0

With an existing LUKS encrypted logical volume partitioned hard disk dual boot to Windoz and Linux (Fedora 15), is it necessary to "start over" with the LUKS setup when upgrading the system?

I recall some note about dividing the Linux installation over different partitions would help to preserve the home data in future update (I can't find this now) Before I try it, is this possible and intended use case for partitioning a Linux installation?

   # lsblk -fa
   NAME                                                 FSTYPE      LABEL         MOUNTPOINT
   sda [80G]
   ├─sda1 [system W95 FAT 32]                           vfat
   ├─sda2                                               ext4              /boot
   └─sda3 [52.4G]                                       crypto_LUKS
     └─luks-de25ac97-6a32-4b79-a6a0-296a39376b3b (dm-0) LVM2_member
       ├─cryptVG-root (dm-1) [21.5G]                    ext4              /
       ├─cryptVG-swap (dm-2) [5.4MB]                    swap              [SWAP]
       └─cryptVG-data (dm-3) [25.6G]                    ext4              /home

2 Answers 2

1

Most likely "Not".

It does not appear possible with Fedora and Anaconda to use/preserve an existing home partition in the installer wizard. While the wizard does recognize a drive with a previous version of Linux, it doesn't seem to do any work to "recognize" an existing /home partition.

Fedora's Documentation for F17 Installation has a "sticky note":

"If you are re-installing the same version of Fedora, preserve your user data by placing it on a separate /home partition. "

Evidently, if its necessary to re-install the same version, Anaconda will recognize the /home partition and preserve it as part of a Rescue use case. Only, I'm used to seeing unavailable options ghosted. (>_<)

0

You should better use manual installation from live cd or existing Linux system on another partition in chroot.

Let's assume that you are in rescue/live cd Linux system. Firstly you should mount your encrypted luks partition into /mnt

su -
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda3 cryptLVM

Then create all necessary directories:

mkdir /mnt/{home,proc,dev,sys}

And mount LVM:

mount /dev/mapper/cryptVG-root /mnt
mount /dev/mapper/cryptVG-data /mnt/home

Then mount all system file systems:

mount -t proc /proc /mnt/proc
mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev

Now chroot and proceed with installation:

chroot /mnt /bin/bash

This article may be helpful for you.

2
  • The mount command does not work properly. Either it warns: mount: you must specify the filesystem type Or when I add -t ext4 mount produces the error: mount: special device /dev/mapper/cryptVG-data does not exist What are we missing here?
    – xtian
    Jun 13, 2012 at 20:49
  • Please check /dev/mapper/ for existing devices there, seems like luksOpen is not enough, you should also enable LVM volumes with vgchange -a y and then mount volumes that will appear in /dev/mapper
    – insider
    Jun 14, 2012 at 12:36

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .