Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
how can I access my encrypted home from a live cd ? I tried mounting the system (and binding proc, sys and dev) and then chrooting into it, but when I 'su kristenbb', it says: 'open: permission denied. error locking counter'. How to avoid that ?
If by using cryptsetup, you mean that I have full disk encryption, then the answer is no, I just have home encryption, which I set up using ubuntu 13.04.
And I don't think I have LVM.
If by using cryptsetup, you mean that I have full disk encryption, then the answer is no, I just have home encryption, which I set up using ubuntu 13.04.
And I don't think I have LVM.
Then
Code:
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sdxx myhome
will do it.
After that just mount it, as annonyxxxx mention in his post
No this doesn't work, sorry. sudo "cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda2 myhome" (and I'm sure it's sda2, I've checked with gparted) returns Device /dev/sda2 is not a valid LUKS device.
I think cryptsetup is not what ubuntu uses to encrypt the home folder. It is rather ecryptfs. But for ecryptfs to work, I need to be able to chroot into the system from the live cd, and this doesn't seem to work, as I've said in my original post.
If you see in the page, I have linked there is more information regarding data recovery from the encrypted home directory which might also be useful in your case.
Last edited by Janus_Hyperion; 05-27-2013 at 02:37 PM.
No this doesn't work, sorry. sudo "cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda2 myhome" (and I'm sure it's sda2, I've checked with gparted) returns Device /dev/sda2 is not a valid LUKS device.
I think cryptsetup is not what ubuntu uses to encrypt the home folder. It is rather ecryptfs. But for ecryptfs to work, I need to be able to chroot into the system from the live cd, and this doesn't seem to work, as I've said in my original post.
Yes you might be right, I just assumed it uses cryptsetup, since it's based on Debian.
So what it is that I'm supposed to do actually ? I'm not an expert, just a regular user, and this is all a bit over my head. I'd just like to be able to access my home folder from a live cd, in case my system ever fails.
Distribution: Fedora (typically latest release or development release)
Posts: 372
Rep:
From the link I posted above, try this -
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ubuntu Docs
Use ecryptfs-recover-private
boot the target system using an Ubuntu 11.04 Desktop LiveCD
make sure that your target system's hard drive is mounted
open a terminal
run 'sudo ecryptfs-recover-private'
follow the prompts
access your decrypted data and save somewhere else
Yes, this works, thank you. But this makes the accessible data read only, and my need is actually to restore an old home folder. I wasn't able to do it from the running system, because some files where in use, so I'd like to do it from the live cd, but if I use the command above, I only have read access to the files. How can I get write access too ?
Distribution: Fedora (typically latest release or development release)
Posts: 372
Rep:
I would suggest copying the contents to new user home directory so that there are no issues with permissions. I am not sure if this is the best way though.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.