Saving HD from lubuntu install gone wrong

[unix110011]

Hello, happy fathers day to all the dads.
I have an old pc emachines I've been messing with. I installed lubuntu and encrypted the HD. We'll, now I went to put windows on it, and I used gparted to delete the partition. Now I can't boot into anything, HD, usb, nothing. Keeps coming up with grub rescue. Disk encryption crap. Please help me. Is this fixable? Can u save my HD?

 

[KGIII]

Can you access the BIOS and set USB as the first device to look for during the boot process?

Also, you say 'old PC'. Can you elaborate on that, so that we can have a better understanding of what you're working with?

There's pretty much no such thing as too much information when you're asking a question. It can be legitimately difficult for a new user to ask a good support question. (There should be a link in my signature if you want to read about that.)

 

[unix110011]

Thanks for your kind and fast reply. Yes, I can access the bios and set the USB to be first to boot. I've just been scrolling down to it, usb, and selecting it to boot manually. I will try this making it first to boot. Here's a photo of my set up.

 

[KGIII]

Oh, if you know how to manually select USB to boot from that's also fine.

Let's see...

The following will sound a bit complicated, but the first thing you should do is check the .iso's integrity. you can use Google. As you're using Windows, I have no idea how to do so. Google knows!

The next thing is how are you writing the .iso to the flash drive? I would suggest trying a tool called Balena Etcher. Again, a search query will put you in the right location. Try using that (it's dirt simple) to see if it helps.

The goal here is to see if you can at least get back to being able to boot to USB. From there, we can see what happens. Others will have to chime in when it gets to the Windows bits, however. I am useless with Windows.

 

[unix110011]

It won't do it. HD is encrypted with luks I believe

 

[z7vl7abxc]

are you saying the system won't boot from the usb still? if so, is it a usb that has worked before or have you confirmed that it does work on another system? if no to both of those, have you tried recreating it in case the first time was just a bad write?

 

[unix110011]

No it won't boot. It works fine on other system

 

[z7vl7abxc]

the image you posted says the system has a dvd burner. have you tried creating a bootable dvd?

 

[KGIII]

No it won't boot. It works fine on other system

That's not normal. In fact, it's downright odd.

If I understand, it did work - and worked well enough for you to install Lubuntu.

Now, when you try to boot to that same USB, it no longer works? You're actively selecting USB during the boot process?

At the same time, the USB happily works on other devices?

What are the odds that the USB port just happened to break at this time? I've had very few USB ports die in modern times, but it could happen. Have you tried an alternative port on your computer?

the image you posted says the system has a dvd burner. have you tried creating a bootable dvd?

I'm liking this idea, at least to see what happens. Be sure to burn the .iso as an image and not a direct copy. Your burning software should have that as an option - assuming you have another computer with a DVD burner in it...

 

[Condobloke]

If the drive is encrypted with luks.....how sure are you that it IS encrypted??

IF it is......then read on :;EDIT TO ADD...just reread your first post....Yes, it IS encrypted

Personally, I would buy a SSD for it and throw the hdd away. It will save you all the ongoing crap, and decrypting it and etc etc....and ssd's are cheap. You do not have to buy a brand name.

How to remove LUKS encryption?

I tried removing LUKS encryption on my home directory using the following command: cryptsetup luksRemoveKey /dev/mapper/luks-3fd5-235-26-2625-2456f-4353fgdgd But it gives me an error saying: D...

unix.stackexchange.com

Removing key-slots is like forgetting a password, it has nothing to do with moving the replacing the LUKS device by the filesytem inside of it.

You CAN non-destructively remove the LUKS encryption from a device, without having to backup, reformat and restore. cryptsetup has supported this since version 1.5.0, released in 2012.

After succesful decryption of a LUKS device, the filesystem inside becomes available to the OS, and you can mount it directly.

Warning: This is dangerous, backup all your data first.

For LUKS1:

1. Boot from a USB key
2. Use cryptsetup-reencrypt --decrypt <device_path>

For LUKS2:

1. Boot from a USB key
2. Convert all key-slots to use LUKS1 compatible parameters withcryptsetup luksChangeKey --pbkdf pbkdf2 <device_path>
   
   
3. Convert the LUKS2 device to a LUKS1 device usingcryptsetup convert --type luks1 <device_path>
   
   
4. Perform the decryption usingcryptsetup-reencrypt --decrypt <device_path>