#gentoolinux — Public Fediverse posts

#TIL (Today I Learned), in the context of encryption, about Key Derivation Functions (KDF) and specifically about the KDF Argon2.

If your password has less than a certain threshold of entropy/chaos, it's relative easy (and cheap!) to just guess your password by brute force or dictionary attacks. To prevent this and to increase security even for low-entropy passwords, KDFs exist.

The standard KDF since the year 2000 has been PBKDF2 and password managers such as 1Password used it.

In a cryptography competition held in 2015 to find a more secure KDF, Argon2 emerged as the winner. It's much more resistant against the power of modern graphics cards.

Bitwarden and other password managers started using it, and disk encryption on Linux (using dm-crypt or LUKS) is using it.

I spent a day yesterday learning about all of Argon2's configuration parameters, to reencrypt my SSDs in the most practically secure way. I could turn my notes from a draft for a blog post into something more fleshed out.

Let me know if you're interested in reading it and I'll publish it. 🙂

#Linux #cryptography #Arch #ArchLinux #Gentoo #GentooLinux

🧵⬆️ For example: The Arch wiki says¹ that when I give my home partition the very specific name `/dev/mapper/home` chosen by Poettering and not something arbitrary like `/dev/mapper/home_partition`, then systemd will create a symlink in `/dev/disk/by-designator/` and I can henceforth use the following names

- `/dev/disk/by-designator/home` to refer to the unlocked volume
- `/dev/disk/by-designator/home-luks` to refer to the encrypted partition

to make use of persistent naming methods and to become able to avoid having to hard-code UUIDs into `/etc/fstab`.

But this works only if I use the particular names that Poettering has in mind, like `home` (rather than something arbitrary that I come up with, like `davids_home` or `home_partition`). This is a constructed example to illustrate the point.

So far I can follow Poettering's thinking. But all of this falls apart as soon as LVM (Logical Volume Manager) comes into play.

I don't see the benefits of following Poettering's Discoverable Partitions Specification and thus don't see why I should follow it if I want to use LVM (Logical Volume Manager).

¹ https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dm-crypt/System_configuration#Using_systemd-cryptsetup-generator

#Linux #Arch #ArchLinux #Gentoo #GentooLinux #systemd #LVM

#Linux Does someone understand how Lennart Poettering's Discoverable Partitions Specification¹ integrates with Logical Volume Manager (LVM)?

Poettering insists that I give my partitions very specific names so that systemd can auto-mount the partitions for me and `/etc/fstab` becomes obsolete, to name just one of the motivations/benefits. If I LUKS-encrypt my partitions, Poettering wants that I name my partitions either of these pre-defined names:²

- /dev/mapper/root
- /dev/mapper/usr
- /dev/mapper/home
- /dev/mapper/srv
- /dev/mapper/esp
- /dev/mapper/xbootldr
- /dev/mapper/swap
- /dev/mapper/root-verity
- /dev/mapper/root-verity-sig
- /dev/mapper/usr-verity
- /dev/mapper/usr-verity-sig
- /dev/mapper/tmp
- /dev/mapper/var

I can follow Poettering's thinking (even if you or I don't need to agree with it) … so long as nobody ever uses LVM.

If I add a second SSD to my computer, create just a single partition on it, LUKS-encrypt it and add a volume group on top of LUKS, which I then split into, say, three logical volumes: `/home`, `/var`, and `/var/log` to construct just a random example.

- Why should I name the underlying device mapper file `/dev/mapper/home` when there's more than `/home` on that volume group?
- If I named the device mapper file something arbitrary like `/dev/mapper/davids-lvm-container`, then LVM also wouldn't work with Poettering's Discoverable Partitions Specification. If I use LVM for everything, then none of the benefits motivated by Poettering work, even if I do as Poettering suggests. And if none of the benefits works anyway, then why should I bother using the names that Poettering suggests rather than the names I find intuitive, even if that means I have to keep `/etc/fstab` around and keep doing the things manually that everyone's always been doing manually anway?

My ability to follow Poettering's thinking falls apart when I pull LVM into the equation.

Does Poettering not use LVM (Logical Volume Manager)? Am I missing something?

If I could see any benefit in doing things the way Poettering suggests, I would do it. I just don't see the benefits (when using LVM at least).

¹ https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/discoverable_partitions_specification/
² https://man.archlinux.org/man/systemd.image-filter.7

#Linux #Arch #ArchLinux #Gentoo #GentooLinux #systemd #LVM

#TIL (Today I Learned) about Linux that adding the kernel parameter `root` to your GRUB configuration is unnecessary.

The line `GRUB_LINUX_CMDLINE_DEFAULT="…"` in /etc/default/grub doesn't need to contain `root=…`.

The Linux kernel can be configured by compiling your wanted parameters into it (which you probably don't need to worry about if you use Arch, but which is relevant for Gentoo users), or by having the bootloader pass the wanted parameters to the kernel at boot time. The latter case is what the line `GRUB_LINUX_CMDLINE_DEFAULT="…"` does.

If you encrypt your disks, the parameter `root` is necessary to tell the kernel the location of your root filesystem.

GRUB, however, automatically tells the kernel the UUID of your root filesystem. You would need the parameter `root` only if you didn't use GRUB. You can remove this parameter from your GRUB configuration and will see that Linux still boots.

#Linux #Arch #ArchLinux #Gentoo #GentooLinux

@masterwolf One question I still have is whether I should use Gentoo for my personal machine and Arch for my work-provided machine.

It's fine for me to wait until software compiled on my personal machine or (if need be) let it compile overnight. But I worry that my manager would not appreciate when I'm slow or blocked at work or currently don't have a web browser because Gentoo hasn't finished compiling yet. I thought about sticking with a binary-based distribution for work.

Does that make sense?

But then again I've since learned that Gentoo now allows you to install pre-compiled binaries too. I haven't read much about that yet though.

#Gentoo #GentooLinux

@masterwolf I'm currently still torn between:

- learning Arch first and then graduating to Gentoo because that way I don't simultaneously also have to learn about use flags, OpenRC and all the other things unique to Gentoo in addition to all the other general Linux stuff
- skipping Arch because why learn about systemd and mkinitcpio and pacman if you're going to ditch them anyway

I'm unsure whether learning Arch before Gentoo is a "you have to learn to walk before you can run" situation or a "waste" (or rather inefficient use) of time.

#Arch #ArchLinux #Gentoo #GentooLinux

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@davidculley/116583738102454392

In the past months, I have learned a lot about Linux 🙂 going from a user who's only ever used macOS in his life and has a lot of experience with the terminal and GNU tools but zero experience with Linux, window managers, or systemd. Or being able to choose between filesystems other than the one that Apple dictates you use.

I have successfully installed Arch Linux a few times (without the install script, of course). I've set up LVM and LUKS-encryption and encryption keyfiles. I've set up BTRFS subvolumes and mirrors. I think I've come up with a more advanced installation than any of the video guides you see on YouTube, who only guide you through the installer script or title their video "last guide you'll ever need" but don't even touch on LVM. These videos all just aim for the clicks and the posers who want to be able to say, "I use Arch btw" not the ones who truly want to understand their computer. One time I locked myself out of my computer and had to use the installer ISO on a thumb drive to get back in. I still don't understand what the systemd emergency mode is.

I currently still use the desktop environment COSMIC by System76. It looks familiar to a macOS user and I don't want to have to learn too much at the same time. In a coming step I will probably go for Sway combined with Noctalia or something like that. Hopefully I won't discover they're maintained by Nazis or slop fondlers.

Next I might also give Dracut a try rather than mkinitcpio for the initramfs images.

I don't think I'm ready yet for Gentoo. Having to run software updates overnight because it takes 16 hours to compile your webbrowser from scratch … 😅 But I'm working towards getting there. 🙂 As I understand it, Gentoo now also lets you install pre-compiled binaries. You don't have to compile everything yourself anymore.

I'm also looking forward to give OpenRC a try instead of systemd. I've heard only good things about OpenRC. 🙂

My posts thus far tagged with Linux either only attracted assholes or had zero interactions at all. So let me know if you would want me to share more about my Linux-learning journey. 🙂 Well, that's not entirely true. A few posts have received very helpful replies from one of the Gentoo maintainers!

#Gentoo #GentooLinux #OpenRC

#TIL (Today I Learned) that when you use LVM (Logical Volume Manager) on Linux (to abstract your storage), you should prefer the volume path

/dev/my_volume_group/my_logical_volume

provided by LVM over the more low-level volume path

/dev/mapper/my_volume_group-my_logical_volume

that is provided by the underlying device mapper framework.

You should never interact with the underlying device mapper framework directly, and rather interact indirectly with it through the LVM and/or cryptsetup abstractions because the filepaths provided by the device mapper framework are 'intended for "internal use" and subject to possible "change between releases and distributions",' as the Arch Wiki puts it.

Sources:

- https://man.archlinux.org/man/lvm.8#VALID_NAMES
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/LVM#LVM_building_blocks

#Linux #LVM #Arch #ArchLinux #Gentoo #GentooLinux

RE: https://mastodon.social/@nixCraft/117019656354543760

Same with #GentooLinux ...

Hoje eu pensei em instalar o Gentoo, mas desisti kkkkkkkkk

#linux #gentoolinux

woop! gonna try to install #gentoolinux tomorrow

im considering trying to install gentoo this week. larp alert #gentoolinux

Of course a Gentoo dev will say that doing things the hard way is good, but it's still immensely refreshing to hear from others in the FOSS space that LLMs take away the best part of being involved in any of this.

https://blogs.gentoo.org/mgorny/2026/06/11/2026-council-manifesto/

#gentoolinux #linux

Gentoo Repository does not have all the dependencies that I need for Woodland, looks like Sway is the one I will install. As Gentoo has great documentation, explains all the potential issues and list solutions.

I can't wait for the upcoming days off to install Gentoo. I even found that the reason why I failed my first vanilla Arch install in the Gentoo instructions. Wrong command for Wireless connection. ROFL Like, I feel like a dummy.

#gentoolinux #challenge #linux #Learning

As far as the WM goes, I've likely found the one for me if I can verify that Gentoo has all the dependencies in their Repository!

It's called Woodland and it is a Distro neutral Stacking Window Wayland powered WM. It's pretty minimal, which is what I wanted anyway. Shame about being hosted on Github, eh, hopefully it runs fine after I go through the install process. I did find all the terminals that this WM would seek out in the Gentoo Repository, so there is hope.

https://github.com/DiogenesN/woodland

#GentooLinux #Learning #Challenge #Linux

I think that I also want to install the base image for Gentoo...Instead of using the Live. As instead of a traditional DE, I might tackle a WM because this is a pure AMD Laptop. The documentation for installing Wayfire, Sway, Niri, and other WM is pretty good.

This is giving me some real inspiration for ways to torture myself and learn something at the same time. 💖 :yell:

As I am sure to learn a lot from this little adventure. Especially if I turn it into a year challenge, designed to make me actually fix any issues I have. 👨‍💻 Strangely, feeling my oats about this (surely nothing could go wrong LMAO).

I'm about to have a WILD FEW DAYS OFF SOON.

Can't wait, or could I wait quite a bit. ROFL

#GentooLinux #Learning #Linux #challenge

My hope is that I can accomplish some specific goals on Gentoo Linux that are essential to surviving on more advanced distros. Mainly building software packages and compiling it from source that don't natively exist in the Gentoo repository, installing basic software and tools.

Set up the package manager with custom compiler flags unique to my targeted hardware, init system, Wayland, etc. I'm going to make a more comprehensive list later.

#gentoolinux #challenge #Learning #Linux

I think, that I will experiment with installing Gentoo Linux on my laptop on my days off, its either the base image or the Live Image that I will use. Its going to be rather interesting as I've read the Gentoo Handbook quite a bit. Perhaps not enough...I will have my desktop available for reading while installing.

#gentoolinux

3:30 am and I am installing gentoo on a laptop....
Idk what is wrong with me :3

My husband @dulcis and our friend @hellimelli are in the living room and finished watching "dominion"

I think this is silly :3

But tbh I prefer binary based distros like alpine
#gentoo #alpine #alpinelinux #gentoolinux #linux

:(

#linux #gentoolinux

Why is it so hard to decide....

Our Desktop is gonna either run

• Gentoo
• Void Linux
• Alpine
• LFS

Why?
It should run sth without SystemD that is atleast mildly stable (not breaking bcs there are to many updates at once (looking at you arch))

Some thoughts anyone?

Summoning target audience:
#linux #gentoo #gentoolinux #voidlinux #alpine #alpinelinux

İki gündür bazı bazı cihazlara gentoo kurmaya çalışıyorum. öğretici bir çalışma olacak gibi, mesela bir sonraki işlemcimi i7 ya da ryzen 7 ailesinden yapacak cinsten eğitici. Zen falan da olabilir tabi bilgisayar şu anda dere kurutan bir tamagotchiye dönüştü
#gentoo #gentoolinux #linux

Hace unos días instale Gentoo Linux, es mi primera vez instalandolo y sinceramente me gusta, creo que es mis distribución favorita #gentoo #gentoolinux #linux :ivory_elephant:

@ilyess #gentoolinux

#GentooLinux #Linux

Gentoo Takes the First Step to Ditch Microsoft Copilot-Infested GitHub

Gentoo is betting on Codeberg as the replacement.

https://itsfoss.com/news/gentoo-github-switch-begins/

#Gentoo #GentooLinux #Linux #Microsoft #GitHub #Copilot #AI #software #enshittification #technology #FOSS

We're happy to announce that some of our contributors started to create ebuilds for #SonicDE on #Gentoo #Linux. You're welcome to join them, test the ebuilds, and create more at https://github.com/sonicde-gentoo. #GentooLinux