You're reading from The Ultimate Ubuntu Handbook A complete guide to Ubuntu 24.04, from installation to advanced security and development

Product type Paperback

Published in Aug 2025

Publisher Packt

ISBN-13 9781835465202

Length 356 pages

Edition 1st Edition

Tools

Ubuntu Server

Concepts

Operating Systems System Administration

Author (1):

Ken VanDine

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Table of Contents (26) Chapters

Preface

1. Part 1: Getting to Know Ubuntu

2. Introduction to Ubuntu FREE CHAPTER

3. What’s New in Ubuntu 24.04?

4. Security and Transparency – The Advantages of Open Source Software

5. Getting Started with Ubuntu: A User’s Guide

6. Part 2: Getting the Most Out of Your Ubuntu System

7. Using Your Ubuntu Desktop

8. Software Discovery: Finding and Installing Applications

9. Software Updates: Enhancing Security and Stability

10. Getting Help: The Ubuntu Community and Beyond

11. Ubuntu in the Enterprise and at Scale

12. Command-Line Tricks and Shortcuts: Boosting Your Efficiency

13. Part 3: Security and Privacy

14. Introduction to Network Security

15. Understanding Firewalls

16. Safeguarding Information with Data Encryption

17. Part 4: Ubuntu, the Ultimate Development Platform

18. Ubuntu for Developers

19. Leveraging Containers for Development

20. Cloud-Style VMs on Your Desktop

21. Kubernetes Development on Your Desktop

22. Building Your Data Science Toolkit

23. Embracing the Spirit of Ubuntu

24. Other Books You May Enjoy

25. Index

Encrypting your home directory

While encrypting your entire disk with LUKS provides comprehensive protection, you might prefer to encrypt only your home directory containing your personal files, configurations, and other sensitive data. Ubuntu offers a way to do this using eCryptfs, a file-based encryption system that operates transparently in the background.

How to encrypt your home directory

You can set up home directory encryption either during the initial installation of Ubuntu or afterward, using the eCryptfs tools. The following are the steps to manually encrypt your home directory on an existing system.

Install eCryptfs utilities

Open a terminal and install the necessary packages:

ken@monster:~$ sudo apt install ecryptfs-utils cryptsetup

Create a second user account

You can’t migrate your home directory data for a user account with a logged-in session. The simplest way to handle this is to create a temporary account with administrative access...