18.04 LTS installation failure

[Liam Proven]

On Mon, 10 Jun 2019 at 01:45, Doc Blaha <blaha.invent at prodigy.net> wrote:
>
> Thank you Liam for your response.
>
> I apologize for using formatted text. I don't believe I was aware that I was doing that. I will do my best to avoid that in the future. If this reply is of formatted text then it may be my email editor. Please let me know.

No, it looks better now. The next minor issue is top-posting. On
mailing lists, indeed in email in general, your reply should go
_below_ the (trimmed) text to which you are responding. :-)

> I appreciate yours suggestion:
>
> "I would suggest reformatting with encryption off, installing into a non-encrypted root
> partition, with a separate /home partition that is encrypted."
>
> Actually when I originally installed 16.04 LTS on the brand new encrypted hard drive that sequence appears to have been done automatically.

Hang on. I think that your reply conflicts with what I said, unless I
misunderstand.

I was suggesting having the root partition *un*-encrypted, and only
using encryption on home.

You are saying that you are using full-disk encryption (FDE).
Therefore, if your root partition is on the encrypted disk, it is
encrypted.

I have tried for a 2nd time to Google for some info about your hard disk.

I found this:
https://www.seagate.com/support/kb/full-disk-encryption-faqs-presales-206011en/#3

It suggests that it is not possible to turn FDE off. :-(

It is possible not to use a password, in which case, to the OS, it
looks like a normal disk, but the contents are still encrypted before
they are written.

That _might_ be a solution for you.

>  However, when I used the Ubuntu software upgrade from 16.04 LTS to 18.04 LTS (as automatically made available online through 16.04 LTS software upgrades) in August 2018 the upgrade failed to make the upgrade apply to both the non-encrypted root partition with the already available /home directory on the encrypted partition.

So you do have separate root and /home partitions already, yes?

And root is on a different physical drive?

If not, that means root and /home are on the same drive?

If you are not sure, then if you can list the device names for us,
that would help.

Or are you using _both_ FDE _and_ additional software encryption on
the home partition?

If so that's overkill.

Is this a desktop or a laptop?

I am guessing it's a desktop because it's a desktop (3½") drive that
we are discussing.

>  After the upgrade to 18.04 LTS was complete I was brought up to the main Ubuntu panel and do some exploring and reviewing of my files and more.  Let me be clear, 18.04 LTS is already upgraded and installed and working on my machine The upgrade failed to recognize what already existed (the non-encrypted root partition and the /home (and more) directories on the encrypted partition.

I think this may not be correct, but I do not have enough info yet.

>  Really all I personally need is to establish the necessary files on the non-encrypted partition that provide the linkage to the encrypted partition /home directory.

What makes you say that?

> I made the assumption that trying to reinstall 18.04 LTS using the Installation portion of the LiveCD it would recognize that 18.04 LTS was already installed, at the very least see the partitions, and have me up and working in very little time.

No, not necessarily.

> I see you seemed to think I was somehow using a remote login from another machine.

Lacking enough info, it was one possible cause.

> Apparently my using the LiveCD from the DVD drive of my Ubuntu machine gave that impression. I was able to use the LiveCD from the DVD drive and from there directly access the encrypted hard drive after entering my passcode.

OK. Before or after boot?

> So yes, to a small extent it was remote access even though both running the LiveCD (try Ubuntu now) and using it to access the unbootable encrypted 18.04 LTS hard drive were in the same box.

That's not what remote access means, but I take your point. :-)


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