Re: failure booting lvm volume group over encrypted disk
On Jan 2, 6:50 pm, "Douglas A. Tutty" <dtu...@porchlight.ca> wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 02, 2008 at 08:29:30AM -0800, Towncat wrote:
> > On Jan 1, 11:00 pm, Towncat <towncat.town...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > I'm trying to make a bootable backup disk based on <a href=http://
> > > linuxgazette.net/140/kapil.html>this howto</a>.
>
> > > The backup is on an external usb-sata drive. There is an sdc1
> > > partition that is not used, a small sdc2 for boot, unencrypted, and an
> > > sdc3 encrypted. On this there is a volume group, with two lv-s, one
> > > for root and one for swap.
>
> > > When booting the original system, I can open the encrypted disk, but I
> > > need to restart lvm for the system to find the volume group on it. I
> > > can also mount the lv-s.
>
> > > When I try to boot the backup system, it loads the initramfs, and I
> > > get this message:
>
> > > /dev/mapper/vg_externalsata_2-root does not exist.
>
> > > Looking at /proc/modules shows that the dm_crypt module is not loaded
> > > (although it seems to be included in the initramfs), which I think
> > > might be the problem.
>
> > > Any ideas? Did someone use the same howto with success?
>
> > Anyone have a hint maybe? I don't even have a clue where to look for
> > the error...
>
> What is it you hope this backup disk to do? Why can't you use the
> debian-install CD in rescue mode to boot up the system in the event of a
> boot failure? Why do backups need to be bootable? Personally, I put
> my backups in a tarball (spit to fit on each piece of media) and pipe it
> through openssl to encrypt it.
The point is not the backup, but the encrypted system. The howto
http://linuxgazette.net/140/kapil.html
proceeds by first making an encrypted clone of your system (which is,
as a byproduct, also a bootable backup), and then transfers that
backup to the original but by then encrypted system disk. However, if
I cannot make the encrypted backup bootable, then I won't be able to
do the same with the original system on the original disk.
Actually, I tried the lenny installer (netinst) to produce an
encrypted root system, but I ran into the same problem, that's why I
started over by hand.
As I said, the problem seems to be that the initramfs does not load
the crypt modules and does not do the unencyrpt procedure (even though
the modules are included in the initramfs).
Thanks,
Tc
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