I recently reinstalled mint on my system, during which I mistankingly checked the box that encrypts the home directory, and I'd like to undo that but don't know how.
#Home directory encryption
hasty yoke
ivory hollow
I recently reinstalled mint on my system, during which I mistankingly checked th...
got already valuable data on /home? if no, i would just install anew because decryption would need the same time. you kept the installation usb stick?
hasty yoke
got already valuable data on /home? if no, i would just install anew because dec...
I didn't, and i have save files on my home folder that i'd like to keep :')
As well as other programs for daily use like lutris, bottles, steam etc
ivory hollow
I didn't, and i have save files on my home folder that i'd like to keep \:')
sadly, i got no experience of en- or decryption. but i think preparing a usb memory stick with a live linux on it as a precaution doesn't hurt. and you will maybe need a separate, non-encrypted partition. i imagine that if files are not individually encrypted you need only copy all files from an encrypted partition to a regular partition, so the files get automatically decrypted. i have to try that out by myself, but i'm stuck with too few disks...
wait for the pundits in here, maybe prepared with some neceessary data points. could you open a terminal and type:
- df -h
- inxi -Fxxxz
- lsblk -f
- sudo parted -l
(that's all i know)
ivory hollow
okay, then
- sudo parted -l
- sudo pvscan
- sudo lvscan
- sudo vgscan
they do not manipulate data, the commands show only some data points so we know what partition is with which method encrypted and such. these commands will put out data beyond my knowledge so wait for stunner, maniak, curunir, sedenion, jeremyb, temmie, etc.
hasty yoke
ivory hollow
so...
/dev/sda1: is the partition 'bios_grub' but doesn't show up in lsblk -f? idk why!
/dev/sda2: lsblk -f and parted show the same, okay.
/dev/sda3: is in ext4 format and has 310 GB in lsblk -f and 512 GB in parted? idk why!
and idk why pvscan, lvscan, vgscan don't show any output! the same non-output than in my non-encrypted system!? 
hasty yoke
I also don't know what some (most) of those outputs mean 💪
ivory hollow
I also don't know what some (most) of those outputs mean 💪
i can't help you any further, please wait for stunner, maniak, curunir, sedenion, jeremyb, temmie, etc.
hasty yoke
Alright
hasty yoke
i can't help you any further, please wait for stunner, maniak, curunir, sedenion...
Thank you for your time
ivory hollow
Thank you for your time
you're welcome 🙂
i mentioned this thread in the triage: #⛑triage message
haughty widget
The thing would do, is to backup home data into another non-encrypted location...
- Obtain your Private directory mountpoint
$ PRIVATE=`cat ~/.ecryptfs/Private.mnt 2>/dev/null || echo $HOME/Private - Ensure that you have moved all relevant data out of your
$PRIVATEdirectory - Unmount your encrypted private directory
$ ecryptfs-umount-private
- Make your Private directory writable again
$ chmod 700 $PRIVATE
5. Remove `$PRIVATE, ~/.Private, ~/.ecryptfs`
Note: THIS IS VERY PERMANENT, BE VERY CAREFUL
```
$ rm -rf $PRIVATE ~/.Private ~/.ecryptfs
- Uninstall the utilities (this is specific to your Linux distribution)
$ sudo apt-get remove ecryptfs-utils libecryptfs0
That ⬆️ is the procedure to revert/undo home encryption... But before doing that, you must backup all your home data to safe (unencrypted) location.
Some people simply copies the /home/user to another home folder, for exemple :
sudo cp -rp /home/user /home/user.backup
Personally, to be sure, I would rather backup the entire /home data into /opt/home in case something went wrong...
Tell me once you are ready to play with terminal...
hasty yoke
Tell me once you are ready to play with terminal...
Good morning. I have the time now.
haughty widget
Good morning. I have the time now.
ok
before we begin I would like to check some things
can you open terminal and type cat ~/.ecryptfs/Private.mnt and paste result here
haughty widget
ok... type that cat ~/.ecryptfs/Private.mnt 2>/dev/null || echo $HOME/Private
and show result
hasty yoke
Same result
haughty widget
you can select text in terminal and copy it, to paste here
you can also use the middle-mouse button
screenshot is ok for now
Well, what things you must backup absolutely ?
well, whatever, we will backup everything... but restoring will not be as easy...
hasty yoke
Alright
hasty yoke
Well, what things you must backup absolutely ?
I mostly just have game roms and isos on download, but other than that i'd like to keep all the things i've installed and their configurations too
Like all the environment variables i set as launch options on steam and flatseal
Or login information on floorp and such
haughty widget
so, type sudo cp -rp /home/raviel /opt/raviel.backup
this will take a while, do not close terminal until you see the new prompt
do you have a phone or another computer than this one to connect to discord ?
hasty yoke
I do
haughty widget
it's not that hard
hasty yoke
It's just that i may have to move my rig to a different monitor, my tv, since this one doesn't display the BIOS
haughty widget
ah, that might be a problem indeed
the recovery mode is in text mode
like que grub menu
hasty yoke
Figured
haughty widget
and you need to see the grub menu to access recovery mode
hasty yoke
Guess i'll be doing that once the files are done copying
haughty widget
yes
hasty yoke
Sure am
haughty widget
You know how to go in ?
hasty yoke
No 💪
hasty yoke
I do in this monitor, yes
haughty widget
on that menu, select "Advanced options for Linux Mint"
then select the first entry with (recovery mode)
you will end with a red menu
one of the option is "Drop in prompt as Root" or something like that
hasty yoke
Wait i confused the GRUB menu with the BIOS
I don't know how to get there
Do i press F12 during boot?
haughty widget
no
If you don't see the grub menu, press ESC at boot
before you see the Mint logo
haughty widget
ok
open terminal sudo nano /etc/default/grub
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden -> GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0 -> GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
then Ctrl+X confirm save
then type sudo update-grub and reboot
hasty yoke
Uh, after pressing ctrl+x and saying yes it's asking for a file name
haughty widget
there is no default one ?
hasty yoke
Ig
haughty widget
simply type enter
hasty yoke
Done
Double checked to see if it saved the changes and i belive it did
Ran the update command
I'll try rebooting now
It shows up, but it doesn't take long for the mint logo to appear and take me to the password screen
What do i have to select before that?
haughty widget
Reboot once you see the menu simply hit up or down arrow key, this stops the timer
you select "Advanced options for Linux Mint" then the first entry with (recovery mode)
haughty widget
ok, You should find an option "Drop in shell prompt as root" something like that
hasty yoke
There's an option that roughly says that it takes me to terminal in root mode
It's that one, i wager
haughty widget
yes, it's that
hasty yoke
"Control D to continue or enter for maintenance" it says
haughty widget
Ctrl+D
hasty yoke
Nothing happened? I'm still on recovery menu
hasty yoke
Now there's a command prompt
hasty yoke
raviel.backup
haughty widget
ok, cd aviel.backup then verify files are properly readable for example, list Download files
ls Downloads
ls .steam etc..
it's ok ?
hasty yoke
Seems everything is there, yes
hasty yoke
Actually, when i type ls it doesn't list hidden folders, although they're still readable since ls .steam still yielded results
haughty widget
yes, to list hidden folder you must add -a options
you also can display as listing
ls -al
then you have the detailled list
hasty yoke
I see
haughty widget
ok, ready?
hasty yoke
Yes
haughty widget
don't mistype this one:
rm -rf /home/raviel
hasty yoke
Will it still work if i'm still on /opt/raviel.backup ?
haughty widget
yes
hasty yoke
Alright
haughty widget
if you prefer go to /home
hasty yoke
Done
haughty widget
cd /home
but since the supplied path is absolute (beging with /) it will understand as absolute path
if you typed rm -rf home/raviel without the leading / this would probably show you an error, about not existing item
hasty yoke
It didn't show an error message and just showed me another command prompt
I assume the raviel folder is gone now
haughty widget
so it suceed, you can verify ls -al /home it should show you only two lines . and ..
hasty yoke
I moved to home folder via cd /home
Typing ls -al shows the 2 files you mentioned plus .ecryptfs
I copy pasted a message of yours to do this weird font background thing :')
haughty widget
ok, remove .ecryptfs too rm -f .ecryptfs
hasty yoke
Says it can't remove .ecryptfs due to it being a directory
haughty widget
now apt remove ecryptfs-utils libecryptfs0
hasty yoke
Libecryptfs0 is not installed, and thus will not be removed
The following packages will be REMOVED
ecryptfs-utils yadda yadda yadda
do you want to continue? Y/n
haughty widget
YEs !!
hasty yoke
Done
haughty widget
wait
did you writen libecryptfs0 with capital ?
apt remove libecryptfs0 without capital, anywhere
hasty yoke
did you writen libecryptfs0 with capital ?
hasty yoke
Well, there wasn't anything to remove
hasty yoke
Done
haughty widget
ok cd /home then ls -al and check that the raviel folder belong to raviel user and group
you should see raviel raviel
hasty yoke
Seems so
hasty yoke
I'm in
haughty widget
your session open ?
hasty yoke
Yes
haughty widget
everything is here ?
hasty yoke
Down to the last page i had opened on my browser, it looks like
haughty widget
marvelous
hasty yoke
Do i have to see the grub menu every time i boot?
haughty widget
now the final cleaning, open terminal
type : rm -rf ~/.Private and rm -rf ~/.ecryptfs (take care of capital P at Private)
if you want to get rid of the grub menu:
sudo nano /etc/default/grub
back menu to hidden and 5 to 0
Ctrl+X confirm save
sudo update-grub
hasty yoke
Directories removed and grub updated
haughty widget
reboot, and check everything is ok, if so, congratulation
hasty yoke
Things seem ok