I am having a problem setting up an encrypted home directory with
openSUSE 11.3. I used Yast User and Group Management to edit an
existing user to encrypt the home directory and the user.key and
user.img files were created in the /home directory.
I tried it out and logged in as user and created a new file. I logged
out and logged in as a different user and was able to see the newly
created file in the first users home directory.
I figured I did something wrong so I went back to Yast and deleted the
user. I deleted the /home/user directory using file manager su mode.
I tried again to create a new user with an encrypted home directory
using Yast and now when Yast tries to write the changes I get an error:
“pam_mount is already setup for user. Use --replace to replace the
existing entry.”
I do not know how to proceed from here except to try with a different
user name as I do not understand what the error message means and what
command to use --replace with.
On 12/12/2010 11:02 PM, eric wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am having a problem setting up an encrypted home directory with
> openSUSE 11.3. I used Yast User and Group Management to edit an
> existing user to encrypt the home directory and the user.key and
> user.img files were created in the /home directory.
>
> I tried it out and logged in as user and created a new file. I logged
> out and logged in as a different user and was able to see the newly
> created file in the first users home directory.
>
> I figured I did something wrong so I went back to Yast and deleted the
> user. I deleted the /home/user directory using file manager su mode.
>
> I tried again to create a new user with an encrypted home directory
> using Yast and now when Yast tries to write the changes I get an error:
>
> “pam_mount is already setup for user. Use --replace to replace the
> existing entry.”
>
> I do not know how to proceed from here except to try with a different
> user name as I do not understand what the error message means and what
> command to use --replace with.
>
> Thank you for any help.
>
> Eric
Well I discovered that there is a file /etc/security/pam_mount.conf.xml
that had added a line at the bottom:
I deleted this line and Yast was able to create the encrypted home
directory for user again.
Now I just do not understand how an encrypted home directory is supposed
to work. When the user logs out, the encrypted directory is still
mounted and available for any other users that are logged in to view. I
guess changing the directory permissions will keep that from happening
so now I am not sure what benefit the encrypted home directory provides.