Dual Boot Linux / Linux + LVM + LUKS

general

Dual Boot Linux / Linux + LVM + LUKS

I’ll be using Slackware in this example, but this layout is common in Linux and I’ve used it for Arch, Alpine, Fedora, Centos, Void and others.

Preparation:

It’s handy to have one USB stick for each OS or distro you want to install. They’re cheap as dirt and most ISOs will fit on 8GB, and many a great deal less.

  • you can make one by downloading a slackware iso (Current or 14.2) or whatever distro you’re going to install.
  • sudo dd if=/path/to/iso/file of=/dev/sdx status=progress
    • (sdx is the usb stick –> make sure you get this part right before you blow away your data)

Partitioning

  • We’ll install Slackware first. If not, see here for a way to get slackware to use the right boot drive.

Dual-boot Linux / Linux:

  1. Boot Slackware USB

  2. Use cfdisk or gdisk to partition the drive with

    • 2 efi (type ef00) partitions (I make them 600MiB)
    • 1 big Linux (type 8300) partition for the remaining space
    • NOTE - some distros like Centos and Fedora want an efi partition and a boot partition. In this case I make the efi (ef00) =256MiB and the boot (8300) =600MiB

  3. Pick an EFI partition, e.g. /dev/sda1

    mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sda1

    Let’s say the big partition is /dev/sda3

    • NOTE - of course just replace “xxx_name” placeholders with your own

    • swap size is your discretion

    • the slackware installer will default to the first efi it finds

      cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/sda3
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda3 crypt_name

pvcreate /dev/mapper/crypt_name

vgcreate vg_name /dev/mapper/crypt_name

lvcreate vg_name -L 8GiB vg_name -n swap
lvcreate vg_name -l 50%FREE vg_name -n slackroot_name
lvcreate vg_name -l 50%FREE vg_name -n otherroot_name

mkswap /dev/vg_name/swap
swapon /dev/vg_name/swap

mkfs.ext4 /dev/vg_name/slackroot_name
mount /dev/vg_name/sysroot /mnt

mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

  4. Type setup to get going with your install and select the partitions in the installer

  5. You’ll be given a choice to install LILO (not used on EFI systems) or ELILO

    • I prefer GRUB – if you go this route skip ELILO
    • otherwise install it and proceed

  6. Either way, once the install is done, [esc] from the installer but do not restart!