0.13

Booster 0.13

Booster 0.13 is a large encrypted-boot usability release. It improves LUKS unlock orchestration, adds native early-boot SSH unlock, expands /etc/crypttab support, and makes Plymouth/FIDO2/TPM2 flows much smoother and more predictable.

Highlights

• Added Plymouth boot splash support (#314), including direct Plymouth socket IPC (1110e56) and improved prompt cancellation (25788a7).
• Fixed DRM device initialization with Plymouth 22.x (#377).
• Added SSH-based remote LUKS unlock for headless or hard-to-reach systems (c38c904, 2b1df4f).
• Added /etc/crypttab integration for x-initrd.attach entries (53798b1, 2a932e5).
• Added support for detached LUKS headers from initramfs files, raw block devices, or files on separate devices (17ec118, cfb31e8).
• Added support for keyfiles stored on separate devices via crypttab (51080e6).
• Replaced the external fido2-assert path with native FIDO2 support through Booster’s fido2plugin.so (b442c20, daaf02b).
• Added automatic FIDO2 plugin bundling when fido2-device= is detected in crypttab (f272f9f).
• Added support for newer systemd-cryptenroll TPM2 tokens, including systemd v252+ persistent SRK/PBKDF2 PIN tokens (35ab72d).
• Added passphrase caching for multi-device LUKS unlocks, so sibling volumes can unlock from a successful shared passphrase (b00491d).
• Added configurable token orchestration with token_timeout, pin_delay, and serialize_tokens (3878422, 6749a36).

LUKS, FIDO2, TPM2, and Tokens

• Hardware-token unlock now coordinates better with keyboard fallback prompts.
• PIN-based tokens are prompted in deterministic token-ID order (c1922b2, 75a3dff).
• Non-interactive token attempts are bounded so a stuck token cannot hang boot indefinitely (0939a2a).
• FIDO2 credential pre-flight avoids asking for a PIN on the wrong security key (ca95177, 21ac46f).
• Missing FIDO2-token hints are delayed to avoid noisy boot output when another unlock path wins quickly (4a79130).
• FIDO2 touch timeout no longer consumes a PIN attempt (849f3d0).
• TPM2 PIN tokens now support three attempts and empty-Enter skip behavior (7b1e654).
• Token, keyboard, Plymouth, and SSH prompt paths now cancel cleanly when another unlock path succeeds (5dc4f69, 27ab5b1).

Remote Unlock

This release adds native early-boot SSH unlock using Go’s SSH implementation (c38c904). Configure network.ssh_host_key, network.ssh_authorized_keys, and network.ssh_listen in /etc/booster.yaml to allow pubkey-authenticated passphrase submission during initramfs boot.

Generator and Boot Fixes

• Added crypttab_path config and --crypttab override (78e7912).
• Improved handling of unreadable default /etc/crypttab (93df14f, cebca35).
• Made generated CPIO module ordering deterministic (0dae27b).
• Sorted booster.alias entries deterministically, fixing #309 (b708efe).
• Fixed module alias parsing and post-dependency loading (9e6aab6).
• Fixed LVM symlink race and strip failure handling (e6c8728).
• Fixed Btrfs device readiness waiting (9bfe45c).
• Fixed ro/rw kernel command-line handling so the last value wins, fixing #250 (dfc7505).
• Improved vconsole FONT_MAP and FONT_UNIMAP resolution (6d3a307).
• Hardened unpacking against path traversal (d04c685).
• Improved extra_files lookup errors by including the binary name, fixing #328 (74527f3).

Packaging and Docs

• Added a common kernel-install hook (07f5c5a).
• Updated Arch packaging for FIDO2/plugin build behavior (c0473ae).
• Refreshed README and manpage coverage for crypttab, remote unlock, Plymouth, GPT autodiscovery, FIDO2, TPM2, detached headers, and prompt ordering (68c701b, f05a371, eaab8d5).

Fixes

• Fixed several LUKS prompt, cancellation, and passphrase-cache races (86be496, 20e6699, 145c97c).
• Fixed TPM policy PCR handling with empty PCR lists (87eef85).
• Fixed noisy per-keystroke console logging during password entry, closing #360 (d08cbd6).
• Improved diagnostics when root=/dev/mapper/<name> has no matching LUKS unlock spec (70544fd).
• Closed leaked device file descriptors in WWID handling (080112b).
• Added booster.log=null / no-logging support (fd70557).
• Added binutils to optional dependencies for strip support (b8d9e80).

Thanks

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this release:

• @pilotstew for the bulk of the encrypted-boot work: crypttab integration, native FIDO2 support, TPM2/FIDO2 token orchestration, SSH remote unlock, Plymouth prompt handling, passphrase caching, and a large amount of test coverage.
• @basploeger for the Plymouth 22.x DRM initialization fix and WWID file descriptor cleanup.
• @tmccombs for adding the kernel-install hook.
• @7Ji for fixing Btrfs device readiness handling.
• @Indithem for adding no-logging support.
• @oech3 for improving packaging dependencies around strip.

Full changelog: 0.12...0.13