Encrypted File System on Fedora 9

Introduction

Fedora 9 offers full support for an encrypted file system. It uses LVM partitioning to hide a file system costumized to your liking. The default is a small boot partition (around 100 MB) and a hidden LVM volume group, which comes default as a swap partition and the main partition mounted at "/".

For testing purposes and the comparison to the encrypted file system for OpenSUSE manual i set it up as a 2 GB swap partition, a 3 GB root partition mounted at "/" and a 3 GB home partition mounted at "/home"

There are few simple steps to follow to create your encrypted file system. The assumption remains that this proposition is for a clean system install.

Directions

1. Do all the basic steps such as language and time zone setup, up to partitioning.

2. On the partitioning step check the box that says "Encrypt System"

3. Check the box that says "Review and Modifiy Partitioning" and click next.

4. Costumize the LVM volume group to your liking, the default I used is described above. Click next.

5. For added security use a boot loader password to prevent kernel modifications. (Check the box that says "Use a boot loader password" and enter a desired password). Click next.

6. Assuming we would like to use KDE instead of Gnome select "Costumize Now" at the bottom and click next. At the next step uncheck GNOME Desktop Encironment and check KDE (K Desktop Environment). Click next.

7. At this point the installation should begin and your encrypted system be ready for use.

Note: I have not yet been able to test the results after step 7 yet because VMWare Server 1 does not fully support Fedora 9 and the system has been shutting off.