Encryption – How to Setup Whole-Disk Encryption with Dual Boot on a MacBook Pro

bootdual-bootlvmmacbook pro

I can install Ubuntu 12.04 on the MacBook when using the "noapic" kernel boot option, using the alternate amd64+mac image (from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/12.04/release/ ).

But after installation the screen turn sblack after trying to boot "Windows" (as named in the boot menu that shows up when holding Option/Alt during startup).

I want to use whole-disk encryption and given that only one free partition is available, I have setup LVM to do so:
– vg0 contains bootlv and cryptlv
– in cryptlv I have setup encryption with another LVM volume group (vg1, which holds swaplv, rootlv and homelv)

I have not installed Grub during installation (because I was not sure about the partition) and when trying to install it later on /dev/sda4 (which contains the outer LVM) it complained that it could not determine the file system, and --force did not help either.

The black screen / behavior looks similar to starting the installer without enabling the noapic option.

Best Answer

My question appears to have been answered in the Ubuntu bug report at: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1027951/comments/17

You can create plenty more than 4 partitions. The currently supported method of installing with an encrypted root is to place /boot on an unencrypted partition.

Somehow I was under the impression that I need to limit the GPT partitions to 4, so that syncing the GPT works. But apparently this syncing is discouraged and not required when using Grub 2.

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