this really starts to bug me quite a bit. Why can’t I simply create an ecrypted partition on an external SSD and it “just works”?
I did this on a WD SSD 3D using the standard settings of KDE’s partitioner using EXT4, set to “do not mount” because I want it to be mounted only when I plug it it.
However as you can see in the attache photo I get a “Start job is running…” every time I boot up the machine. Only if the external drive is attached it asks for my password and moves on.
But I have to still mount it using my root password. The mount point is owned by my user account.
So how I get this to work?
Get rid of this horrible 1,5 minute delay “a start job is running…”
Mount the drive only when I plug it in without root privileges
It went into crypttab which is apparently checked upon boot as well. I have never heard of this, but it makes sense since I have an ecrypted /home partition which also shows up there.
Is that to be expected? Why does the partition manager automatically add it to cryptab?
Now I have one issue left.
I no longer need root privileges to mount the encrypted partition. But when typing in my password and clicking on the drive in Dolphin I get a error “the partition is already mounted” - I can access it normally then. Also there are two partitions showing up in Dolphin. One under “Devices” and one under “Removeable Devices” - both links lead to the same partition/folders. What’s the correct way to open and encrypted drive in GUI/Dolphin?
For “/etc/crypttab”, you need “noauto” in the 4th column of the entry. Either that, or remove (or comment out) the entire line.
For “/etc/fstab”, you need “noauto” in the options, so that it is not automatically mounted.
I’m not sure what works best with Dolphin. Maybe experiment between using “noauto” on the “/etc/crypttab” entry, or commenting out that entry. See which works best.