Need help mounting encrypted partition

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I decided to go for an encrypted partition upon installation. I would have sworn that I enabled mounting, but I guess not. I am asked for root password twice, but the partition is not mounted. Unfortunately, I don’t understand the instruction for mounting the partition at https://doc.opensuse.org/documentation/leap/security/html/book.security/cha.security.cryptofs.html: “To mount an encrypted partition which is not mounted during the boot process, open a file manager and click the partition entry in the pane listing common places on your file system. You will be prompted for a password and the partition will be mounted.”

What exactly is “the partition entry in the pane listing common places on your file system?” I can see the encrypted partition in the KInfo Center and the Yast Partitioner. I don’t see it in file manager. Thanks in advance.

2

You should be asked for the encryption key, not for the root password.

Maybe they are the same, in which case that’s a minor point. But if you gave the wrong key, that might be why it was not mounted.

3

<br>
<br>I should have said that I gave the encryption key twice which happens to be the same as my root password. Somehow, I neglected to enable mounting for that partition during installation.

4

Fair enough. I don’t know what you wanted to do with file manager. I think it best to just fix your problem.

Maybe it is already fixed. If not, then can you post the content of “/etc/crypttab” and “/etc/fstab”. Use CODE tags for those. You can generate CODE tags with the “#” icon near the top of the editor window.

Hmm, maybe also give the output from:

ls /dev/mapper
5

I was just looking for a way to mount the partition, but just as happy any other way.

ls /dev/mapper
**control**  cr_sda2  system-home  system-root  system-swap

crypttab:


cr_sda2  UUID=40d7d154-c996-40de-b650-1df1ef24acff

fstab:


/dev/system/root  /                       btrfs  defaults                      0  0
/dev/system/root  /var                    btrfs  subvol=/@/var                 0  0
/dev/system/root  /usr/local              btrfs  subvol=/@/usr/local           0  0
/dev/system/root  /tmp                    btrfs  subvol=/@/tmp                 0  0
/dev/system/root  /srv                    btrfs  subvol=/@/srv                 0  0
/dev/system/root  /root                   btrfs  subvol=/@/root                0  0
/dev/system/root  /opt                    btrfs  subvol=/@/opt                 0  0
/dev/system/home  /home                   xfs    defaults                      0  0
/dev/system/root  /boot/grub2/x86_64-efi  btrfs  subvol=/@/boot/grub2/x86_64-efi  0  0
/dev/system/root  /boot/grub2/i386-pc     btrfs  subvol=/@/boot/grub2/i386-pc  0  0
/dev/system/swap  swap                    swap   defaults                      0  0
/dev/system/root  /.snapshots             btrfs  subvol=/@/.snapshots          0  0
6

Judging by that, and adding a few guesses, your encrypted partition is “/dev/sda2”. And it looks as if you are using it for LVM (logical volume management). Inside that partition you logical volumes system-root, system-home and system-swap. And they appear to be all mounted. Your system would not boot if it did not mount those.

Well, technically speaking, the “system-swap” volume is not mounted, but it should be in use. You can check the swap usage with the command

free
7 

free
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:       12014864     1076284     9615652       25096     1322928    10650848
Swap:      12017660           0    12017660

Something weird happened during installation then. I have 3 HDDs and one SSD in my system. According to Yast Partitioner:

  1. sda
    contains OSS 13.2 and Windows 7 Home 1. sdb
    contains OSS Leap 42.3 and a Windows storage area 1. sdc
    contains only OSS Leap 15 (sdc2 is encrypted) 1. sdd
    contains only Windows 7 Pro

All the drives were plugged in when I installed Leap 15. During the install a note popped up that it borrowed a file from Leap 42.3.

I’m willing to do a fresh install with no encryption to have access my entire drive if that’s what it takes. Even if OSS is using it, I would like to use it too.

8

Maybe not all that weird.

I got that “sda2” from the “cr_sda2” that is in your “/etc/crypttab”. But that is only a symbolic name (made up name). It is usual for it to be related to the partition name, but it need not be. It might be a peculiarity of the new partitioner.

Do you have anything else that is encrypted on your disk?

Here’s a possible problem. If you have been using an encrypted LVM on previous systems, and have been using the installer default names, then those other encrypted LVMs may also be using the name “system” for the physical volume. And that name conflict could cause problems.

9

I checked Partitioner again. No other disk/partition is encrypted. The only time I enabled encryption is in Leap 15; that encrypted partition is the only LVM of all the disks. The other linux partitions are swap or Ext4.

10

Then it still looks to me as if your encrypted partition is mounted.

The root volume is mounted as “/” (and as various btrfs subvolumes), the home logical volume is mounted as “/home”, and the swap logical volume is configured as swap.