100644
--- a/site/sitemap.xml
+++ b/site/sitemap.xml
@@ -1,47 +1,47 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"><url>
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+     <lastmod>2020-12-18</lastmod>
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      <loc>None</loc>
-     <lastmod>2020-12-17</lastmod>
+     <lastmod>2020-12-18</lastmod>
      <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
     </url><url>
      <loc>None</loc>
-     <lastmod>2020-12-17</lastmod>
+     <lastmod>2020-12-18</lastmod>
      <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
     </url><url>
      <loc>None</loc>
-     <lastmod>2020-12-17</lastmod>
+     <lastmod>2020-12-18</lastmod>
      <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
     </url><url>
      <loc>None</loc>
-     <lastmod>2020-12-17</lastmod>
+     <lastmod>2020-12-18</lastmod>
      <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
     </url><url>
      <loc>None</loc>
-     <lastmod>2020-12-17</lastmod>
+     <lastmod>2020-12-18</lastmod>
      <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
     </url><url>
      <loc>None</loc>
-     <lastmod>2020-12-17</lastmod>
+     <lastmod>2020-12-18</lastmod>
      <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
     </url><url>
      <loc>None</loc>
-     <lastmod>2020-12-17</lastmod>
+     <lastmod>2020-12-18</lastmod>
      <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
     </url><url>
      <loc>None</loc>
-     <lastmod>2020-12-17</lastmod>
+     <lastmod>2020-12-18</lastmod>
      <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
     </url><url>
      <loc>None</loc>
-     <lastmod>2020-12-17</lastmod>
+     <lastmod>2020-12-18</lastmod>
      <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
     </url><url>
      <loc>None</loc>
-     <lastmod>2020-12-17</lastmod>
+     <lastmod>2020-12-18</lastmod>
      <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
     </url>
 </urlset>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/site/sitemap.xml.gz b/site/sitemap.xml.gz
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