Arch Linux

fastrespawn

Member

Registered: 2022-02-24

Posts: 8

3 password prompts on boot

OS: Arch Linux x86_64
Kernel: 5.16.10-zen1-1-zen
boot: GRUB
Encryption: LUKS

Issue: after installing the system and encrypting / and /home with LUKS, I used to be prompted password once at boot.
I messed up my GRUB config trying to add something, had to use Timeshift to restore the installation. Now it prompts the password 3 times before unlocking (or more if I get any password wrong). One of the unlocking service always fail.

lsblk -af shows:

nvme0n1
│                                                                           
├─nvme0n1p1
│    vfat   FAT32       1220-7A73                             353.9M    27% /boot
├─nvme0n1p2
│    crypto 2           b041f81d-be82-4cdc-93e0-f76e00335de1                
│ └─cryptlvm
│    ext4   1.0         b94b0834-85e9-4f70-8d10-2463b7ab6e70     22G    34% /
└─nvme0n1p3
     crypto 2           bf73c103-21d1-459a-8d37-b57371bbc915                
  └─luks-bf73c103-21d1-459a-8d37-b57371bbc915
     ext4   1.0         873a6a46-4564-4f2b-853a-c7f2a70096b5  514.1G    36% /home

systemctl status show a failed service

systemd-cryptsetup@luks\x2db041f81d\x2dbe82\x2d4cdc\x2d93e0\x2df76e00335de1.service loaded failed failed    Cryptography Setup for luks-b041f81d-be82-4cdc-93e0-f76e00335de

How can I search a solution to this ? Most searches return results from the wiki about setting up LUKS or number of password tries, however I wonder if I can save this installation without having to reformat.

Last edited by fastrespawn (2022-02-24 14:50:10)

natervance

Member

Registered: 2017-04-20

Posts: 53

Re: 3 password prompts on boot

It sounds like your timeshift messed up your mkinitcpio.conf, which is in charge of installing the software which caches passwords to reuse one password for multiple encrypted volumes (see this post). Here's the relevant wiki page (you should probably go the sd-encrypt route).

From the same wiki page linked above, you should also ensure that timeshift didn't wipe out the necessary modifications to /etc/default/grub, though since you're able to log in in the first place (albeit with 3 password prompts), you're probably fine there.

fastrespawn

Member

Registered: 2022-02-24

Posts: 8

Re: 3 password prompts on boot

It sounds like your timeshift messed up your mkinitcpio.conf, which is in charge of installing the software which caches passwords to reuse one password for multiple encrypted volumes (see this post). Here's the relevant wiki page (you should probably go the sd-encrypt route).

From the same wiki page linked above, you should also ensure that timeshift didn't wipe out the necessary modifications to /etc/default/grub, though since you're able to log in in the first place (albeit with 3 password prompts), you're probably fine there.

Thanks, I checked mkinitcpio.conf and it didn't seem to have anything duplicated. Ended up solving the issue by changing the password.