Disk Encryption

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Hi all,
I use my laptop with manjaro for work and due to privacy policy changes my company forces me to encrypt my hard drive (I didn’t do this during the installation), I’m looking for some information on the internet, and I read almost everywhere that this is not possible with an already done Manjaro installation and that I must backup my OS and reinstall, is this really so? can someone give me more precise info?
thanks

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Hi there. If there is a way - I’m not sure there is a reliable way - then I’m 99% sure it will take much longer than simply backing up & re-installing your system. I would suggest you do that. Save your config files, or at least save a list of all your installed apps - that will cut down on your re-install time. All the best…

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Manjaro’s installer uses dm-crypt for device/partition encryption. While there is a way to encrypt an existing partition, the process is not automated as it is during installation and, since it requires partitioning alteration, is not risk-free either.

There are alternatives though, some of which can simply encrypt files/folders instead of a whole partition/device, if compliant with your workplace’s policy, albeit with some disadvantages.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Data-at-rest_encryption

Not listed there, if you use KDE, you can also use plasma-vault, which can create encrypted folders.

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@DarioBa
Hi and welcome to the Forum :+1:

Full-Disk encryption involves a lot more as just adjusting files into another format, that’s why a complete reinstall is the preferred (and most reliable) way to do what you need.
Trust me it’s way less work and error-prone to just make external backup of your home dir and commutations of your system and restore them from the backup after you have reinstalled your system on a full-disk encrypted disk.

  1. Make an External backup of your home directory.
  2. Make an External backup, apart from above, of your system customizations.
  3. Do a full fresh install of Manjaro with full-disk encryption, see the tutorial below, without using anything from your backups yet.
  4. If all works as disired, ONLY THEN, consolodate your backups to modify your system acordingly.
    Do NOT do plain restore from backup as files for your system customizations, because that will render your system inoperatable !

For some info on what all is involved and a way to boot into it without password, see this tutorial i made some while ago:

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