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Quick and Easy Encrypted Install

I've found a way to perform a quick encrypted install, and I'd like to share my experience. This setup was made with an Artix image using KDE, ext4 file system, no lvm, and unencrypted boot partition. It should also work with an encrypted boot partition, but I haven't tested it.

Download the Artix ISO with your preferred desktop environment (KDE in this example). Start the Calamares installer.

When you reach the partitioning step:

Create a new LUKS ext4 partition.
Do not click on "Modify Partition" as that will not work. Instead, delete the old partition and create a new one.
Continue with the installation process. After installation is complete, reboot into the new system. It should successfully reboot on the first attempt after installation. If it doesn't, chroot and follow part 2 below.

Update your system using pacman -Syu, choose not to reboot.

Whenever initramfs is updated, the system becomes unbootable because the Calamares installer does not work as expected.

Part 2: Fixing Boot Issues

Open /etc/mkinitcpio.conf:
nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

Find the line that starts with HOOKS=(base,.... It should be HOOKS, not #HOOKS.
Add encrypt before filesystem.
It should now look like this: HOOKS=(base udev ... encrypt filesystem ...

Save and exit.
Run:
mkinitcpio -P

Verify /etc/default/grub contains the correct cryptdevice UUID. It should look something like this: cryptdevice=UUID=correspond_to_the_UUID_of_encrypted_partition
Reboot.
Now, your system will boot successfully after every reboot and even after updates.

Part 3: Get Rid of Creepy PulseAudio

Install PipeWire. For KDE users, it can be installed with:

Code: [Select]
pacman -Rns plasma-pa pulseaudio pulseaudio-bluetooth pulseaudio-zeroconf

pacman -S --needed pipewire pipewire-pulse pipewire-alsa wireplumber bluez bluez-utils avahi plasma-pa

As a regular non-root user, create a file named start_pipewire.sh (or other) in your home (or other) directory with the following content:

Code: [Select]
#!/bin/bash

# kill any existing pipewire instance to restore sound
pkill -u "$USER" -fx /usr/bin/pipewire-pulse 1>/dev/null 2>&1
pkill -u "$USER" -fx /usr/bin/wireplumber 1>/dev/null 2>&1
pkill -u "$USER" -fx /usr/bin/pipewire 1>/dev/null 2>&1

exec /usr/bin/pipewire &

# wait for pipewire to start before attempting to start related daemons
while [ "$(pgrep -f /usr/bin/pipewire)" = "" ] ; do
   sleep 1
done

# start wireplumber
exec /usr/bin/wireplumber &

# start pipewire-pulse
exec /usr/bin/pipewire-pulse &

Save the file and make it executable:

chmod +x start_pipewire.sh

Add this script to KDE's autorun at login.

Now, your sound system (including Bluetooth) will be orchestrated by PipeWire instead of PulseAudio.

Re: Quick and Easy Encrypted Install

Reply #2 –
Over half of the OP was about pipewire/pulseaudio. I suggest you remove part 3 and use formatting tags to make the post useful and legible.

Re: Quick and Easy Encrypted Install

Reply #3 –
Quote from: nous – on
Over half of the OP was about pipewire/pulseaudio. I suggest you remove part 3 and use formatting tags to make the post useful and legible.

Indeed. For the post to contain something that has zero relevance to an encrypted drive, seems a bit of an opportunity to do a bit of trolling, lol.

Color me curious, I was working on encrypting external drives last night that I use for backups when I saw this topic. So the OP had me up to part 3.
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Re: Quick and Easy Encrypted Install

Reply #4 –
I recently spent a considerable amount of time troubleshooting why encrypted installs from GUI weren't working and even more time trying to understand how to install PipeWire.

For a long while, I relied on ALSA because the quality of PulseAudio wasn't satisfactory.  However, to my regret, the capabilities of ALSA are limited. That was when pipewire came into play.

I wanted to share my findings so that someone new to Linux, who might accidentally stumble upon this page, wouldn't face similar issues.

As for wise advice on trimming down my text, I think I will refrain—both from cutting short this piece and from publishing anything else.

So, sorry everyone, but how could I have known beforehand that there's a fan club for the well-known Microsoft employee right here? The creator of brilliant systems like systemd and PulseAudio. Let it remain as is.

Re: Quick and Easy Encrypted Install

Reply #5 –
throwrattlepramburger

Re: Quick and Easy Encrypted Install

Reply #6 –
this is one of these threads that end up completely incoherent because of people try to not insult each other while being insulting.  The drives might not be encrypted but the thread is.