So I just had a fun / probably bad idea: I'd like to convert my Arch PC to use encryption on the root partition. I'll likely try copying the root filestructure to an external drive before formatting, doing a fresh install in a dm-crypt part, and then copy back. Would that work?
You don't even need a fresh install. Just prepare the bootloader to have the right config for decryption ahead of time (and the right initramfs modules), then dump and restore filesystem. Make sure to preserve ownership (tar -p or rsync -avHAX or similar).
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Linux is very friendly to simple file-based restores. I've done this many times. My own workstation has been transplanted through many storage setups and hardware over 14 years without reinstalling.
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If anything goes wrong, as long as your filesystem got copied over properly, you can always boot off a live iso (I recommend systemrescuecd), mount the partitions, chroot and fix it.
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Don't forget -S to preserve sparse files or you could have not enough space on your target drive to uncompress the archive if it's same size as original.
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