Arch Linux install with full disk encryption with LUKS2 | Logical Volumes with LVM2 | Secure Boot | TPM2 Setup

A complete Arch Linux installation guide with LUKS2 full disk encryption, and logical volumes with LVM2, and added security using Secure Boot with Unified Kernel Image and TPM2 LUKS key enrollment for auto unlocking encrypted root.

Firstly, Acquire an installation image. Visit the Download page and, acquire the ISO file and the respective GnuPG signature, and flash it to a USB drive and boot off it.

It is recommended to verify the image signature before use, especially when downloading from an HTTP mirror, where downloads are generally prone to be intercepted to serve malicious images.

On a system with GnuPG installed, do this by downloading the ISO PGP signature (under Checksums in the page Download) to the ISO directory, and verifying it with:

$ gpg --keyserver-options auto-key-retrieve --verify archlinux-version-x86_64.iso.sig

Alternatively, from an existing Arch Linux installation run:

$ pacman-key -v archlinux-version-x86_64.iso.sig

This guide assumes that your system supports UEFI amd you have a Wired Ethernet connection. If you want to use Wi-Fi, refer to Arch Wiki

1. Disk Preparation

We'll use a 1024MB FAT32 system partition for our EFI partition , and for the root we'll use an ext4 partition and a SWAP partition using LVM2 logical volumes inside a LUKS encrypted partition.

2. Partition the disks

We're gonna be using cfdisk for partitioning the disks.

Before partitioning , the output of lsblk is gonna look something like this.

$ lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
nvme0n1     259:0    0  709.5G  0 disk

1. Launch cfdisk: Open a terminal. Identify your disk. For this guide, we'll use /dev/nvme0n1 as an example. Replace it with your actual disk identifier.

   cfdisk /dev/nvme0n1
   

2. Select the Label Type:

   Choose gpt (GUID Partition Table) if prompted.

3. Create Partitions:

   Create EFI System Partition: Select [ New ]. Enter 1024M for the size. Select [ Type ] and choose EFI System.

   Create LUKS Partition: Select [ New ]. Use the remaining disk space for this partition, or allocate the space you want , if you don't plan on using the entire disk for this setup. Ensure the type is Linux filesystem.

   Write Changes:

    Select [ Write ].
    Type yes to confirm.
   

4. Visual Representation of Partition Structure:

   +------------------+-----------------------+------------+---------------+
   | Partition Number | Partition Type        | Size       | Description   |
   +------------------+-----------------------+------------+---------------+
   | /dev/nvme0n1p1   | EFI System            | 1024M       | EFI Partition |
   | /dev/nvme0n1p2   | Linux filesystem      | Remaining  | LUKS2 Volume  |
   +------------------+-----------------------+------------+---------------+
   

After partitioning, lsblk will output the following.

$ lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN  RM  SIZE   RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
nvme0n1     259:0    0   710G   0  disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0   1024M  0  part 
└─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0   709G   0  part

3. Create the encrypted LUKS2 container.

Now we, need to create the LUKS2 encrypted container.

Optional: Overwriting your disk with random data is an optional step that can help prevent any possible recovery of old data. This is typically done before setting up the LUKS2 container to ensure the disk is fully erased.

Warning: This will erase all data on the disk. Ensure you have selected the correct device.

dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/nvme0n1p2 bs=1M status=progress

Create the LUKS encrypted container at the designated partition. Enter the chosen password twice.

# cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/nvme0n1p2

Open the container:

# cryptsetup open /dev/nvme0n1p2 cryptlvm

Here cryptlvm is the name we are assigning to the encrypted container after opening it.

The decrypted container is now available at /dev/mapper/cryptlvm.

4. Preparing the logical volumes

Create a physical volume on top of the opened LUKS container:

# pvcreate /dev/mapper/cryptlvm

Create a volume group (in this example, it is named MyVolGroup, but it can be whatever you want) and add the previously created physical volume to it:

# vgcreate MyVolGroup /dev/mapper/cryptlvm

Create all your logical volumes on the volume group:

Tip: If a logical volume will be formatted with ext4, leave at least 256 MiB free space in the volume group to allow using e2scrub. After creating the last volume with -l 100%FREE, this can be accomplished by reducing its size with lvreduce -L -256M MyVolGroup/home.

# lvcreate -L 4G MyVolGroup -n swap
# lvcreate -L 32G MyVolGroup -n root
# lvcreate -l 100%FREE MyVolGroup -n home
# lvreduce -L -256M MyVolGroup/home

Format your file systems on each logical volume:

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/MyVolGroup/root
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/MyVolGroup/home
# mkswap /dev/MyVolGroup/swap

Mount your file systems:

# mount /dev/MyVolGroup/root /mnt
# mount --mkdir /dev/MyVolGroup/home /mnt/home
# swapon /dev/MyVolGroup/swap

5. Preparing the boot partition

# mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/nvme0n1p1

Replace nvme0n1p1 with the drive identifier for your EFI partition.

Mount the partition to /mnt/efi:

# mount --mkdir /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/efi

6. Installation

Note: This section of the guide deals with installing the base system, setting up timezones, locale, hostname, hosts, creating new non-root user's, setting passwords for both root and non-root user accounts. This is generally user specific configuration, and you might have a different setup you might, want to follow. So it is recommended to refer to official Arch Wiki Installation guide, for this section. And you may come back here and follow from the next section, when it is time to configure mkinitcpio.

But, if you want to follow through, how I do it, feel free to follow through this section.

Install essential packages:

# pacstrap -K /mnt base linux linux-firmware linux-headers intel-ucode vim nano efibootmgr sudo

You can replace intel-ucode with amd-ucode if your CPU is an AMD CPU

After that is completed, we need to generate the fstab file:

# genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Change root into the new system:

# arch-chroot /mnt

Set the time zone:

# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime

Replace Region and City with your corresponding ones.

Run hwclock to generate /etc/adjtime:

# hwclock --systohc

This command assumes the hardware clock is set to UTC.

Localization:

Edit /etc/locale.gen and uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 and other needed UTF-8 locales. Generate the locales by running:

# locale-gen

Create the locale.conf file, and set the LANG variable accordingly:

/etc/locale.conf
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
LANG=en_US.UTF-8

If you set the console keyboard layout, make the changes persistent in vconsole.conf:

/etc/vconsole.conf
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
KEYMAP=de-latin1

Network configuration:

Create the /etc/hostname file:

/etc/hostname
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
yourhostname

Edit the hosts file:

Add the following lines:

# Static table lookup for hostnames.
# See hosts(5) for details.
127.0.0.1	localhost
::1		localhost
127.0.1.1	yourhostname.localdomain	yourhostname

Set the root password:

# passwd

Create a non-root user account:

useradd -m newuser

Set the newuser password:

# passwd newuser

Edit the /etc/sudoers file:

Run visudo:

Uncomment the following line:

%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

Add new user to wheel group:

# usermod -G wheel newuser

7. Configure mkinitcpio

To build a working systemd based initramfs, modify the HOOKS= line in mkinitcpio.conf as follows: Add the following hooks: systemd, keyboard, sd-vconsole, sd-encrypt, lvm2

HOOKS=(base systemd autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard sd-vconsole block sd-encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)

You can skip sd-vconsole , if you didn't configure /etc/vconsole.conf Do not regenerate the initramfs yet, as the /efi/EFI/Linux directory needs to be created first , which we will do later

8. Configure mkinitcpio for Unified kernel images.

mkinitcpio supports reading kernel parameters from command line files in the /etc/cmdline.d directory. Mkinitcpio will concatenate the contents of all files with a .conf extension in this directory and use them to generate the kernel command line. Any lines in the command line file that start with a # character are treated as comments and ignored by mkinitcpio.

Create the cmdline.d directory:

# mkdir /etc/cmdline.d

In order to unlock the encrypted root partition at boot, the following kernel parameters need to be set:

/etc/cmdline.d/root.conf
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
rd.luks.name=device-UUID=cryptlvm root=/dev/MyVolGroup/root

You can obtain the device-UUID by running command blkid.

This is an example output.

/dev/nvme0n1p1: UUID="1234-5678" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI System" PARTUUID="11111111-2222-3333-4444-555555555555"
/dev/nvme0n1p2: UUID="abcdef12-3456-7890-abcd-ef1234567890" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="crypto_LUKS" PARTLABEL="LUKS" PARTUUID="66666666-7777-8888-9999-000000000000"
/dev/mapper/cryptlvm: UUID="12345678-90ab-cdef-1234-567890abcdef" TYPE="LVM2_member"
/dev/mapper/vg-root: UUID="abcd1234-ef56-7890-abcd-ef1234567890" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/mapper/vg-swap: UUID="5678abcd-90ef-1234-5678-90abcdef1234" TYPE="swap"

Now you need to obtain the UUID for the luks container , in our case for /dev/nvme0n1p2 which is abcdef12-3456-7890-abcd-ef1234567890

Next, modify /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset, as follows, with the appropriate mount point of the EFI system partition:

Here is a working example linux.preset for the linux kernel and the Arch splash screen.

/etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
# mkinitcpio preset file for the 'linux' package

#ALL_config="/etc/mkinitcpio.conf"
ALL_kver="/boot/vmlinuz-linux"

PRESETS=('default' 'fallback')

#default_config="/etc/mkinitcpio.conf"
#default_image="/boot/initramfs-linux.img"
default_uki="/efi/EFI/Linux/arch-linux.efi"
default_options="--splash /usr/share/systemd/bootctl/splash-arch.bmp"

#fallback_config="/etc/mkinitcpio.conf"
#fallback_image="/boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img"
fallback_uki="/efi/EFI/Linux/arch-linux-fallback.efi"
fallback_options="-S autodetect"

Finally, to build the UKI, make sure that the directory for the UKIs exist. For example, for the linux preset:

# mkdir -p /efi/EFI/Linux

Now install the lvm2 package:

pacman -S lvm2

Now, regenerate initramfs:

# mkinitcpio -p linux

Optionally, remove any leftover initramfs-*.img from /boot or /efi.

9. Configuring the boot loader

Install systemd-boot with:

# bootctl install

The Unified kernel image generated by mkinitcpio will be automatically recognized and does not need an entry in /efi/loader/entries/.

10. Installing NetworkManager

Install NetworkManager to ensure we have network connectivity when we boot into our system later:

pacman -S networkmanager && systemctl enable NetworkManager

11. Reboot into UEFI

Now reboot into UEFI and put secure boot into SETUP MODE. Refer to your motherboard manufaturer's guide on how to do that.

For most systems, you can do this by, just going into BOOT tab, enabling secure boot, go to SECURITY tab and do Erase all secure boot settings.

Now save changes and exit.

Now when booting into Arch Linux you'll be prompted to enter the passphrase to your LUKS partition.

Enter it and boot into the system. Login as root.

12. Secure Boot

Now to configure secure boot , first install the sbctl utility:

$ pacman -S sbctl

**Note: It might say completed installation with some errors, that's fine because sbctl can't find the key database, because there never was one.

Now run sbctl status and ensure setup mode is enabled.

Then create your secure boot keys with:

$ sbctl create-keys

Enroll the keys, with Microsoft's keys, to the UEFI:

$ sbctl enroll-keys -m --firmware-builtin

Options
-m, --microsoft
Enroll UEFI vendor certificates from Microsoft into the signature database. See Option ROM*.

-f, --firmware-builtin
Enroll signatures from dbDefault, KEKDefault or PKDefault. This is usefull if sbctl does not vendor your OEM certificates, or doesn’t include all of them.

Valid values are "db", "KEK" or "PK" passed as a comma
delimitered string.

Default: "db,KEK"

Warning: Some firmware is signed and verified with Microsoft's keys when secure boot is enabled. Not validating devices could brick them. To enroll your keys without enrolling Microsoft's, run: sbctl enroll-keys. Only do this if you know what you are doing.

Check the secure boot status again:

$ sbctl status

sbctl should be installed now, but secure boot will not work until the boot files have been signed with the keys you just created.

Check what files need to be signed for secure boot to work:

# sbctl verify

Now sign all the unsigned files. Most probably these are the files you need to sign:

/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI
/efi/EFI/Linux/arch-linux-fallback.efi
/efi/EFI/Linux/arch-linux.efi
/efi/EFI/systemd/systemd-bootx64.efi

The files that need to be signed will depend on your system's layout, kernel and boot loader.

$ sbctl sign --save /efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI
$ sbctl sign --save /efi/EFI/Linux/arch-linux-fallback.efi
$ sbctl sign --save /efi/EFI/Linux/arch-linux.efi
$ sbctl sign --save /efi/EFI/systemd/systemd-bootx64.efi

The --save flag is used to add a pacman hook to automatically sign all new files whenever the Linux kernel, systemd or the boot loader is updated.

Now reboot, and verify that Secure Boot is enabled by using command bootctl

bootctl
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
System:
      Firmware: UEFI
 Firmware Arch: x64
   Secure Boot: enabled (user)
  TPM2 Support: yes
  Measured UKI: yes
  Boot into FW: supported

13. Enrolling the TPM

Make sure Secure Boot is active and in user mode when binding to PCR 7, otherwise, unauthorized boot devices could unlock the encrypted volume. The state of PCR 7 can change if firmware certificates change, which can risk locking the user out. This can be implicitly done by fwupd or explicitly by rotating Secure Boot keys.

To begin, run the following command to list your installed TPMs and the driver in use:

$ systemd-cryptenroll --tpm2-device=list

First, let's generate a recovery key in case it all gets messed up some time in the future:

$ sudo systemd-cryptenroll /dev/nvme0n1p2 --recovery-key

Save or write down the recovery key in some safe and secure place.

To check that the new recovery key was enrolled, dump the LUKS configuration and look for a systemd-tpm2 token entry, as well as an additional entry in the Keyslots section:

$ cryptsetup luksDump /dev/nvme0n1p2

It will most probably be in keyslot 1.

We'll now enroll our system firmware and secure boot state. This would allow our TPM to unlock our encrypted drive, as long as the state hasn't changed.

$ sudo systemd-cryptenroll --tpm2-device=auto --tpm2-pcrs=0+7 /dev/nvme0n1p2

Additional Flags

--tpm2-with-pin=BOOL
When enrolling a TPM2 device, controls whether to require the user to enter a PIN when unlocking the volume in addition to PCR binding, based on TPM2 policy authentication. Defaults to "no". Despite being called PIN, any character can be used, not just numbers.
Note that incorrect PIN entry when unlocking increments the TPM dictionary attack lockout mechanism, and may lock out users for a prolonged time, depending on its configuration. The lockout mechanism is a global property of the TPM, systemd-cryptenroll does not control or configure the lockout mechanism. You may use tpm2-tss tools to inspect or configure the dictionary attack lockout, with tpm2_getcap(1) and tpm2_dictionarylockout(1) commands, respectively.

Note: Including PCR0 in the PCRs can cause the entry to become invalid after every firmware update. This happens because PCR0 reflects measurements of the firmware, and any update to the firmware will change these measurements, invalidating the TPM2 entry. If you prefer to avoid this issue, you might exclude PCR0 and use only PCR7 or other suitable PCRs.

Info on all additional PCRs can be found here

If all is well, reboot , and you won't be prompted for a passphrase, unless secure boot is disabled or secure boot state has changed.

14. Tips

Now if at some point later in time, our secure boot state has changed, the TPM won't unlock our encrypted drive anymore. To fix it, do the following.

This can be done in a very short step and is less prone to error by running the following command:

systemd-cryptenroll --wipe-slot=tpm2 /dev/<device> --tpm2-pcrs=0+7

Or, if you prefer to do it manually, do the following:

First enter UEFI, and clear the TPM.

Then boot into Arch Linux, as root.

Then we need to kill keyslots previously used by the TPM.

Remove TPM Keyslot:

Figure out which keyslot is being used by the tpm by runnging cryptsetup luksDump /dev/nvme0n1p2.

In the Tokens: section, look for systemd-tmp2, and under it find the keyslot used:

Tokens:
  0: systemd-recovery
	Keyslot:    1
  1: systemd-tpm2
  ...
  ...
	Keyslot:    2

As you can see keyslot 1 is used by systemd-recovery and 2 is used by systemd-tpm2

Now to kill it run:

$ sudo cryptsetup luksKillSlot /dev/nvme0n1p2 2

After killing the keyslot, we need to remove the Token associated with it.

$ sudo cryptsetup token remove --token-id 1 /dev/nvme0n1p2

Here we specify token-id as 1 based on the previous output of luksDump. Specify it correspondingy depending on what the token number is on your output of luksDump.

Now repeat the steps from TPM enrollment to renroll to the TPM.

With this, the guide has mostly covered on how to install Arch Linux, Encrypt disk with LUKS2 , use logical volumes with LVM2, how to setup Secure Boot, and how to enroll the TPM.

The only steps remaining are to install a Desktop Environment or a Window Manager, which this guide, unfortunately, will not cover.

Author

This guide was written by Joel Mathew Thomas

References

For more detailed information, please refer to the Arch Wiki on Encrypting an Entire System.

Thank You.