Comment 0 for bug 1761663

I used the standard tools in Ubuntu 16 to format and encrypt a large USB hard drive for storing secure backups to. I then used that drive with the standard "Backups" tool to capture periodic backups.

My hard drive recently died, forcing me to re-install Ubuntu 16. The re-install went well, but when I tried to attach the drive to restore my personal files, and a modal appeared, prompting me to enter my password.

So I did. And then it prompted me again. I thought I'd mistyped my password, so I re-entered it, making sure my caplocks or numlock key weren't on, but again, it prompted me again. After each prompt, the full-screen modal darkened the background until after a dozen attempts, my background was almost completely black. I suspect what's going on is something's trying to access the disk while I'm typing in the password, and each access is triggering another prompt, effectively locking me out of the system because it's impossible for me to enter a nearly infinite series of prompts.

This bug is a huge problem for two reasons:

1. it locks you out of your computer
2. it prevents you from accessing secure storage and restoring your system

I managed to partially workaround #1 by switching to a terminal and running `export DISPLAY=:0; gnome-shell --replace`. That caused Gnome to repload, which minimized the modal program, which I then killed in the app thumbnail view.

However, that's a huge hassle, and I'm still unable to access any data on encrypted USB drives, even when I enter the password correctly. Please advise.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: gnome-shell 3.18.5-0ubuntu0.3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-116.140-generic 4.4.98
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-116-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.15
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Apr 6 00:26:33 2018
DisplayManager: lightdm
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-03-23 (13 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160420.1)
SourcePackage: gnome-shell
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)