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99lives

Member

Registered: 2015-09-28

Posts: 15

[SOLVED] Encrypted installation: "mount: unknown filesystem type vfat"

I am attempting to setup an encrypted root installation.

Using plain dm-drypt, I have /boot on a USB drive, with a keyfile stored in the root of that drive.

My hooks in mkinitcpio.conf (no other changes from default):

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

My kernal paramaters, in GRUB (no other changes from default):

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="cryptdevice=/dev/sda1:cryptroot cryptkey=/dev/sdb1:vfat:/keyfile.enc crypto=::::"

I do of course run 'mkinitcpio -p linux', and 'grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg' whenever I change the above files, which give no errors.

And the full output when I boot from my USB drive:

starting version 232
mount: unknown filesystem type 'vfat'
umount: can't unmount /ckey: Invalid argument
Keyfile could not be opened. Reverting to passphrase.

A password is required to access the cryptroot volume:
Enter password:"

So it would seem that my cryptkey line is incorrect in my kernal paramaters in GRUB, specifically the filesystem type, currently vfat. My USB drive is of course formatted as FAT32, as it contains the EFI boot partition, which the keyfile is located on, in the drives root. Examples on the wiki use 'vfat' as a filesystem with the cryptkey paramater. I've tried using 'auto' in place of vfat, however that gives the same error, saying that vfat in an unknown filesystem type.

I know that my encryption setup itself works, as I can manually access it when booting from the Arch installation media, using the keyfile on the drive.

I'm really not sure where to go from here. Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks.

Last edited by 99lives (2017-05-28 23:50:58)

Xsais

Member

Registered: 2016-08-11

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] Encrypted installation: "mount: unknown filesystem type vfat"

Hey, If I'm not mistaken I belive you need to add 'vfat' to MODULES in mkinitcpio. Which will make it load the vfat module before anything else if it is needed in the boot process.

Last edited by Xsais (2017-05-28 17:50:06)

99lives

Member

Registered: 2015-09-28

Posts: 15

Re: [SOLVED] Encrypted installation: "mount: unknown filesystem type vfat"

Awesome. This works. Thanks very much. Do you think it would be worth adding a note about this to the wiki?

jasonwryan

Anarchist

From: .nz

Registered: 2009-05-09

Posts: 30,426

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Encrypted installation: "mount: unknown filesystem type vfat"

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mkinitcpio#MODULES

Please remember to mark your thread as [Solved] by editing your first post and prepending it to the title.

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99lives

Member

Registered: 2015-09-28

Posts: 15

Re: [SOLVED] Encrypted installation: "mount: unknown filesystem type vfat"

So that note is on the Mkinitcpio page, but it would be far more appropriate, I think, to have on the https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm … figuration page.

jasonwryan

Anarchist

From: .nz

Registered: 2009-05-09

Posts: 30,426

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Encrypted installation: "mount: unknown filesystem type vfat"

No, because the mkinitcpio page is part of every install, not just encrypted ones, so people are expected to read that page.

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Arch + dwm   •   Mercurial repos  •   Surfraw

Registered Linux User #482438

99lives

Member

Registered: 2015-09-28

Posts: 15

Re: [SOLVED] Encrypted installation: "mount: unknown filesystem type vfat"

Ah right, fair enough.