Installation Advice/Suggestions: Partitions and Encrypted home

SabreWolfy · 2016-08-24 06:36:45

My current setup:

Device     Boot     Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *           63  49158899  49158837  23.5G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2        49160192 111659007  62498816  29.8G 83 Linux
/dev/sda3       111659008 471025663 359366656 171.4G 83 Linux
/dev/sda4       471025800 488392064  17366265   8.3G 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Windows XP (legacy; sometimes useful to edit that Word document) is on sda1. Kubuntu 16.04 64-bit is on sda2. Encrypted home is on sda3 and swap is on sda4.

I'd like to keep the Windows partition. I thought of installing Hydrogen alongside Kubuntu, but then I'll need to make extended partitions, as I already have four primary ones? Hydrogen would not be able to read the encrypted home anyway?

Is it better to backup home and do a fresh install of Hydrogen on sda2 and reformat home on sda3?

Last edited by SabreWolfy (2016-08-24 06:37:20)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-08-24 06:48:58

SabreWolfy wrote:

I thought of installing Hydrogen alongside Kubuntu, but then I'll need to make extended partitions, as I already have four primary ones?

Yes, alternatively you could use LVM to abstract the partitioning.

Hydrogen would not be able to read the encrypted home anyway?

I have no experience of encryption, sorry.

SabreWolfy · 2016-08-24 07:02:20

Thanks for the reminder about LVM. Reminded me of this. I'll look into it.

Horizon_Brave · 2016-08-28 23:07:06

I'm assuming your disk is ms-dos based rather than gpt, if you're worried about extended partitions? If it is gpt, I think you could just literally add a new partition for bunsenlabs then...

Last edited by Horizon_Brave (2016-08-28 23:07:22)

Bearded_Blunder · 2016-08-29 00:06:04

Horizon_Brave wrote:

I'm assuming your disk is ms-dos based rather than gpt, if you're worried about extended partitions? If it is gpt, I think you could just literally add a new partition for bunsenlabs then...

He could if it was, but it's absolutely not, because XP doesn't understand gpt, and consequently wouldn't work, has to be MS-DOS/MBR

@ OP, you'd have to ditch at least the end partition to create an extended to put logical volumes in, MBR won't support 4 primaries AND an extended, 3 and an extended (with lots of volumes in) can be done.

Alternative is to put the XP in virtualbox for "That Word document",by judicious placement of the VM's files when created, it ought to be runnable in multiple linux flavours according to what's currently booted, and "That" document doesn't require a reboot to edit.

I have done the reverse with virtualbox in the past, run the same VM from 2 windows versions, as long as the virtualbox versions match, and the machines point to the same files for saved states, snapshots, etc. etc. it *can* be done.

SabreWolfy · 2016-08-30 07:09:12

@Bearded_Blunder: Thanks -- that sounds like a good suggestion. I'll make sda3 (home) smaller and then make an extended partition in sda4 (swap), which can then house Hydrogen and swap.

SabreWolfy · 2016-08-30 09:36:28

I booted into Hydrogen Live and decreased the size of sda3 and made sda4 a logical partition, with space for Hydrogen and swap.

I can boot into Kubuntu (needed to edit the swap UUID in /etc/fstab), Windows XP and Hydrogen.

However, I cannot login to Hydrogen via the login manager -- it just keeps prompting me for credentials. I can login via the terminal (Alt-F1). My /home is encrypted via Kubuntu, but I can write to /home -- I just can't read the existing data.

Suggestions?

Bearded_Blunder · 2016-09-01 06:54:41

Try System>Login Settings and comment out the line calling session-setup-script, then try logging in, it might work, the script checks for /home and login will fail if it can't access it, being encrypted, it may not be able to.

(won't be able to add bunsen-style new users in that condition, but you should be able to login, if that's the cause)

Last edited by Bearded_Blunder (2016-09-01 06:55:47)

#1 2016-08-24 06:36:45

Installation Advice/Suggestions: Partitions and Encrypted home

#2 2016-08-24 06:48:58

Re: Installation Advice/Suggestions: Partitions and Encrypted home

#3 2016-08-24 07:02:20

Re: Installation Advice/Suggestions: Partitions and Encrypted home

#4 2016-08-28 23:07:06

Re: Installation Advice/Suggestions: Partitions and Encrypted home

#5 2016-08-29 00:06:04

Re: Installation Advice/Suggestions: Partitions and Encrypted home

#6 2016-08-30 07:09:12

Re: Installation Advice/Suggestions: Partitions and Encrypted home

#7 2016-08-30 09:36:28

Re: Installation Advice/Suggestions: Partitions and Encrypted home

#8 2016-09-01 06:54:41

Re: Installation Advice/Suggestions: Partitions and Encrypted home

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