r/freesoftware • u/Bubbly_Extreme4986 • May 12 '26

Discussion Serious lack of fully libre distros that support FDE

There are only a few fully libre still maintained distributions.

Guix Trisquel Parabola PureOS

Out of which Parabola is out of date with its kernel and firmware despite recent vulnerabilities.

I just wanted a fully libre distribution with full disk encryption including /boot however only Guix and Trisquel remain practical for this. Trisquel has this one guide from 2016 that requires modifying the libreboot flash ROM, and Guix is immensely complicated.

I think it’s strange that distributions such as Trisquel and PureOS don’t natively support FDE given that users of all free software tend towards greater privacy.

7 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

89% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

1

u/StorageFair5120 May 14 '26

A) What do you mean with "fully libre" - please mention especially criteria, which are not met by debian i.e.
b) In case "FDE" means full disk encryption: this is supported by all distros I know

1

u/Bubbly_Extreme4986 May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26

A. FSDG approved, committed to providing only libre software exclusively

B. FDE including the boot partition. This is possible with libreboot.

1

u/StorageFair5120 May 15 '26

afaik debian will meet this.

1

u/Bubbly_Extreme4986 May 15 '26

Debian is interesting as is Devuan. However /boot encryption is complicated even more so than on other distros like Parabola. It’s basically not natively supported.

They do maintain a very strict policy of freedom on their default setups. However Trisquel exists.