Arch Linux

CrimsonMote

Member

Registered: 2023-06-10

Posts: 1

ZFS Root Key Messed Up

This could be a newbie question so apology ahead, but this is an emergency so any help is much appreciated!

The general situation: I have run a ZFS root for a long time, and recently decided to change the passphrase prompt at boot to auto loading from a USB stick. I generally follow the wiki from https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Instal … _USB-Stick
However, I change the ZFS root passphrase from an explicit passphrase to using a previously created random binary key file (base64), and I suppose using a binary key file (that is supposed to be used as a key, not a passphrase, might create the trouble).

Here are some details. I essentially did something like

dd if=/dev/disk/by-id/usb_stick/ROOT bs=32 count=1 | zfs change-key -o keyformat=passphrase zroot/encr

where the file ROOT is the binary key file. Then I followed the rest of the wiki instructions, including modifying the ZFS hook and redo mkinitcpio.
However, on reboot, the key/passphrase is incorrect. I also restarted from a live cd with ZFS support, and cannot load the correct passphrase from the ROOT file. Is there anything can be done to rescue the situation, or is there any other possible cause that I may be missing? Much appreciated.

Last edited by CrimsonMote (2023-09-06 23:25:54)