Failed to install Mobian on the Librem 5

[gouessej]

@Moldybook

Is it to prevent hacking or just an added layer of security?

I’m an activist. I must give myself the option not to expose the content of my phone when arrested by the police even though I already avoid storing sensible data on my portable devices most of the time.

[FranklyFlawless]

See also:

Your Own Personal Enclave: The Smart Card Reader on the Librem 5 and Liberty...

@Kyle_Rankin

A common problem people have with their smartphone is how to handle their sensitive data when they travel. When you travel you are not only more likely to lose your phone or have it be stolen, you also risk a customs official searching through or even copying your data as you cross a border. While some people have come up with elaborate steganography or safe word approaches to attempt to smuggle data across borders, the most secure approach is one where you travel only with data you can afford to lose such that you can fully comply with any customs agent requests. This is where user personas come in.

Related:

Shields Up: Flexible Security for Changing Threats – Purism

[magician]

@gouessej I recently did a refresh, and was only able to get the December installers working, which have LUKS (and BTRFS)! The January ones got stuck installing.

[Moldybook]

I am always tempted to secure my phone better due to all the hacking going on these days and mobian sounds good for the battery life. Something I’ll think about for sure.

[gouessej]

@"magician

and was only able to get the December installers working, which have LUKS (and BTRFS)! The January ones got stuck installing.

Which ones exactly? As I wrote, the one released December 12th got stuck installing very early too. Maybe the root cause isn’t the same.

[gouessej]

Thank you @FranklyFlawless, it’s inspiring. There are multiple security contexts to take into account, it’s not trivial to handle.

[gouessej]

@"Moldybook

mobian sounds good for the battery life.

To be honest, it depends on which “fixes” or workarounds you use, a workaround can drive a feature more reliable but be bad for the battery life.

[irvinewade]

@Moldybook

Could you explain the full disc encryption thing? Is it to prevent hacking or just an added layer of security?

The main purpose of disk encryption (really partition encryption) is a layer of security if your device falls into the hands of someone else, whether by break-and-enter or mugging, or the government-approved versions of those, or by loss by you yourself.

Disk encryption offers very little against hacking - because in the time period when the computer is operating normally, the contents of the disk partition are accessible unencrypted. If you run compromised code then whatever files you have access to, the hacker now has access to. Combining that with some kind of privilege escalation or other kernel level exploit, whatever files the system has access to, the hacker now has access to.

So while disk encryption is a good thing, for maximum security, it has to be combined with:

• keeping your system up-to-date with all security updates, and
• good security practices e.g. don’t download and run random code and e.g. don’t visit dodgy web sites unnecessarily.

[magician]

I originally did December 15, but on the second try the installer wouldn’t open the GUI sometimes. I found that I had to click the button in the middle followed by one of the text boxes within about a second for the installer dialog boxes to remain visible. Didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason why sometimes it would work well, and other times it wouldn’t