On 10/6/07, Timo Myyrd <zmyrgel@nerdshack.com> wrote:
quoted text
> I'm just trying to encrypt my laptops /home partition to hide my
> personal info if the worst happens and my lappy is stolen.
>
> I'm wondering what would be the best method to encrypt the hard drive? I
> saw some discussion on the mailing list recently and somebody pointed
> out that I could encrypt whole partition.
>
> I'm currently creating a image within a partition which I intend to
> encrypt then as instructed for example here:
> http://www.blackant.net/other/docs/howto-encrypted-home.php
>
> Which would be a better method, the separate image or encrypt whole
> partition and how to encrypt whole partition on OpenBSD?

*The* way to make encrypted disks on OpenBSD is through vnconfig -k.
Go read up on that and come back.
Then here's what you can do (it's dead simple):
# vnconfig -k <key> svnd0 /path/to/image
# mount /dev/svnd0 /home

 #note: the image file should be available somewhere that isn't /home,
obviously... you may be able to have a /home with it on there and then
mount over that and it might keep working but it's just asking for
trouble to do it that way


are you sure you want to encrypt your *whole* drive though? Is your
data really that secret? For most people there are only a few /really
secret/ things, and you can just make a small secure partition and
place them in there. Encryption does take a performance hit.

-Nick