cannot enter encryption password in GUI

[stuartbh]

I am running Ubuntu 17.10 Desktop on a Dell XPS 2720, under which VirtualBox 5.2.0 is running.
Within VirtualBox I installed a 2nd level 17.10 Desktop and checked off encryption during installation (forcing LVM to be used). The install went flawlessly, then I tried to reboot and it asked for the password (in GUI mode) to access the encrypted disk, but when I typed it no asterisks came up and it never accepted my typing.

However, when I booted in recovery mode (textually) it asked for the password in text, I entered it, Ubuntu accepted it, then I hit resume boot up and it booted up into the GUI. This bug seems NOT to be present in a bare metal environment only when running under VirtualBox (I have not tested other virtualization technologies, just VirtualBox 5.2.0)

Thanks,

Stuart

[Marc Deslauriers (mdeslaur)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We appreciate the difficulties you are facing, but this appears to be a "regular" (non-security) bug. I have unmarked it as a security issue since this bug does not show evidence of allowing attackers to cross privilege boundaries nor directly cause loss of data/privacy. Please feel free to report any other bugs you may find.

[TJ (tj)]

The initial reports (in #ubuntu) suggest this may be an issue with plymouth

[TJ (tj)]

I suspect this is the Critical bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plymouth/+bug/1386005

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

This is most likely a bug in the kernel. What video driver is used for your virtualbox environment?

Is this reproducible with an Ubuntu 17.04 guest? If not, can you try installing the 17.04 kernel in your 17.10 guest to see if that fixes the problem?

[stuartbh (stuartbh)]

Steve, et alia:

Your welcome, I am happy to take the time to report bugulance in Ubuntu so it can be markedly improved. Moreover, I marked this as a security based bug since it involves an issue with the entrance of a password, thus one would think it obvious to be impactive to security! I had no idea if it was because some rouge software was installed or what, just that it seemed patently dysfunctional on a prima facia basis. I also was not entirely sure if security based developers were involved with its code management or not.

The foregoing notwithstanding, I have been using Ubuntu for many years (ever since RedHat Workstation was withdrawn from marketing) and appreciate the goodness of Debian coupled with the ease of use Ubuntu adds (while subtracting the extremism of some of the Debian folks that make it difficult to install).

I can try to install 17.04 and see what occurs as well as to see if kernel replacement under 17.10 manages to effectuate different functionality.

Thank you for looking into it so quickly.

V/R,

Stuart

[stuartbh (stuartbh)]

TJ,

I hope you are joking in your suggestion as it being bug #1386005 as that is a rather egregious suggestion to make! Indeed, you are suggesting that a bug that is almost 3 years old has not been fixed and that Ubuntu doesn't give a rat's toukhes about fixing it or worse stands in the absence of the the expertise to do so. That would a terrible thing to suggest for such a world renowned operating system and distribution as Ubuntu and is a rather insulting thing to say about them.

I would suggest that someone look at both bugs and actually try to fix them instead of wasting all this time trying to reclassify the bug as security or not or really this bug or that bug, why not focus all that energy on testing and fixing the bug, eh?

Stuart

[stuartbh (stuartbh)]

Steve,

I was able to install Ubuntu 17.04 within a VirtualBox 5.20.0 environment and indeed the bug stands instantiated by that variant of Ubuntu as well. Moreover, using the same boot into recovery mode, enter the password in textual mode and effectuating a "resume boot" seems to work to bring up both 17.04 as well as 17.10 variants of Ubuntu.

The script as follows hereupon was executed on both 17.04 and 17.10, thereafter the output from 17.04 and 17.10 is provided herein below.

Script:
lspci | grep VGA;
lsmod | grep "kms\|drm";
find /dev -group video;
cat /proc/cmdline;
[[ -d /etc/modprobe.d ]] && find /etc/modprobe.d/;
if stat /etc/modprobe.d/*kms* 1>/dev/null 2>/dev/null;
then
 cat /etc/modprobe.d/*kms*;
else
 echo "No kms files in /etc/modprobe.d directory.";
fi;
[[ -f /etc/X11/xorg.conf ]] && ls /etc/X11/xorg.conf;
[[ $(type -P glxinfo) ]] && glxinfo | grep -Ei "vendor|rendering";
[[ -f /var/log/Xorg.0.log ]] && grep LoadModule /var/log/Xorg.0.log

17.04 output:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH VirtualBox Graphics Adapter
drm_kms_helper 151552 0
drm 352256 2 ttm,drm_kms_helper
fb_sys_fops 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
syscopyarea 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
sysfillrect 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
sysimgblt 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
/dev/fb0
BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-4.10.0-37-generic.efi.signed root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root ro recovery nomodeset
/etc/modprobe.d/
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-oss.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ath_pci.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-firewire.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/intel-microcode-blacklist.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/mlx4.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-framebuffer.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-modem.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-rare-network.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
No kms files in /etc/modprobe.d directory.
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
client glx vendor string: Mesa Project and SGI
    Vendor: VMware, Inc. (0xffffffff)
OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.
[ 27.658] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[ 27.971] (II) LoadModule: "vboxvideo"
[ 27.972] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"
[ 27.983] (II) LoadModule: "fbdev"
[ 27.995] (II) LoadModule: "vesa"
[ 28.003] (II) LoadModule: "vboxvideo"
[ 28.003] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"
[ 28.003] (II) LoadModule: "fbdev"
[ 28.003] (II) LoadModule: "vesa"
[ 28.007] (II) LoadModule: "fbdevhw"
[ 28.023] (II) LoadModule: "fb"
[ 28.026] (II) LoadModule: "shadow"
[ 28.962] (II) LoadModule: "libinput"

17.10 output:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH VirtualBox Graphics Adapter
drm_kms_helper 167936 0
drm 356352 2 ttm,drm_kms_helper
fb_sys_fops 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
syscopyarea 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
sysfillrect 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
sysimgblt 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
/dev/fb0
BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-4.13.0-16-generic.efi.signed root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root ro recovery nomodeset
/etc/modprobe.d/
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-rare-network.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/mlx4.conf
/etc/modprobe.d...