XPS 13 9370 full disk encryption not working on Dell Recovery Media

[Christophe Chausset]

Hi,

I have bought an XPS 13 9370 Ubuntu Developer Edition and wanted to enable full disk encryption.
So, I have created the Dell Recovery Media (during Dell Ubuntu Configuration but also after Dell Ubuntu Configuration plus Ubuntu 18.04.1 update).

Booting from the Dell Recovery Media, I select "Restore only Linux OS partition.", then "Erase disk and install Ubuntu", "Encrypt the new Ubuntu installation for security" and "Use LVM with the new Ubuntu installation".
Afterwards a security key is requested to be created; I enter "eeeee" as passphrase just to be sure there is no keyboard layout issue at boot (I have an AZERTY XPS 13 keyboard).
I click on "Restart Now" and unfortunately the passphrase "eeeee" is not able to unlock the local partition.
I have the following error text : crypsetup (nvme0n1p3_crypt): cryptsetup failed, bad password or options?".

The passphrase has been correctly created as I can change the passphrase from Ubuntu Live USB key.
This is reproducible.

I am also in position to create a working full disk encyption from standard Ubuntu 18.04.1 USB live key.
So, the Dell Recovery Media created does not support correctly the full disk encryption mechanism.

For your information, another user is encountering exactly the same issue (refer to my post on Dell Community forum https://www.dell.com/community/Linux-Developer-Systems/XPS-13-9370-Ubuntu-full-disk-encryption/m-p/6200577#M8755).

Of course, this is a severe issue and we need a new working Dell Recovery Media image for this feature.

Thanks in advance for your support.

Kind regards

[Christophe Chausset (christophe14)]

Dell has confirmed there is a bug in Dell Recovery application.
They will have to respin the XPS 13 9370 factory image in the future.

[Christophe Chausset (christophe14)]

Here is a workaround successfully tested:

1 - Download the new dell-recovery_1.60_all.deb from the following link:
 https://github.com/dell/dell-recovery/releases/download/1.60/dell-recovery_1.60_all.deb

2 - Mount the recovery partition of your embedded SSD disk:
 sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt/

3 - Copy the downloaded file into the /debs/main folder of the mounted recovery partition:
 sudo cp dell-recovery_1.60_all.deb /mnt/debs/main/

4 - Unmount the recovery SSD partition:
 sudo umount /mnt/

5 - Create a Dell Recovery Media USB key using the Dell Recovery tool

6 - Reboot your computer, press F12 to show the startup menu and select the Dell Recovery Media USB key to boot in UEFI mode

7 - At the beginning of the setup, select the option "Restore Only Linux"

8 - Choose "Erase Disk and Install Ubuntu" and mark "Encrypt the new Ubuntu", this will auto-mark also the LVM option.

9 - When asked for an encryption password, pick any password, assuming you have a QWERTY keyboard (*)

10 - Keep the Dell Recovery Media USB key to a safe place / Make an ISO file from it

(*) In case, you have an non QWERTY keyboard, you will encounter an issue as the initial setup is done supposing the keyboard is QWERTY.
Example: for AZERTY keyboard, enter "eeee" as initial encryption password, because "e" key is at the same position on both QWERTY and AZERTY keyboard.
Change the encryption password encryption using Ubuntu Live USB key configured in your native language / keyboard...

[Christophe Chausset (christophe14)]

Another issue found is that the sudo apt-get autoremove command shall be definitively avoided.
The result of the command is making Ubuntu not able to reboot anymore.

[Christophe Chausset (christophe14)]

Following packages shall be declared as non removable : cryptsetup, cryptsetup-bin and lvm2

$ sudo apt install cryptsetup cryptsetup-bin lvm2

Otherwise, sudo apt-get autoremove command will remove the packages listed above that would lead to have a non bootable linux machine.

[Mario Limonciello (superm1)]

I believe that's bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/bionic/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1801629

[Christophe Chausset (christophe14)]

It seems so

[Jered Sutton (jered-sutton)]

This bug is also present in the currently shipping image on the XPS 13 9380. The workaround worked with v1.62 from the release page which I think includes the fix for the package removal.

[Yolan Romailler (anomalroil)]

Notice this bug is also present in the currently shipping image on the XPS 13 7390.
The proposed workaround did not fully work with v1.63, as it then boots in OEM configuration mode (?) which has a script "Prepare for shipping to end user", but it does not load Dell's PPA and drivers as it should.

[Mario Limonciello (superm1)]

Admittedly it's not clear but 1.63 is actually intended for 19.10+ later. Can you please do it with 1.62 from release page?

[Jerold Hoong (jeroldh)]

I was having the same issue on the new XPS 13 7390.

I followed the steps to detailed here with the v1.62 release and FDE is now working as expected.

This unit had a QWERTY keyboard but I had to set the passphrase to "eeee", as a longer more complex password did not work to unlock the disk on the first try. After the initial setup (keyboard, timezone etc), I used gnome-disk to change the passphrase from "eeee" to the initial complex passphrase, rebooted the machine, and the disk was successfully unlocked with the new passphrase.

Hope this helps new users of the new XPS 13 7390.

[Rex Tsai (chihchun)]

@anomalroil @jeroldh Please kindly create a new bug for XPS 13 7390.

[Yolan Romailler (anomalroil)]

Sure, but please you should still fix it for the users of the XPS 13 9370...

[Cyrus Lien (cyruslien)]

@jeroldh,
May I know what keyboard layout which you selected when you setting the passphrase "eeee" ?