[Discuss] Discuss Digest, Vol 101, Issue 2

[Chaos_Fields]

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2022 14:40:34 -0700
> From: BCLUG <info at bclug.ca>
> To: discuss at vlug.org
> Subject: Re: [Discuss] Discuss Digest, Vol 100, Issue 4
> Message-ID: <3b5a35cd-39b4-1c57-b6f4-93796cb2a28a at bclug.ca>
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> (Resending this message - replied from non-subscribed email address, oops)
>
> Chaos_Fields wrote on 2022-07-13 22:47:
>
>> I was hoping somebody could please help me somehow. I was using my
>> laptop running a Debian based operating system with full disk encryption
>> and I started noticing recently?that sometimes I would start getting a
>> nonsensical?box pop up on screen saying that my hard disk is a ?read
>> only? file system and cannot complete some kind of?operation or
>> another.
>
> Does this happen after the system has gone into sleep mode?
>
> If so, I wonder if it's not unlocking the file system when it awakens?

RE: Possibly, but the error warning isn’t popping up immediately after logging back in after being away from the desk for a while. It seems it only coincides with when I’m writing some change to the disk or when shutting down or restarting.

>>?Then I would start having issues with not being
>> able?download?files from the internet or change anything on the hard
>> drive?but it would go back to being normal and?fine only?after reboot.
>
> That does sound like the FS needs unlocking again.
>
> What encryption method? LUKS, cryfs, ...?
>
> RE: LUKS
>
>> I
>> couldn?t find working solutions online.?So this most recent time this
>> happened and?I rebooted and entered my passphrase in grub then
>> it?proceeded towards?the?login screen but?the?system?would?drop to a
>> black busybox screen just before loading?login screen. It seems to be
>> failing to mount the system. I?m not dual-booting with anything though.
>
> Ouch.
>
> At this point, I'd try to unlock FS from the command line. I've had to
> do this once or twice ages ago when a cryfs KDE vault went wonky.
>
> Not sure how helpful any of this is, but hoping there's something in
> here that leads to a solution.
>
> Keep us posted on your progress, and good luck!

RE: For sure, well I just ran into this video which appears to reflect just what I’m experiencing thankfully: https://youtu.be/jcrFJpmLuFw

https://youtu.be/jcrFJpmLuFwI’m gonna try this out maybe and see if it works.

It’s btrfs file system though

> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2022 16:58:30 -0700
> From: Peter Willis <p.willis at telus.net>
> To: discuss at vlug.org
> Subject: Re: [Discuss] Discuss Digest, Vol 100, Issue 4
> Message-ID: <1EE351D4-E1AC-47E9-99E2-A3C3F0572401 at telus.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> Hello,
>
> You should back up your important files to a different disk as soon as possible.
>
> Then reinstall your system but only encrypt your important data partitions (ie: not your boot)
>
> Guessing here, but it's mounting the file system read only to users because the file system is not clean.

RE: not clean so it’s corrupted?

> If your boot patition has a journal and, is not cleanly unmounted before shutdown, the fils system, check will need to find blocks that are accessible to clean up your file system before rebooting with a fixed one.
>
> The journal is used to fix corruption by accounting previous changes made to the file system.
>
> See: https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/file-journaling.pdf

RE: I’ll read that thanks. I just found this too which seems to reflect my predicament https://youtu.be/jcrFJpmLuFw

> If you have power issues, your disk is borderline, combined with encrypted boot files, journalling file system,...etc....

RE: The drive is new. The grub screen came up first after restart and let me type in my encrypted boot passphrase no problem and passed along to the Operating System selection screen before dropping into a “kernel panic”. The file system is btrfs on the failing /root and /proc partition. No battery warnings previously and seems to be fine.

> fsck will do what it can, until it can't anymore. It's likely fsck needs a reboot to complete the remount of fstab or mtab in user mode.

> RE: indeed yup. I’ll try to grab a screen shot in a bit here when I get back on.

> Best to put '/home' and any other user data specific data paths in thier own partitions and just encrypt the partition.

RE: that is what I usually like to do with most computers I use but I didn’t have the patience for it this time when I originally installed this system since it’s easy to get something wrong and fail the installation I have found. I have a lot of experience with things like Gnome disks and Gparted, etc etc for other things but not in the process of unmounting a partition on the same drive I’m currently using to repartition the whole arrangement especially when it’s encrypted and organized into volume groups. I’ll for sure back everything up before I do this.

> If you have encrypted budget SSD you can do battle with crappy hardware leveling and then, one sunny day, sudden failure will lose all of your data irrecoverably. Quality mechnical disks are more recoverable.

RE: It’s a New SSD but perhaps a cheap one I suppose.

> Make backups to an external RAID that includes a 'spare' . That RAID should be high quality mechnical disks. Alternatively, backup to a cloud service if you have a network capable of moving all your changes in a single day.

RE: Okay

> Make sure you make regular backups if you use SSD. Make doubly sure of regular backups if your SSD is economy brand, and your power supply is economy brand, and your power utility provider is an economy brand. All that 'economy' becomes moot when your files are gone.
> Don't trust 'Smart Drive' disk status. The only 'Smart Drive' is a backed up drive.
>
> My opinion.

RE: I remember running the standard backups application previously and it failed a couple of times but eventually I backed up my files a while ago.

It’s a shame because when this happened my raspberry pi 4 was being updated through the recalbox web manager from the computer that is now in kernel panic and now the raspberry pi forever hangs in standby waiting to receive input and it warns not to turn it off… 🤷🏻‍♂️

> P
>
>> On Jul 13, 2022, at 22:47, Chaos_Fields <Chaos_Fields at protonmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hey folks, I was hoping somebody could please help me somehow. I was using my laptop running a Debian based operating system with full disk encryption and I started noticing recently that sometimes I would start getting a nonsensical box pop up on screen saying that my hard disk is a ?read only? file system and cannot complete some kind of operation or another. Then I would start having issues with not being able download files from the internet or change anything on the hard drive but it would go back to being normal and fine only after reboot. I couldn?t find working solutions online. So this most recent time this happened and I rebooted and entered my passphrase in grub then it proceeded towards the login screen but the system would drop to a black busybox screen just before loading login screen. It seems to be failing to mount the system. I?m not dual-booting with anything though.
>>
>>
>> Sent from Proton Mail
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