Setting up encrypted partition (AES-loopback)

[Mike Oliver]

Hey guys, sorry for the duplicate message, but the first time
my message didn't get sent for a couple of days and then came
out in the middle of a big dump of messages, which I think may
be why no one responded to it, so I'm giving it another try.

I'm using Debian Sarge.  I've installed the loop-aes-utils,
loop-aes-source, and loop-aes-ciphers-source commands, but they don't
seem to come with any serious documentation (I can't even figure out
what commands, if any, these packages are supposed to provide --
shouldn't apt-cache be able to tell you that?  I can't figure out how.)

What documentation there is talks about building the kernel from
source.  Why should I have to do that, given that loop-aes-utils is
supposed to include a kernel module?

I'd also really like an explanation, in general terms, of what happens
when you have an encrypted partition.  Do you provide the passphrase at
mount time, or what?  What if your /bin and /usr/bin are on the
encrypted partition?  Presumably you need to supply the passphrase at
boot time, but does GRUB ask you for it, or what?
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