Well then, carry on Ethan!

Sorry, was expecting a flood that didn’t happen I guess. Why a separate partition for home (or var, or whatever you want to split off)? See

https://askubuntu.com/questions/142695/what-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-having-a-separate-home-partition

Can you use a hardware key like a Yubikey instead?

3 … 2 … 1 …

Or Wireshark

I learned by a lot of distro hopping, tweaking and tuning and compiling kernels (way back when tho), to not being afraid of “breaking things.” Since Nov. 1992. It helps when you use a spare PC or laptop though, no panic about loss