# Mount LUKS root via SSH?

## arantius

First, I've found:

* https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-818781-highlight-luks+ssh.html

* http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Unlocking_a_LUKS_encrypted_root_partition_via_ssh/print

The first says basically, "Just compile dropbear in your initrd".  The second has nice howtos, but for very debian specific stuff.  I'm sure this is possible.  I'm not comfortable that I know how.

Right now, I've got a box set up with an encrypted LUKS root, and I can type in the passphrase via the physical console and boot just fine.  I'd like to add in the ability to SSH in and mount/boot that way.  My kernel and initrd are being built by genkernel, and I don't know how to add in any extra binaries (dropbear?) or scripts to run to make this possible.

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## avx

 *Quote:*   

> My kernel and initrd are being built by genkernel, and I don't know how to add in any extra binaries (dropbear?) or scripts to run to make this possible.

 Is there a special reason, why you're doing it this way? I don't know how to act in this situation either, since I never used genkernel, but living without it isn't really hard at all.

As for the kernel, if you are unsure what you need, you could extract the config from a working kernel, use one of pappy's kernel seeds or just ask.

The same goes for the initrd, it's really not witchcraft creating one ourself and customizing it for your needs is at worst a little of try/error.

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