undo LVM

[Michel Racic]

Hi Luis and Herman

Sorry, it was late when I answered to the thread I found but I see it
was Herman that opened the thread...

As my main problem is the LVM and not the encryption, maybe you have some hint.

As its full disk encryption, you can think of just a partition with
any FS on it that has been added to a LVM group.

Here is the output of the three commands:
~# vgdisplay
  --- Volume group ---
  VG Name               data
  System ID
  Format                lvm2
  Metadata Areas        1
  Metadata Sequence No  1
  VG Access             read/write
  VG Status             resizable
  MAX LV                0
  Cur LV                0
  Open LV               0
  Max PV                0
  Cur PV                1
  Act PV                1
  VG Size               931.51 GiB
  PE Size               4.00 MiB
  Total PE              238466
  Alloc PE / Size       0 / 0
  Free  PE / Size       238466 / 931.51 GiB
  VG UUID               E9bMha-PSAi-YjNd-dPXi-WSrf-HDdN-jbk1k6

~# lvdisplay
~# pvdisplay
  --- Physical volume ---
  PV Name               /dev/sdb1
  VG Name               data
  PV Size               931.51 GiB / not usable 3.19 MiB
  Allocatable           yes
  PE Size               4.00 MiB
  Total PE              238466
  Free PE               238466
  Allocated PE          0
  PV UUID               DIPP4J-oNdp-NF46-cPa0-qE3N-enbs-SIIBFX

/dev/sdb is the disk with the encrypted volume on, the process of
making an LVM out of it was a second so I hope it hasn't overwritten
any important information.
Basically I try to find a way to remove the lvm container around and
normally use this encrypted partition again.
I still researching with google how LVM works and how I can revert that process.

I'm not sure what lvmremove actually will do to my disk (as the man
page isn't very helpful) or if there is a possibility to complete the
lvm setup without data loss (from my current understanding this is not
possible).

Maybe someone of you have a hint or can point me to a new research
direction as I'm a little bit lost.

Regards Michel


2010/5/16 Luis Paulo <luis.barbas at gmail.com>:
> On Sat, May 15, 2010 at 11:47 PM, Michel Racic <michel.racic at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Luis
>>
>> Did you get a solution for your problem?
>>
>> I made the same (similar) mistake...
>> I have a 1TB Data disk that is encrypted with luks (cryptsetup) and I
>> installed a new SSD disk because my old HD has crashed and wanted to
>> install lucid lynx on it.
>> On the partition screen I accidentally added the encrypted partition
>> to the LVM and have seen it after I accepted the writing of the
>> partition table to the disk.
>> Now I have the problem how to revert the LVM part that I can decrypt
>> my luks partition with cryptsetup again.
>>
>> Could you manage reverting LVM to get to your data or finishing LVM
>> without deleting the content of that disk?
>>
>> Best regards
>>
>> Michel
>>
>
> Hi, Michel
>
> I didn't had any problem with LVM, i think it was Herman.
>
> And I don't know anything about encryption.
>
> Maybe if you can give more details, like:
>
> Do you see the encrypted files, or nothing at all?
>
> Post the output of
> $ sudo vgdisplay
> $ sudo lvdysplay
>
> and of
> $ sudo pvdysplay
> pointing out what is the partition you want to rescue.
>
> I don't really know if lvm erases the content of the partition when
> added during install process, it may just be a simple matter of
> removing it from the lvm. Don't know.
>
> Regards
> Luis
>