Mayday! How do I manually mount my encrypted ext3 external usb disk?

simonsharry · 02-15-2009, 02:06 AM

Hello,

I have deleted the one and only key/ring from my gnome-keyring-manager app. (See this thread:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...9/#post3443909

I thought, after the deletion, I'd be re-prompted for the password and all will be fine. However...

)

Now, Gnome, even though it's prompting me for a password, it is not accepting it: after a 2-3 tries it just stops prompting.

How do I manually mount my encrypted ext3 external usb disk once again? I have forgotten the encryption method I used; I only remember my password.

PLEASE HELP. Or, I'll be in big trouble... as all my backups for the past 1 year are on this drive! I hope somebody out there knows what this is.

Note: I'm using Fedora, version 2.6.27.12-78.2.8.fc9.i686

/HS

JulianTosh · 02-15-2009, 02:21 AM

just for giggles, use the gnome-keyring-manager to create an empty keyring file and let it's do its thing again. Lemme know if that helps.

Also, what encryption are you using on the external drive? LUKS?

JulianTosh · 02-15-2009, 02:22 AM

Also, I posted some tips to try and recover the lost file, but if you dont stop using your computer's hard drive immediately, you're risking losing the data to rebuild that file.

simonsharry · 02-15-2009, 03:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Admiral Beotch

just for giggles, use the gnome-keyring-manager to create an empty keyring file and let it's do its thing again. Lemme know if that helps.

Also, what encryption are you using on the external drive? LUKS?

Not sure how to create an 'empty keyring file' via gnone-keyring-manager. I had backed up my original ~/.gnome2/keyrings/login.keyring file though. Will that help?

I think, I was using LUKS but not sure.

I don't have Live CD to recover. What are the other alternatives? I'm unable to understand what has gone wrong and why? Deleting a keyring, I think, should only make things revert to manual... that is the whole reason why I chose to go ahead and delete it.

Could you/someone please explain, why I cannot remount my disk manually again? My soul is almost crying now, so please try and be a little kind if you can...

JulianTosh · 02-15-2009, 03:41 AM

Sorry, I was under the impression that you deleted the keyring file and didnt have a backup.

Restore the keyring file to regain access to your encrypted volume and back it up RIGHT NOW. Then we'll figure out what's going on with the keyring manager.

simonsharry · 02-15-2009, 03:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Admiral Beotch

Sorry, I was under the impression that you deleted the keyring file and didnt have a backup.

Restore the keyring file to regain access to your encrypted volume and back it up RIGHT NOW. Then we'll figure out what's going on with the keyring manager.

Done! Backed up the whole blessed '~/.gnome2/keyrings' folder. Now...?

JulianTosh · 02-15-2009, 04:03 AM

Were you able to mount your encrypted device now? I meant for you to back up that data. You should secure a working recoverable state before you do anything that might jepardize your data.

simonsharry · 02-15-2009, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Admiral Beotch

Were you able to mount your encrypted device now? I meant for you to back up that data. You should secure a working recoverable state before you do anything that might jepardize your data.

No, I wasn't able to mount. I cannot 'back up that data' 'cause it's huge: The entire drive is 250G.

Here's what I have tried doing so far.
1. Get the device from 'fdisk -l'

Code:

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5c74ae42

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       30401   244196001    7  HPFS/NTFS

2. Tried opening the luks device, in 2 ways... neither of which worked.

Code:

[root@ida:~]
$ cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sdb bkupdrive
Enter LUKS passphrase for /dev/sdb: 
Command failed: No key available with this passphrase.

[root@ida:~]
$ cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sdb1 bkupdrive
Enter LUKS passphrase for /dev/sdb1: 
Enter LUKS passphrase for /dev/sdb1: 
Enter LUKS passphrase for /dev/sdb1: 
[root@ida:~]

Basically, I was hoping, that having opened the luks device, I would next create device-mapper (as mentioned here :
http://www.nabble.com/Successful-tes...d16361554.html )

But as you can see above, I'm not sure why my passphrase is failing.

Any suggestions now?

JulianTosh · 02-15-2009, 04:17 AM

In your original post, you stated:

Quote:

Tired of entering my password upon every power-on, I decided to save my password one day. However, I now want to go back to the old setting... where I had to manually enter my password.

That is when you deleted your keyring file... Now that your gnome keyring has been restored, you are not able to mount the device as before?

Or am I missing something?

simonsharry · 02-15-2009, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Admiral Beotch

In your original post, you stated:

That is when you deleted your keyring file... Now that your gnome keyring has been restored, you are not able to mount the device as before?

Or am I missing something?

Basically, this has been the sequence of events.
1. Tired of entering password everyday.
2. Saved my password via Gnome.
3. Happy for many months.
4. Now, today, wanted the old feature back (of being prompted for password).
5. Installed gnome-keyring-manager per your suggestion.
6. Backed up my .gnome2/keyrings folder.
7. From within gnome-keyring-manager, deleted the one and only key/ring that. Was warned of this undo-able action but went ahead anyways: I was confident since I was using this password-save feature of Gnome only for this usb drive and not for anything else.
8. Power cycled my usb drive.
9. As expected, was prompted for password for the first time in many months.
10. Entered the password... without success!
11. Quit gnome-keyring-manager.
12. Quickly restored the backed up folder.
13. Still no success!

After a couple password entry attempt, the password dialog just quietly disappears. The device does not show as mounted (which I kind of expected). Btw, here's what the dialog looks like:

Title: "Unlock Encrypted Data (partition 1)"

The storage device WD2500JB External contains encrypted data on partition 1. Enter a password to unlock.
Password:
o Forget password immediately
o Remember password until you logout
o Remember forever
Cancel Connect

simonsharry · 02-15-2009, 04:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by simonsharry

Basically, this has been the sequence of events.
1. Tired of entering password everyday.
2. Saved my password via Gnome.
3. Happy for many months.
4. Now, today, wanted the old feature back (of being prompted for password).
5. Installed gnome-keyring-manager per your suggestion.
6. Backed up my .gnome2/keyrings folder.
7. From within gnome-keyring-manager, deleted the one and only key/ring that. Was warned of this undo-able action but went ahead anyways: I was confident since I was using this password-save feature of Gnome only for this usb drive and not for anything else.
8. Power cycled my usb drive.
9. As expected, was prompted for password for the first time in many months.
10. Entered the password... without success!
11. Quit gnome-keyring-manager.
12. Quickly restored the backed up folder.
13. Still no success!

After a couple password entry attempt, the password dialog just quietly disappears. The device does not show as mounted (which I kind of expected). Btw, here's what the dialog looks like:

Title: "Unlock Encrypted Data (partition 1)"

The storage device WD2500JB External contains encrypted data on partition 1. Enter a password to unlock.
Password:
o Forget password immediately
o Remember password until you logout
o Remember forever
Cancel Connect

Hey friend -- it WORKS! Hurrrrah!
I think, my jittery fingers were typing the password wrong. Repeatedly!

Sincerely apologies, for wasting your precious last few minutes!
Also, my deepest thanks and gratitude... for standing by the side of me novice. A virtual million dollars to you, just for being there...

Best regards,
/HS

JulianTosh · 02-15-2009, 04:49 AM

No worries sir. I've had my own fair share of moments of desperation here. Glad I could be there for you.

Now... go stimulate the economy and buy a 500G drive and back that 250G sucker up! hehehe Sounds like it's a precious collection of bits.