Re: `grub-install` failed on a partitionless fully luks encrypted 4TB HDD

[Hamid Nassiby]

Hi Andrei,

The output of "fdisk -l /dev/sdb":

Disk /dev/sdb: 3.7 TiB, 4000787030016 bytes, 7814037168 sectors
> Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
> Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
>
>
The output of "blkid":

/dev/mapper/wallet: UUID="$Luks"
> TYPE="LVM2_member"
>
> /dev/mapper/my_vg-root: LABEL="root" UUID="$root" UUID_SUB="$root_sub"
> TYPE="btrfs"
>
> /dev/sdb: UUID="$sdb"
> TYPE="crypto_LUKS"
>
> /dev/mapper/my_vg-swap: UUID="$swap"
> TYPE="swap"
>
> /dev/mapper/my_vg-home: LABEL="home" UUID="$home" UUID_SUB="$home_sub"
> TYPE="btrfs"
>

"/dev/mapper/wallet" is my Luks container. On top of "wallet", I have a
volume group named "my_vg" which has 3 logical volumes:

   1. my_vg-root (mounted as /)
   2. my_vg-home (mounted as /home)
   3. my_vg-swap

Also it might be suitable to put the output of "cryptsetup status wallet":

/dev/mapper/wallet is active and is in use.
>   type:    LUKS1
>   cipher:  aes-xts-plain64
>   keysize: 256 bits
>   device:  /dev/sdb
>   offset:  4096 sectors
>   size:    7814033072 sectors
>   mode:    read/write
>

In the last output, we have "offset:  4096 sectors". I am not sure whether
it is the offset of luks container from the start of disk drive (which is
unencrypted) or offset of luks data from luks header.

Please let me know if I could provide any other information.

Regards,
Hamid




On Thu, Dec 8, 2016 at 7:36 AM, Andrei Borzenkov <address@hidden>
wrote:

> 07.12.2016 21:24, Hamid Nassiby пишет:
> > Hi
> > ​​
> > ,
> >
> > I am trying to install grub (v. 2.02~beta2-22+deb8u1) on a partitionless
> > 4TB HDD which is fully encrypted by luks. Over the luks, I have 3 logical
>
> You cannot boot from disk if it is fully encrypted. You need at least
> unencrypted space where bootloader is stored. Please show "fdisk -l" and
> blkid output and explain what is what.
>
> > volumes (LVM2), one is
> > ​for ​
> > swap,
> > ​second for​
> >
> > ​/​
> > and the last one
> > ​ for /​
> > home. I have a Debian Jessie 8.6 installed on the
> > ​setup (in fact I moved an already existing installation to this new 4TB
> > HDD). I am able to boot into the installed system via a grub which is
> > installed on another HDD (sda which has the same version of grub and the
> > same version of Debian).
> >
> > But I've not been able to install grub on this drive (which is /dev/sdb
> in
> > my setup).
> > I get the following lines:
> >
> >  address@hidden:/# grub-install  --force /dev/sdb
> >>> Installing for i386-pc platform.
> >>> File descriptor 4 (/) leaked on vgs invocation. Parent PID 1920:
> >>> grub-install
> >>> File descriptor 4 (/) leaked on vgs invocation. Parent PID 1920:
> >>> grub-install
> >>> File descriptor 4 (/) leaked on vgs invocation. Parent PID 1920:
> >>> grub-install
> >>> File descriptor 7 (/) leaked on vgs invocation. Parent PID 1920:
> >>> grub-install
> >>> File descriptor 8 (/) leaked on vgs invocation. Parent PID 1920:
> >>> grub-install
> >>> grub-install: error: unable to identify a filesystem in
> >>> hostdisk//dev/sdb; safety check can't be performed.
> >>>
> >>
> > ​If I try with -s flag:
> >
> > address@hidden:/# grub-install  -s /dev/sdb
> >>> Installing for i386-pc platform.
> >>> File descriptor 4 (/) leaked on vgs invocation. Parent PID 4091:
> >>> grub-install
> >>> File descriptor 4 (/) leaked on vgs invocation. Parent PID 4091:
> >>> grub-install
> >>> File descriptor 4 (/) leaked on vgs invocation. Parent PID 4091:
> >>> grub-install
> >>> File descriptor 7 (/) leaked on vgs invocation. Parent PID 4091:
> >>> grub-install
> >>> File descriptor 8 (/) leaked on vgs invocation. Parent PID 4091:
> >>> grub-install
> >>> grub-install: warning: Attempting to install GRUB to a partitionless
> disk
> >>> or to a partition.  This is a BAD idea..
> >>> grub-install: error: embedding is not possible, but this is required
> for
> >>> RAID and LVM install.
> >>> ​
> >>
> >>
> > ​I have​ put "GRUB_ENABLE_CRYPTODISK=y" in "/etc/default/grub" and my
> > grub.cfg entry is the same as the one on /dev/sda (which already has grub
> > installed on it. sda is a partitioned drive non-encrypted and non-lvm).
> >
> > Any idea would be much appreciated,
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Hamid
> > _______________________________________________
> > Help-grub mailing list
> > address@hidden
> > https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-grub
> >
>
>