As you mentioned elsewhere it’s encrypted.

Take a look at /etc/crypttab and creating and adding a key file that can unlock the drive.

Essentially your additional SSD will have both a password and a file containing a password that can unlock the drive. When you unlock your root filesystem (I’m guessing at boot) it will then have the key file that can unlock the SSD.

Something like cryptsetup luksAddKey /dev/pathtossd --new-keyfile /etc/newpassword

Systemd might make this easier to setup nowadays.

Edit: Also, yes, the password to unlock your SSD is just sitting in a file in your root drive. Be sure to restrict it to only be readable by root.

Oh I completely agree. There is a reason it took me a while and careful observation before I figured it out.

I assume it’s part of, or started as, a little password dance. Something like, “abc123DEF”.

Or maybe it just comes from the idea that only a single key can be pressed at a time?

Either way I completely agree, insane.

I agree, but it’s more common than you’d think.

I used to work at an organization that used Chromebooks, which replaces the caps lock key with a search key (same shape, different behaviour). I was surprised at the number of people who struggled with their passwords because they would hit the “search” key, enter a single letter, and then hit “search” again. It took me a little while to figure it out because… Who does that?

At the time (and possibly still) Dell was promoting laptops with Ubuntu preinstalled. These laptops also avoided the “Windows Tax” and were ~$50-$100 cheaper.

*The “Windows Tax” being that Windows cost money. Most companies just built the cost of Windows into their product with no (easy) method of not purchasing Windows. So if you bought a $800 laptop, you actually bought a $700 laptop plus a Window license, even if you never planned on using Windows.

Also worth adding, since this story was big many years ago, when the college was contacted they were fine with her laptop. They had no requirement that she use Wimdows.

Debian Testing. It isn’t “recommended” but it works fine.

Obviously if you want AUR you need an Arch variant, in which case just pick Arch.

Edit: I needed the why, it’s up to date enough for me and I know apt well.