Custom disk layout

diff --git a/src/Debian/tips/debian-cryptroot-usb.wml b/src/Debian/tips/debian-cryptroot-usb.wml
index 09dc7d1..6fcfb2a 100644 (file)
--- a/src/Debian/tips/debian-cryptroot-usb.wml
+++ b/src/Debian/tips/debian-cryptroot-usb.wml
@@ -67,6 +67,69 @@ installed in <code>/boot</code> again:</p>
   sudo cp ../initrd.img /mnt/initrd.img-2.6.26-2-686
 </pre></p>
 
+<h3>Custom disk layout</h3>
+
+<p>USB sticks tend to be too small for what they are needed.
+Therefore it is a good idea to save as much space as possible.  You
+don't need 256 MB for <code>/boot</code> for example.  64 MB space is
+sufficient for two kernels and initrd.  Since USB sticks also tend to
+be slow for write accesses their usefullness as swap device is highly
+questionable.  To have some more space for your GNU/Linux system, you
+may want to skip the swap partition as well.</p>
+
+<p>Select "Manual" in the partitioner and clean remov all partitions
+from the USB stick.  Next create your boot partition of the size you
+prefer and select <code>ext2</code> as filesystem.  Don't forget the
+<code>noatime</code> and <code>relatime</code> options.</p>
+
+<p>The next step is to create the encrypted container for your root
+filesystem.  Create another partition on your stick but don't assign a
+filesystem to it.  Select "Physical volume for encryption" instead.
+Then switch back to the partition menu.</p>
+
+<p>Now select "Configure encrypted volumnes" and prepare the new
+partition.  You should be prepared to enter a long passphrase to
+protect the encrypted container.  Wiping the disk before will take a
+while.  Use it to generate a good passphrase.  After the container has
+been created an <code>ext3</code> filesystem is built upon it.  You
+can switch to <code>ext2</code> and select filesystem options later.
+The filesystem will be rebuilt afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the installation is as usual.  Select the meta packages
+you'd like to install and install GRUB in the master boot record.
+Booting the system after reboot might not work, so you'll need an
+existing GNU/Linux system to alter the initial ramdisk.</p>
+
+<p>Find out the UUID of the partition hosting the encrypted container
+and adjust the config file <code>/conf/conf.d/cryptroot</code> to use
+the UUID instead of the canonical device name.  The file should look
+like:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+  target=sda2_crypt,source=UUID=118aad92-4ba2-4834-befa-1c3ff7a75689,key=none
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>After rebuilding the ramdisk as described above edit the
+<code>menu.lst</code> file to append <code>rootdelay=8</code>
+option.  A boot record should look like:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+  title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-2-686
+  root            (hd0,0)
+  kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-686 root=/dev/mapper/sda2_crypt ro quiet rootdelay=8
+  initrd          /initrd.img-2.6.26-2-686
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>After that you should be able to boot your newly created system.  The
+boot system will ask for the passphrase automatically upon boot and is
+unable to continue unless you have entered the correct passphrase.</p>
+
+<p>I've installed a regular Debian desktop on a USB stick with laptop
+features.  After executing <code>apt-get clean</code> there was about
+1.2 GB free space on a 4 GB stick.  That should be enough for a mobile
+system with some data.  The larger the stick the more data can be
+stored on it, of course.</p>
+
 </page>
 
 # Local variables: