How to reinstall MX Linux and re-use your encrypted home partition
This video shows a step-thru process on how to reinstall MX Linux when you have a LUKS Encrypted home partition and you wish retain your data.
I show a key feature I use to ensure the encrypted partition is good to use by checking it while the encryption is unlocked in gparted, however, I was running live while recording and lost a bit of my recording at this position so my dialogue is a little broken at that point. I left it as is because the point is still clear enough. I do apologize for that.
As a precautionary note, I always recommend users have a quality backup of their homedir they can fall back on if it all goes pear shaped.
For the sake of those who are doing an upgrade-install where you come from an older generation product like MX19 or MX21, I present an example of how to re-use the same login account name, then choose the option provided to rename your prior user account within our much improved Gazelle installer. I follow up with a brief example of how to selectively move content to your new login dir to obtain a fault-free user experience.
I have done this personally no less than 3 times over the last 4 years with successive generational upgrades on my homedir which contained for the last upgrade to MX23, 681GB of data with over 98610 files. Using a 2TB 600MBPS SSD, most folders are done in the blink of an eye with massive folders taking only a few seconds.
Operators who reinstall within the same version of MX can re-use their existing homedir without the need to rename it, unless of course they've messed up their settings and want to start with a fresh homedir as provided by the installer.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Additional note from developer AK47, copied from the MX Forums ...
You can unlock the drives using the installer also. Right-click on the partition, and click Unlock. It will prompt you for the password and Add to crypttab will be selected by default. If successful it will appear under Virtual Devices, and a lock icon will appear besides the physical partition.
Likewise, if you have unlocked too many partitions or want to close some automounted partitions just to be safe, right-click the encrypted volume and select Lock. If all went well the entry will disappear, and the lock icon will disappear from the physical partition.
Regardless of how you unlock them, in MX-23 you can hover over the name of the encrypted volume and you will get a tool tip identifying the physical drive hosting the encrypted volume.
- - - - - - - - - - -