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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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boot on LUKS encrypted drive ( initramfs Vs initrd ) ? (programming.dev)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by SpongeB0B@programming.dev to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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Hi,

I'm trying to encrypt the root filesystem / of a raspberry pi 4 device running under Devuan rpi ( custom kernel )

I'm following LUKS on Raspberry Pi 2021 guide

That explain step by step how achieve this.

But the guide use initramfs and my distro seem to use initrd

So the question, is: should I migrate to initramfs ? and how check whats is inside my current initrd

or keep-up with initrd but then how insert the necessary to enable LUKS drive to be mounted by it ( initrd ) ?

Thanks.

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[–] gnuhaut@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

So, firstly, about the nomenclature: initrd (initial ram disk) and initramfs (initial ram file system) are usually used interchangeably as far as I know. For example, even though my Debian uses initramfs-tools, the generated images are called /boot/initrd.img-*. (Edit: There is a technical difference but an initramfs may be referred to as an initrd (like in this case) due to how similar they are.)

For example, when installing a kernel, apt shows this output on my Debian machine:

linux-image-6.12.6-amd64 (6.12.6-1) wird eingerichtet ...
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools:
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.12.6-amd64

What you're talking about is probably the software used to generate this initial ramdisk, which on Debian is done using initramfs-tools (which contains the mkinitramfs command), while on other distros dracut (command: mkinitrd) might be used.

I will say it strikes me as weird that Devuan doesn't use initramfs-tools since it's a Debian derivative. Maybe you are mistaken about this? Possibly no initrd/initramfs is used at all on this specific Pi version of Devuan? IDK.

Edit: See my other comment. I'm wrong. There is an actual technical difference between initrd and initramfs, but I don't think that's actually relevant in this situation. Or rather, both are functionally the same, so it doesn't really matter from the perspective of the user or distro that there's a difference. I will keep the rest of the comment as is, since I do reckon OP's problem is unrelated to this difference, and that probably something else is tripping up OP.

[–] user_naa@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Yes, seems like Devuan also use update-initramfs (discussion link) as expected. So I think process will be similar to upstream Debian.