Arch Linux

all3fox

Member

Registered: 2013-07-01

Posts: 7

[SOLVED] Mounting encrypted root times out wo/ password prompt

My goal is to install Arch Linux onto Acer Aspire TimelineUltra M3-581TG and I would also like to have an encrypted root partition.

So, I follow the beginner's guide and the dmcrypt instructions. Basically, I partition with parted (msdos table) and cryptsetup with luksFormat (default crypto settings). Then I create my filesystems and mount them, here is how the result looks:

NAME          MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT UUID
sda             8:0    0 119.2G  0 disk            
├─sda1          8:1    0   122M  0 part  /mnt/boot  06e6ee6b-01a3-4df4-a519-cbac1b07e280
└─sda2          8:2    0 119.1G  0 part             fc5d96b8-5c43-4186-893f-41d087bb8d65
  └─cryptroot 254:1    0 119.1G  0 crypt /mnt       5889b51c-6d54-4d2e-a234-cb31910edb21

Next I pacstrap and generate my fstab, which looks like this:

# 
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system>	<dir>	<type>	<options>	<dump>	<pass>
# /dev/mapper/cryptroot
UUID=5889b51c-6d54-4d2e-a234-cb31910edb21	/         	ext4      	rw,relatime,data=ordered	0 1

# /dev/sda1
UUID=06e6ee6b-01a3-4df4-a519-cbac1b07e280	/boot     	ext4      	rw,relatime,data=ordered	0 2

Next I do arch-chroot and follow beginner's guide until "Create an initial ramdisk environment", when I go into /etc/mkinitcpio.conf (the entire file is here) and change the hooks line:

HOOKS="base udev autodetect modconf block encrypt filesystems keyboard fsck"

I regenerate with mkinitcpio -p linux then create root's password and install the grub bootloader:

pacman -S grub
grub-install /dev/sda

Then I go into /etc/default/grub and change two lines (the entire file is here and the changes are below):

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Arch"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="verbose"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="cryptdevice=fc5d96b8-5c43-4186-893f-41d087bb8d65:cryptroot"

Finally, I run (grub.cfg can be found here)

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
exit
reboot

Grub menu shows up, I choose the first entry and then I see the following lines:

:: running early hook [udev]
starting version 219
:: running hook [udev]
:: Triggering uevents...
:: running hook [encrypt]
Waiting 10 seconds for device /dev/disk/by-uuid/5889b51c-6d54-4d2e-a234-cb31910edb21 ...
[       1.971325] usb 1-1.4: string descriptor 0 read error: -22
[       2.288224] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Incomplete mode parameter data
[       2.289815] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
ERROR: device "UUID=5889b51c-6d54-4d2e-a234-cb31910edb21" not found. Skipping fsck.
ERROR: unable to find root device "UUID=5889b51c-6d54-4d2e-a234-cb31910edb21".
You are being dropped to recovery shell

As I understand it, the usb and sdb errors are irrelevant (the three lines with timestamps). The crux of the problem is that the system waits for the block device which is essentially the unencrypted /dev/mapper/cryptroot. However, I am not asked for a password anywhere. Since I am not asked for a password, there is no unencrypted block device and hence a timeout. What have I configured wrong?

On a side note: how do I format inline code (like filenames) to stand out?

Last edited by all3fox (2015-05-31 09:14:40)

all3fox

Member

Registered: 2013-07-01

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] Mounting encrypted root times out wo/ password prompt

Wow, turns out that to solve one's problem it is beneficial to describe it in detail. Here is the fragment where I make my configuring mistake:

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Arch"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="verbose"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="cryptdevice=fc5d96b8-5c43-4186-893f-41d087bb8d65:cryptroot"

The last line of it should be

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="cryptdevice=UUID=fc5d96b8-5c43-4186-893f-41d087bb8d65:cryptroot"

approximately 10 hours of retries to install, makes me a bit sad The topic is solved

Perhaps the wiki should give examples? There are only examples with /dev/sdX

Last edited by all3fox (2015-05-31 09:13:48)

frostschutz

Member

Registered: 2013-11-15

Posts: 1,499

Re: [SOLVED] Mounting encrypted root times out wo/ password prompt

Perhaps the wiki should give examples? There are only examples with /dev/sdX

It's a wiki. You have a working example, you add it.