MEPIS Community Forum

The title says it all. Do you create encrypted swap and home partitions when you install MEPIS 11 rc2? I tried the directions in the wiki and they don't seem to work with MEPIS 11 rc2. after it's installed.

Thanks,

cackerso

No - I don't see the need to do something like that.

unless you take you PC out & about, why would that level of protection, - be neccessary?.

I also don't see the need to encrypt a swap partition. - at all.

Hello Group;

I as the original poster, Pierre, would like to encrypt my system as well. The Debian installer allows this to be done at the time of install. There are other Distributions that do the same. They offer an alternative installer. It is a easy painless method. Not everyone would use this but some would like to. I know I would.

I hope that in a future release SimplyMEPIS would add this option to be used by those who wish to do so. I am not sure what if any the down side would be but since newer PC's are getting faster, speed should not be one.

I currently encrypt my work using GPG. But a encrypted hard drive and home would be nice.

I have not done it because I do not need it, but a quick search turns up this interesting link:

http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic/11162/howto-encrypted-home-partition/

Crunchbang and Mepis both are members of the same Debian family so it ought to work. Have a look.

I think data is written to the swap continuously so encrypting it is necessary if you really want security. And I agree that Mepis needs the ability to encrypt both /home and swap because there are way too many laptops being stolen/lost. In today's world they (laptops) seem to be ubiquitous. Plus a desktop can be stolen also.
Here in Oklahoma just last week a laptop was stolen and 140,000 people's personal information was compromised. Identity theft is big business. And that's an extreme example of a wholesale theft but retail (one at a time) is awful big also.

I'm not sure of that, lucky9. I may be missing something, but I've looked at my swap partition with all the tools I know how to use, and it always shows empty.

Phil

I just know that the security geeks say to encrypt it. I guess that is for the odd suspend to disk that you might not think of. As I understand it that is not cleared after you resume. Is that correct?

You may be right, there - it's a function I've never used.

Nor I. I clear my cache when the browser closes and never suspend to disk. I don't have anything but my email address and a couple of passwords that are saved.
I had my identity stolen (11 or 12 years ago) once and I had to go through the FBI to get my name cleared. I had no idea until a security check the Sheriff ran popped up my name as someone that had defrauded some credit card companies. The Sheriff went a little deeper and found that the person that committed the crimes was in jail so he knew it wasn't me. Just a lot of hassle and I suppose I'm still on some database somewhere as a criminal. I haven't had it pop up since so the FBI must still be taking care of it.

Thanks for the link julian516

@lucky9

Is it possible to make a formal request to Warren to add the ability to encrypt /home at installation? How would I do this?

The procedure outlined the crunchbang link seems doable (I have a couple of minor questions that I think will get answered if I just try it out) but it seems like a desirable addition to MEPIS. I know for example that you can also do it with an Ubuntu install. And this certainly would be the time to add it since it seems that MEPIS 11 will go final in the not too distant future.

Thanks,

cackerso