cannot 'crypsetup' a usb root disk during boot

[Werner Kuballa]

Binary package hint: ubiquity

Trying to install 804beta on a USB flash memory using an encrypted root filesystem does not work out-of-the-box.

My configuration:
- 16GB USB flash memory
- partition 1: 200MB reiserfs for "/boot"
- partition 2: all the rest used as an encrypted container for volume group "sysvg"
- /dev/sysvg/swap: swap
- /dev/sysvg/sysroot: reiserfs for "/"

Apparently, cryptsetup takes place before all USB devices have been registered.

Workaround:
I inserted a "sleep 15" in: "/usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/local-top/cryptroot" after line 272 like:

271: # Do we have any settings from the /conf/conf.d/cryptroot file?
272: if [ -r /conf/conf.d/cryptroot ]; then
new: sleep 15
273: while read ....

Run "update-initramfs -u" after this modification.
With this, the system boots properly.

I created this system-on-a-usb-stick to be able to carry "my own" system with me at all times. I want to be able to boot into my system at any PC I can get access to just by booting from the usb stick. Since it is fairly easy to loose a tiny usb stick, I want it to be encrypted so that nobody else can use the data. The first partition (used for /boot) contains some information for returning the usb stick - just in case some "nice" person finds it... It works so far on two notebooks I used for testing (ThinkPads) and also in a VMware machine.

Regards,
Werner

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

How or why has this ended up on ubiquity again? This seems to be pretty clearly a cryptsetup bug.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

(I reassigned it to cryptsetup earlier, but the ubiquity task reappeared ...)

[Werner Kuballa (wkuballa)]

This is pretty much the first time I am using launchpad to report a bug.
Sorry for using the wrong product.

Regards,
Werner

On Wed, Apr 9, 2008 at 5:50 PM, Colin Watson <email address hidden> wrote:

> (I reassigned it to cryptsetup earlier, but the ubiquity task reappeared
> ...)
>
> --
> cannot 'crypsetup' a usb root disk during boot
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/211383
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>