I installed a virtualbox linux at work, because while I can use Windows if forced, I can't be WITHOUT linux. I mean, what if I want to do something? Anyway, the latest Ubuntu (which I have never successfully installed before) asked me if I wanted to encrypt my home partition, and since I had nothing to lose, I said yes. And that was it. Nothing else happened. I just logged in as normal when I rebooted after the install. So I am quite confused about what actually happened.
After I logged in, the system helpfully told me that I could view my encryption passcode now, or do it later by running $somelongcommand and entering my password. I ran $somelongcommand, entered my password and got this giant thing like this: 8872f92xas2238457oh48 or something. I didn't write it down.
I assume this giant passcode is key-generated from the system password. But, if that's the case, I see several problems. First of all, the encryption can only be as strong as your system password, and could be cracked by brute-forcing it. Second, then can I never change my password again, or what? What if my password is compromised and I have to change it? I can't just instantly switch the encryption to use a different passcode, right?