• Display configuration details : shows LVM device structure, names and sizes of logical volumes and more 

• Create volume group 

• Create logical volume 

• Delete volume group 

• Delete logical volume 

• Extend volume group 

• Reduce volume group 

• Finish : return to the main partman screen 

Use the options in that menu to first create a volume group and then create your logical volumes inside it. 

After you return to the main partman screen, any created logical volumes will be displayed in the same way as ordinary partitions (and you should treat them as such). 

## 6.3.3.6. Configuring Encrypted Volumes 

debian-installer allows you to set up encrypted partitions. Every file you write to such a partition is immediately saved to the device in encrypted form. Access to the encrypted data is granted only after entering the passphrase used when the encrypted partition was originally created. This feature is useful to protect sensitive data in case your laptop or hard drive gets stolen. The thief might get physical access to the hard drive, but without knowing the right passphrase, the data on the hard drive will look like random characters. 

The two most important partitions to encrypt are: the home partition, where your private data resides, and the swap partition, where sensitive data might be stored temporarily during operation. Of course, nothing prevents you from encrypting any other partitions that might be of interest. For example /var where database servers, mail servers or print servers store their data, or /tmp which is used by various programs to store potentially interesting temporary files. Some people may even want to encrypt their whole system. The only exception is the /boot partition which must remain unencrypted, because currently there is no way to load the kernel from an encrypted partition. 

Note: Please note that the performance of encrypted partitions will be less than that of unen- crypted ones because the data needs to be decrypted or encrypted for every read or write. The performance impact depends on your CPU speed, chosen cipher, the key length and whether you use hardware assisted cryptography operations or not. 

To use encryption, you have to create a new partition by selecting some free space in the main parti- tioning menu. Another option is to choose an existing partition (e.g. a regular partition, an LVM logi- cal volume or a RAID volume). In the Partition settings menu, you need to select physical volume for encryption at the Use as: option. The menu will then change to include several cryptographic options for the partition. 

The encryption method supported by debian-installer is dm-crypt (included in newer Linux kernels, able to host LVM physical volumes). 

