> I just had a conversation with Benjamin Seidenberg on IRC. The problem > was that he had tried to reuse a pre-existing encrypted partition > (/home, using LUKS) by setting it up in the installer using the same > passphrase etc. > > LUKS creates a random, unique, key in its table and uses the passphrase > to encrypt that key, so reusing an existing partition with the same > parameters will cause luks to write a new partition header with a new > key, effectively wiping the data (losing /home in this case) > > I'm not sure whether this should be mentioned in the manual/errata? > > ... > > <Alphix> Did d-i not warn that the crypto partition would be wiped out? > <astronut> uhmm, it asked "Wipe the thing with random data" and i said > "no" > then it asked for passphrase > so i gave it my existing one > then i said "use as ext3" > "mount as /home" > then hit finish, it said it would format that as ext3, cancelled, told it > do not use > s/said "no"/"no, keep existing data" or something > <Alphix> So the error is more one of user expectations/lacking > documentation....file systems/partitions can only be reused if they're > detected immediately by the installer without any intervention (this > goes e.g. for LVM as well) > But I'll send a msg to debian-boot and CC you and we'll see what the > others have to say >
Additionally, I think that there ought to be a way (obviously post-etch) to say "Use this existing encrypted filesystem as <mountpoint> (ex, /home, /srv, etc)," both for reinstalls and for people migrating to Debian. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
