Ubuntu: Mounting an encrypted fs dump

Question

I have encrypted an Ubuntu partition with the standard partition password encryption ubuntu offers (LUKS, As far as I remember).

I have dd-dumped this partition to another computer, and want to mount the dd dump file.

Any ideas how mount the encrypted volume dump?

Adam

Answer 1

Finally, I found an article from G-Loaded Journal. In short, we need to make mount treat the file as a block device. First, we check which one is free:

losetup -f

Afterwards, we set it as a block device:

losetup /dev/loop0 /path/to/container1

Other instructions are pretty straightforward.

Note: make sure you're not using mkfs or similar commands on an existing encrypted volume! The instructions might be confusing on that point.

Note 2: It is always a good idea to back up a dumpfile before messing with it. Just cp your file to someplace else before messing with it!