LUKS keyboard layout, max. password tries, show asterisks while typing

General system Newbie
1

Hello everyone,

is there a functional way in 2024 to have LUKS full disk encryption use my de-latin1 keyboard layout?

While speaking of LUKS encryption, is there a way to increase the maximum allowed tries from 1 to three?
I found a guide which said to add LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 to the file /etc/vconsole.conf, but it had no effects.

Also, I would like to ask if there’s a method to have asterisks displayed while entering my LUKS password instead of a blank line?

All of these functions are available out of the box on Debian derivates. Even if I’m pretty new to Endeavour OS and Linux in general, I’m aware that Debian is not Arch, but as both are Linux, I have hope that this might also work for Endeavour.

About my system:

EndeavourOS 6.6.41-1-lts
KDE Plasma 6.1.3
Wayland
non-Secure Boot (but I will change this because of gaming)
installed with Calamares and Grub

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

2

Welcome to the forum, @EnshroudedShrew

Question 1: Are you ready to install systemd-boot (to leave GRUB)?
If yes, select German and LUKS passphrase containing öä like letters will be accepted and echoed by big dots. (I failed to increase retries (3).)

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

localectl
System Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
..
    VC Keymap: de-latin1
   X11 Layout: de

cat /etc/default/keyboard 
# KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="de"
XKBVARIANT=""
BACKSPACE="guess"

As you mentioned you haven’t put much work (weeks) setting up the
present Plasma 6.1.3 but in principle there is a migration guide (I did not tested)
https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/tutorial-convert-to-systemd-boot/13290/371

You may also know how to export import packages.

3

Hi @eso, thank you, and thank you for your helpful links and tips.
You are totally right, I haven’t put a lot of effort into my Plasma configuration yet. Part of this is that I’m still looking for the right Distro for my needs, which also means finding one that works (has some trouble with other distros before).

I’m pretty fine with reinstalling, as I wanted to get Secure Boot anyway. Upon my first install, I choose GRUB, because I wanted to use the ability of BTRFS to jump simply back to the last snapshot if anything went wrong with Endeavour. From what I read, Sytemd does not offer to boot into a previous snapshot I made with Timeshift. Instead, I will have to boot from a live stick and restore my system via Konsole from there [Tutorial] Convert to systemd-boot - #127 by anon49550872
This sounds quite inconvenient, and I start asking myself if I wouldn’t just be fine changing my password, so there won’t be any trouble in regard to the keyboard layout.

What is the code inside your summary meant for? I did not understand it.

4

AFAIK these settings are needed if you use non US layout for entering LUKS
passphrases during boot process.

5

Thank you, I tried it out, but it didn’t work.

I also found one solution which suggested editing /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and add keymap before the encryption entry in the HOOKS array.

Like in your comment, I should edit the keymap in /etc/vconsole.conf, as well as regenerating the initramfs sudo mkinitcpio -p linux.

But I still wasn’t able to use the German layout, even worse, after inputting the correct password I found myself in emergency shell, and had to restore my system to a snapshot…

Seems like this is a pretty difficult thing to do.

6

Here is the important point you are missing. When /boot is encrypted, it is grub itself that is providing the password prompt. Changes you make to vconsole.conf or in mkinitcpio.conf won’t have any impact on grub.

Also, we don’t use mkinitcpio, did you convert your system to use mkinitcpio?

7

@EnshroudedShrew
With GRUB LUKS passphase will not be accepted as de-latin1.
and in case of emergency I added an ‘accent-free’ LUKS passphrase as well

cryptsetup luksAddKey /dev/sdb2

Maybe it was not necessary I made a

sudo dracut-rebuild --force
as well
Edit:
Reinstalled Plasma in my local lang (additional lts in case a boot fails)
systemd-boot BTRFS LUKS passphrase Hungarian accented letters accepted
same disk faster decrypting, 3 retries (as opposed to GRUB version) with large dots
@EnshroudedShrew
timeshift + timeshift-autosnap seems to be working.
Snapshot selection within timeshift is not a ‘big loss’.
So combined with other backup tools like rescuezilla it’s sufficient for me.

8

You shouldn’t do that. Use sudo dracut-rebuild

1 Like