I did a mess while installing ubuntu 14.04 on my XPS 15 (9530 haswell) and I need help to rebuild boot partition.
My computer has one miniSATA SSD 32 GB and a 1TB HDD. I crypted both with LUKS with LVM over it:
root@ubuntu:/boot# lsblk -o name,uuid,mountpoint
NAME UUID MOUNTPOINT
sda
└─sda1 cbe475e3-f468-42eb-88db-8b0c3b537afa
└─sda1_crypt (dm-3) tknpdm-4E1r-wAZR-f3SJ-FV79-EQM7-Lmn67L
├─vg_hdd_sys_data-lv_swap (dm-4) 96cc436a-cb46-4a7f-9474-518f5be9ff9a
├─vg_hdd_sys_data-lv_var (dm-5) 38deba4b-b619-4769-813f-0c0f578d2e2f /var
└─vg_hdd_sys_data-lv_home (dm-6) 685e392a-8fe3-46e9-8c2f-4c935125a0e5 /home
sdb
├─sdb1 DF18-FC5D /boot/efi
├─sdb2 804c4cae-3d8e-4f7b-baec-867ee87e46de /boot
├─sdb3 df369b26-8205-488d-a01d-36456a737905
│ └─sdb3_crypt (dm-0) viOrjh-O4SE-OEbC-8xVW-mTnL-uZ3O-cmZQvl
│ └─vg_ssd_system-lv_root (dm-1) 97a7d810-dc46-415b-9f0f-bf1ee0c2bb01 /
└─sdb4 4e094c6d-874e-45ac-84f9-8a0192245551
└─sdb4_crypt (dm-2) 5a18c2b6-197a-42f5-a489-677d3d747b00 /boot/fskey
sdc
└─sdc1 3795-F7B6
loop0
At first, I've got to make it work, but I was asked twice for passphrase at boot time, before it asked me for my user password. Kind of too much. Take a look at my /etc/crypttab:
root@ubuntu:/boot# cat /etc/crypttab
sdb3_crypt UUID=df369b26-8205-488d-a01d-36456a737905 none luks,discard
sda1_crypt UUID=cbe475e3-f468-42eb-88db-8b0c3b537afa none luks
My /etc/fstab:
root@ubuntu:/boot# cat /etc/fstab
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
/dev/mapper/vg_ssd_system-lv_root / ext4 noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /boot was on /dev/sdb2 during installation
UUID=804c4cae-3d8e-4f7b-baec-867ee87e46de /boot ext2 defaults 0 2
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sdb1 during installation
UUID=DF18-FC5D /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 1
/dev/mapper/vg_hdd_sys_data-lv_home /home ext4 defaults 0 2
/dev/mapper/vg_hdd_sys_data-lv_var /var ext4 defaults 0 2
/dev/mapper/vg_hdd_sys_data-lv_swap none swap sw 0 0
Everything was fine until I tried to change it to be asked only once for passphrase at boot time. So I:
- created one crypted-by-passphrase volume (sdb4, 20 MB) containing a keyfile
- mounted it on /boot/fskey
- added this keyfile to my other crypted volumes
Here follows my new crypttab and fstab:
root@ubuntu:/boot# cat /etc/crypttab
sdb4_crypt UUID=4e094c6d-874e-45ac-84f9-8a0192245551 none luks,discard
sdb3_crypt UUID=df369b26-8205-488d-a01d-36456a737905 /boot/fskey/keyfile luks,discard
sda1_crypt UUID=cbe475e3-f468-42eb-88db-8b0c3b537afa /boot/fskey/keyfile luks
root@ubuntu:/boot# cat /etc/fstab
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
/dev/mapper/vg_ssd_system-lv_root / ext4 noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /boot was on /dev/sdb2 during installation
UUID=804c4cae-3d8e-4f7b-baec-867ee87e46de /boot ext2 defaults 0 2
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sdb1 during installation
UUID=DF18-FC5D /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 1
/dev/mapper/sdb4_crypt /boot/fskey ext2 defaults 0 2
/dev/mapper/vg_hdd_sys_data-lv_home /home ext4 defaults 0 2
/dev/mapper/vg_hdd_sys_data-lv_var /var ext4 defaults 0 2
/dev/mapper/vg_hdd_sys_data-lv_swap none swap sw 0 0
root@ubuntu:/boot# mount /dev/mapper/vg_hdd_sys_data-lv_home /home
To update these changes to initrd, i did:
update-initramfs -u -v -k all
When I rebooted, it failed and finished at the drop box. I rebooted with usb live, mounted each partition under /mnt, chrooted to /mnt, moved crypttab to initial configuration and then I reapplied the command above, but this time, all I had is:
root@ubuntu:/boot# update-initramfs -u -v -k all
Nothing to do, exiting.
I rebooted and failed again. I've got so upset that I did what I should not:
root@ubuntu:/boot# update-initramfs -d -v -k all
Obviously, things got worse: when I reboot, instead of busybox, I've got a blank screen with a blinking Caps-Lock key.
I rebooted in recovery mode, so now I see a message:
RAMDISK: EOF while reading compressed data
I rebooted it on my usb live key, did again the mount&chroot procedure and tried in vain again to rebuild initrd:
root@ubuntu:/boot# update-initramfs -c -v -k all
Nothing to do, exiting.
Any ideas? I'm about to reinstalling from zero ubuntu. But I would be glad if one could help me.
Many thanks,
Luis