Ubuntu Installation :: Access Encrypted /home From Rescue Shell
May 1, 2010
I have installed Kubuntu 10.04 x64 from scratch using the alternate installation CD and unfortunately I'm experiencing some serious troubles. Everything worked fine, installed packages, moved my backed-up data to my encrypted /home partition - until I rebooted. Usually I reboot the system right after the installation process to see if the boot process shows any errors, but what can I say, seems like I forgot to do it this time .
The problem is that the boot process just "hangs" right before the login window should disappear. By "hang" I mean dead: no switching to virtual terminals, no CTRL-ALT-DEL - the system just freezes.
I'm quite familiar with doing things shell-wise, so I started the "Rescue Mode" from the alternate CD and was able to mount my root partition.
Problem #1: No faulty log entries whatsoever: dmesg, boot.log, messages etc. all looking fine - except Xorg.0.log. I suspect the proprietary Nvidia drivers to be the culprit here, because what I'm getting is: "Caught signal 11 (Segmentation Fault). Server aborting"
Running "startx" as root from the rescue shell gives the same results: complete system freeze. "Looks like a reinstallation candidate, let's just backup my data" I thought, which brings us to
Problem #2: I can't mount my encrypted /home from the rescue shell. The exact steps involved are:
Mount my root partition and chroot to it. Issuing "ecryptfs-mount-private" gives the following error message: "ERROR: Encrypted private directory is not setup properly" Becoming my user "su - faulty" and trying step 2 again yields the same results. I feel like I'm almost there: I'm executing commands in my root environment, just can't seem to access my data which I'd like to backup before doing a clean reinstall. Any thoughts?
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Apr 21, 2010
I tried upgrading to 10.04, and now when it boots it just goes into a grub2 terminal and doesn't display a boot menu. I tried re-installing grub2 from the live cd, but that didn't do anything. I figured if I've hosed the last install I'll install from scratch, but I can't even access my files from the live cd! I did a bit of searching and everyone seems to just encrypt ~/Private, whereas I've encrypted the whole home directory. So much for security... In the live cd, it has a readme.txt and says to type "ecryptfs-mount-private" to access the files, but it just gives the error "ERROR: Encrypted private directory is not setup properly". What do I do?
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Jun 6, 2011
I had errors pop up when I tried updating my 10.10 to 11.04 so I ended up having to do it from a Live USB which installs it over everything (fine by me).Unfortunately I forgot I had an encrypted /home directory. So various messages and stuff came up when I tried to log in.nfortunately I don't remember what my encryption passphrase is offhand, so I moved it to a slightly different folder name and had to have a new directory created for my username.It's still there, but how can I try to open it trying the various versions of the passphrase I think it may be? Can I double-click it and try?Also, in the future what is the best way to handle a "fresh" install that I want to connect to my encrypted /home directory?
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Jul 28, 2011
I just tried reinstalling ubuntu 11.04 from the live disc, installation went well but afterwards I cannot get access to my home directory which is encrypted and I stupidly forgot to note the mount passphrase. is there anything I can do? where would the mount passphrase be stored from the previous installation and is there any chance of recoving it. Home and the root are on the same drive and the installation did not format the drive.
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Jan 27, 2011
I have choosen to encrypt Ubuntu 10.10 during installation (no alternate installation). After some time of working properly I get following error message after I put in correct password :
"Could not update ICE authority file /home/surf1/.ICE authority"
When I click "ok" following error message is shown :
"there is a problem with the configurationserver (/usr/lib/libconf2-4/gconf-sanity-check-2 finished with status 256)"
When I click this "ok" next error message appears :
"Nautilus could not create following necessary files : home/surf1/Desktop,/home/surf1/.nautilus"
After I click here ok nothing else happen anymore and I get not access to my account and so to my data.
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Sep 22, 2010
I've upgraded to my old dell from Xubuntu 9.10 to Xubuntu 10.04 and set up separate /home partition. I chose to encrypt the /home folder when I installed. I'm wondering if that's the quick answer for why I can no longer sftp from my Ubuntu Jaunty laptop. Both machines are on my desk, and I've been happily using ssh to get files between them before this. The Xubuntu machine has openssh server and client installed, the Jaunty machine has only ever had only the ssh client. Now I get a popup saying "Could not open location ..." and the sftp address, and "Host key verification failed." I've not done much with this new install, so I don't mind just re-installing again. I don't need an ecrypted /home, but I do want very much to be able to continue to ssh into that machine. Is it my encrypted /home that's causing this?
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Feb 16, 2011
I had issues on my last install , I couldn't boot into it cause I accidentally uninstalled python 2.6 and everything it was attached to. So I reinstalled on a separate hard drive, I can see my other file system from the media folder but the only thing in my home dir isthese 2 files 1 read methatsaysPHPCode:THIS DIRECTORY HAS BEEN UNMOUNTED TO PROTECT YOUR DATA.From the graphical desktop, click on: "AccessYour Private Data"orFrom the command line, run: ecryptfs-mount-private and then this file Access-Your-Private-Data.desktopbut when I click it and try to run it I get thisrrorPHPCode:Untrusted application launcherThe application launcher "Access-Your-.desktop" has not been marked as trusted. If you do not know the source of this file, launching it may bensafe.
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Oct 10, 2010
I'm still running 9.10, but now would like to install 10.10. Now I'm wondering about how to keep access to my encrypted home folder.
Usually, I don't do an 'upgrade', but a fresh re-install. I have a separate /home partition, so normally this works just fine. However, my home directory is encrypted (a feature that was introduced with 9.10, I believe).
So, if I whack the system partition and do a fresh reinstall there, will the new install still be able to read my home directory? Or do I need to save a key file from somewhere?
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Nov 25, 2010
I've done something a bit stupid. I've already encrypted my home folder and just set it to log in without requesting my password. When i do log in now, no startup sound plays, several error messages appear but no desktop. I think it's because I now don't have an opportunity to enter my home folder password, and it doesn't work at all. Is there any way to edit account settings from 'root' or anything because this really has crippled my computer.
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Nov 7, 2010
Apparently after an upgrade, I lost access to my encrypted home directory. Looks like upgrade scripts changed the scripts that mounted my encrypted home directory. As I don't have my ecryptfs password handy, is there any way to revert the things back as they were? I have liked Ubuntu all the way but after this upgrade-mess-up, I might change my view.
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Nov 26, 2010
I logged in to Recover Mode ("Drop to root shell prompt") this morning to do something. Naturally, I wanted access to my encrypted home folder.
The README file says to run ecryptfs-mount-private. However, that command returns an error:
"ERROR: Encrypted private directory is not setup properly."
This cannot be correct, because if I log in normally, I get my home folder without any problem.
How can I access my encrypted home folder when I boot via Recover Mode?
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Jan 9, 2011
I tried to install Ubuntu 10.10 and now I'm getting a "grub rescue>" when I reboot. I just want to get back my Windows now.
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Apr 25, 2010
I purchased a larger hard drive to upgrade my HTPC running MythTV and a Samba file server. I put the old hard drive into an e-SATA enclosure and can still boot to it to access my files, but I can't seem to mount it correctly under the new installation to copy over my files even though I have the mount passphrase and encrypted filenames key.I have tried using this howto, but I run into problems with the encrypted filenames.This is how I'm doing it. I replaced the actual key data with A's and B's to protect my keys:
Code:
$ sudo -i
# ecryptfs-add-passphrase --fnek
[code].....
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Dec 17, 2010
I'm wiping out / on an Ubuntu box but want to keep everything in /home/, which is mounted on a different partition. Using Code: ecryptfs-unwrap-passphrase ~/.ecryptfs/wrapped-passphrase I have unwrapped the passphrase, resulting in a ~25 character alphanumeric string. Is it possible for me to install from a disk and give the installer the (current) passphrase so that it will automatically mount my home directory?
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Jun 23, 2010
I encrypted "/" and "/home" during boot with F12. Now I'm trying to install F13. The problem is it will not allow to specify /home as the mount point. It will take /home and not complain but when I get back to summary there is no mount point, just blank. When I entered the passphrase it didn't complain so I think that is okay. The / dir I said I wanted to format, so it accepted the / mount point.
I tried to go ahead and install F13 anyway thinking it may figure this out. However it didn't use my /home but created a new /home.
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Mar 8, 2011
I want to create a user with a encrypted home folder. I tried "sudo adduser --encrypt-home username" but I get following error "adduser: Could not find program named `ecryptfs-setup-private' in $PATH". I installed the cryptsetup package but without result.
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Jun 7, 2010
I was messing around with the partitions and accidentally y deleted the ubuntu partition! I have Windows 7 as a dual boot but I can't access to that OS anymore. The message that I get is: error: no such partition. grub rescue>
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Jun 28, 2011
I have an hp laptop and i had ubuntu on it for 3 years. my hard drive started to fail a while ago (i had ubuntu 10 on it until 1 week ago) and a then it all went black...I took the laptop to a repair shop, they told me it was the disc, so i bought a new disc, installed it on my laptop and reinstalled the new ubuntu 11. so far so good. i have now a working OS, internet connection and i can in fact type this message.
The thing is: all my files are on the old drive, which doesn't load/boot/start/read anymore. I have tested it on some friends's pc, tried a few HD disgnostic tools, they all send the same message: "fail"
I then tried to mount my old drive (with all my precious files in it) on my laptop as an external drive (usb) hoping that ubuntu 11 could read it as an external usb key: it gets read by the system, but it shows no files at all. it also shows an error message saying the drive can not be mounted, with some "sdb1" thing. i am sorry but i'm really dumb when it comes to tech language.
Then i tried to boot it on start-up but i got the grub rescue> thing and nothing else, just a sad, blinking cursor to recover my files,i have also tried testdisk but couldn't understand very well how to use it, and then photorec, from which i recovered bits and pieces of files, with no name. some of them are just parts some of them are complete.
My problem is: i have to get access to my files, as I use them for work, i couldn't do a back-up recently and i have some real important deadline to meet... for which i need those files. is there any way i could solve the grub issue and have that drive load/mount again as external usb?
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Jun 15, 2011
MACHINE: HP Proliant DL260G5OS: SLES 11 SP1kernel: Linux xserver 2.6.32.12-0.7-default #1 SMP 2010-05-20 11:14:20 +0200 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/LinuxIt is used as remote xserver in a LAN.I have configured /usr/lib/restricted/bin/.rbashrc with some environment variables but when the users logon in the system finally is executed $HOME/.bashrc and some environment vars are overwritten.
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Mar 23, 2009
I have a users, that log in from a terminal. They should not have any shell access, so currently their login script, at the end, starts the program that they use, and after that program ends, the login script moves on to log them back out. The problem is, they could press ctrl+c, while the login script is running, and it quits the login script and spits them out at a shell prompt. -- Is there any way I can prevent this?
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Jul 13, 2010
I can't remember if i choose encrypt my home folder when i first install ubuntu.
is there a way to know if it's encrypted?
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Nov 22, 2010
Dummy me let root run out of space because I didn't know to use logrotate. I was able to compress the system logs but not before the damage was done me thinks; now the computer is unbootable. I booted from a LiveCD and got my old partitions mounted under /media/oldroot to try and recover files; however, I forgot that I had encrypted my home. I found [URL] and was following it; however, I seem to run into a bunch of path issues after I chroot.
The chroot command returns:
bash: groups: command not found
The su command returns:
-su: cut: command not found
-su: getent: command not found
-su: expr: command not found
-su: groups: command not found
Finally, the ecryptfs-mount-private command returns:
-su: ecryptfs-mount-private: command not found
I have separate partitons for /, /home, /tmp, /usr, and /usr/local and bothered to mount the first 2. (If only I had been ambitious enough to create a /var). I was running Ubuntu 10.10.
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Jan 2, 2010
I'm recently switched my work laptop from running winXP to runing karmic. I'm still at the stage of getting my various bits and bobs working correctly. One of these I (may) have a problem with is backup's. I've ran backuppc on a ubuntu 9.04 box in the attic for the last year or so and I've been backing up my laptop to that. But since the switch, since I have an encrypted home dir, what is being backed up is the encrypted files. First, can I recover these if needed (I kept a copy of my passphrase), or can I get backuppc to ssh in as me with my home dir mounted correctly?
Backuppc is using rsync over ssh I've been using linux on and off since about redhat 5.0, so I'm not afraid of the command line or vi
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Feb 10, 2010
I recently did a clean install of Ubuntu 9.10 and when I did I chose to have /home on it's own partition and have it encrypted. The more I think about it the more I regret this decision. What if I want to switch distros down the road? What if I have to boot from a live cd to back up files? Is there a way to "undo" the encrypted home folder permanently? I don't mind having it on it's own partition, it's just the encryption that makes me worry.
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Feb 13, 2010
I recently installed Ubuntu Karmic on my netbook (I tried netbook remix but preferred the look of the regular desktop edition). When during installation, the option to encrypt the home folder appeared, and being mildly paranoid I thought, "sure, why not?" (I must warn you that I am a new user with little technical knowledge other than what I have managed to gather in a semi-passive manner over the past couple of months). The problem is, I (try to) backup my data weekly, and so today I gave it a shot (I got the desktop edition a week ago). I have encountered the following problem.
I backup my system following (approximately) the instructions at [URL] for Backup The exact command I enter at backup is:
sudo tar -cvpjf 2010.02.13.tar.bz2 --exclude=/proc --exclude=/lost+found --exclude=/sys --exclude=/mnt --exclude=/media --exclude=/home/dan/music /
(I exclude my music folder as it is huge and I already have it all in several other locations) When I executed this command all ran smoothly for a while, however it soon began backing up the directory /home/.ecryptfs/dan/.Private At this point, it started backing up the huge number of files in this directory. I assume these are encryption keys? Forgive my ignorance... Anyway, it took several hours going through this folder, and finally bzip gave up, complaining of excessive file size:
bzip2: I/O or other error, bailing out. Possible reason follows.
bzip2: File too large
Input file = (stdin), output file = (stdout)
I assume that excluding the encryption keys and such from the backup would be a bad idea: I guess that if I did not restore the relevant directories along with my home folder, it would be inaccessible? Is there a way to avoid backing up such a large amount of data?
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Mar 15, 2010
During the installation of Ubuntu Karmic, I picked the option that encrypts my home directory.
A few questions:
(1) Shortly after installation, I was asked to run a command to print a key necessary for data recovery from a rescue CD. I didn't run it at the time and am now looking for the command to run. What is it?
(2) I think I read somewhere that this also encrypts swap. Great. Correct me if that's wrong.
(3) If I suspend the machine, is my home directory encrypted? That is, if I have this on a laptop and travel with the suspended laptop and someone steals it, are my data safe, or not?
(4) I assume the weakest point in the system is my relatively short login password (but I think the install tests it and found it okay). Is there a recommendation how long this should be?
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May 21, 2010
I ran fsck on the wrong partition (which was mounted) and in my haste blew up the file system on that partition. Now here's the kicker, I had 450Gb of data and documents on that partition that was in an encrypted home directory. So the long and the short of it I ran fsck again and I was able to recover all the files, and they are now residing on a Lost+Found folder on my hard drive.I have located the encrypted files, but I don't know what to do with them.
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Jul 10, 2010
I have a dual boot WinXP / Kubuntu system. Recently, I tried to upgrade from 9.10 to 10.04. I have my Kubuntu partition set up with separate partitions for / , /home , and swap. Naturally, I wanted to wipe the slate clean, so I formatted / and left /home alone before doing the install. However, my /home partition was encrypted with the standard crypto that you get when you install. I just deleted the way in by wiping my / partition. Now all of my files are on my drive but encrypted. I do have the unencrypted passphrase given to me when the hard drive was first encrypted, so I am sure there is some way to get my files, but I am unsure how to apply it.
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Nov 15, 2010
How to decrypt encrypted home folder?Which is already encrypted ?
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Jun 14, 2011
so, after long time of succesfull use of kubuntu, i encountered a 1st major disaster yesterday while using kphotoalbum. It has somehow frozen my machine in so mighty way, that it apparently corrupted a directory with majority of my pictures , which now appears to be empty .My home lies on a separate partition, its encrypted aand using btrfs and I am using kubuntu 10.10. So, could anyone give me some clues how to unencrypt my home partition, that i could obtain an image of partition or whatever else usable for photorec to check for pictures?
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