On 8/28/21 10:09 PM, detr...@tuta.io wrote:
... I have updated the BIOS.
1. What is the make and model of the external hard drive?
It is a 1Tb WD Elements WDBUZG0010BBK
2. What ISO image did you use to install Debian onto the external hard drive?
What media did you put the Debian installer onto? Do you still have the Debian
installer media?
I used the Desktop Debian 10 (can't remember if 10.6 or 10.7, I'm sorry). I
used a 32Gb Multilaser USB flashdrive to install it into the external HD. And
no, I have formatted the USB flash drive so the installer is no longer there.
The installation media includes a "rescue shell" with a minimal set of
tools for trouble-shooting a broken system. It is wise to keep the
media until you no longer have any computers based on that release.
Download a Debian 10.10 installer that looks similar to whatever you
picked before and burn that to a USB stick:
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/archive/
Read up on the Debian installer rescue shell, LUKS (cryptsetup), LVM,
mount(8), and rsync(1):
https://www.debian.org/doc/
Always take notes when you do an install. Type them into a plain text
ASCII file. Use a camera to get screen shots.
Always take notes when you install packages or update the system. The
script(1) command can be very useful for capturing console sessions.
Use cat(1) to view a capture view -- a editor will show a bunch of
escape codes and CRLF line endings.
The trick will be figuring out how and where you are going to store your
notes, pictures, and all the various files you will want to collect over
time.
3. When did you install Debian? What choices did you make?
Around May. I have a bad memory so I don't remember exactly when. I used WiFi
instead of Ethernet,
You are fortunate that your Wi-Fi adapter does not require proprietary
firmware.
didn't create a root user,
It is likely that you did not create a normal user account.
used the defaults for disk partitioning (all in one partition, 1Gb swap), and
installed the default utilities plus the SSH server and LXQt.
Okay.
4. What is the make, model, and CPU of the computer you used to install Debian?
Acer Aspire E5-573G V3.72, CPU Intel i7-5500U
5. What is the make, model, and CPU of the computer you are now using to boot
Debian?
Same as the above. I didn't try with another computer because I only have this
one.
Okay.
The computer hobby is like the car hobby -- you need at least two, so
that you have something to drive while you wrench on the other.
6. Have you updated/ upgraded Debian since installing it? Did you reboot every
time and verify it still worked?
Yes, I installed some other software (timeshift, etc.) and reboot to see if
everything was working and didn't have this problem before.
Before when? Was there a defining moment when Debian no longer booted?
Does the boot screen offer multiple kernel choices? Have you tried them all?
No, it's only one and the recovery mode and I have tried both.
Okay. We can eliminate the changed kernel possibility.
If none of the kernel choices work, try booting the Debian installer media,
navigate into a recovery console, opening the LUKS container(s), mounting the
filesystem(s), and backing up the data.
Tried it and when it asks for the encryption password it doesn't work. It just
goes back to the same screen asking for /dev/sdb5's password and doesn't even
show an error message.
You are talking about the system boot screens. I am talking about
booting Debian installer media and navigating the the menu choices to
get into a rescue shell. This will allow you to run commands like
'cryptsetup luksOpen ...', whatever LVM commands are required, 'mount
...', and then 'rsync ...' to backup your data to another device.
Manjaro should be able to do the same, but a Debian installer may have
just the right versions of the various tools.
You do have another device to use as a destination for the backup, right?
Oh, and I just ran smartctl --xall /dev/sdb to get that diagnostic data.
You need to run a test first -- e.g. 'smartctl -t long /dev/sdb'.
Expect it to take an hour or more. Use the above command to watch
progress -- there is a line stating when a test is in progress.
lsblk -f
command, before connecting the LUKS drive, and again after
connecting it.
Before:
NAME FSTYPE FSVER LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE%
MOUNTPOINTS
sda
├─sda1
│ vfat FAT32 A2BD-D233 70,8M 26%
/boot/efi
├─sda2
│
├─sda3
│ ntfs 2AD4C9CED4C99C87
├─sda4
│ ntfs 584044B640449C9E
└─sda5
ext4 1.0 15dd568a-ec98-4470-8812-a82b15d44995 212,2G 60% /
After:
NAME FSTYPE FSVER LABEL UUID FSAVAIL
FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
sda
├─sda1 vfat FAT32 A2BD-D233 70,8M
26% /boot/efi
├─sda2
├─sda3 ntfs 2AD4C9CED4C99C87
├─sda4 ntfs 584044B640449C9E
└─sda5 ext4 1.0 15dd568a-ec98-4470-8812-a82b15d44995 212,2G
60% /
sdb
├─sdb1 ext2 1.0 a066ddce-69d9-47df-9030-ccbb8305fd1b
├─sdb2
└─sdb5 crypto_LUKS 2 992108a2-0a0c-4dfc-9482-ce86cbfdfa98
Okay. That looks like a dual-boot Windows/ Linux system. I assume
Manjaro is in /dev/sda5.
Please run the following commands. Copy and paste the prompt, command,
and output into a reply.
# parted /dev/sdb u s p free
# cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sdb5 sdb5_crypt
Somebody who knows LVM will need to provide the next command(s) to make
the volumes with filesystem(s) available for mounting.
When I was learning Linux, I found the book "Learning the Unix
Operating System" to be helpful:
https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/learning-the-unix/0596002610/
That should give you enough background to do things like "Read up on the
Debian installer rescue shell, LUKS (cryptsetup), LVM, mount(8), and
rsync(1)".
David
