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LUKs drive I can unlock but not mount

us flag

I recently had a problem with my hard drive, it was failing imminent, I wasnt able to get any of my data off before it failed on me. I finally got the super block repaired to be able to unlock the drive, however I cannot mount the drive what so ever. Here are some examples of my errors and what I'm seeing.

When I unlock it the partition 3 becomes Partition 3 LUKs and LVM2 PV. There are no options for the LUKs, but I see that LVM2 might be an option.

If I try:

sudo mount /dev/mapper/luks******** /media/drive
mount: /media/drive: unknown filesystem type 'LVM2_member'.

I also noticed that when I unlock the drive it also creates another drive known as /dev/ubuntu-vg/root When I try this:

sudo mount /dev/ubuntu-vg/root /media/drive
mount: /media/drive: can't read superblock on /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root.

Disks Image 1

Disks Image 2

All ideas are helpful, I can't lose this I have no backups :/

DrBrad avatar
us flag
I know that the LUKs partition is ext4, I have tried repairing the superblock on ubuntu-vg, however t says the superblock coulld not be read
DrBrad avatar
us flag
I did a super block repair using e2fsck I think, however I still cannot mount it.
Nate T avatar
it flag
oh I see. I was thinking maybe that the typo was a result of the repair (typo in the source code or something), and that is why the volume wasn't reading.
Nate T avatar
it flag
I know the super block provides the fs type and other metadata. Hence my assumption. Id say your best bet, barring a good answer here would be to dig into LVM. I have heard it has a steap learning curve, but I have never looked into it myself.
DrBrad avatar
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I wasn't able to find much on mounting other than a few commands that failed. I tried using another luks drive and once unlocked the other partition is ext4.
DrBrad avatar
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Yea, the ext4 mounted fine, but my other did drive is an lvm and won't mount, kind of strange. I hope its not broken
Nate T avatar
it flag
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/126930/discussion-between-nate-t-and-drbrad).
Score:0
it flag

The drives which you see in gparted are physical volumes. These are (more or less) presented to the OS via an abstraction, which is called the logical volume. These are located inside /dev/mapper in Ubuntu, at least in recent versions.

Based on the info in your Question, I believe your logical volume is located in /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root. Therefore, you need to run:

sudo mount /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root /media/drive

Think of it as an interface. This should let you mount everything referenced by the logical drive, i.e. the LUKs and LVM PV drives.

DrBrad avatar
us flag
The response to that is: mount: /media/drive: can't read superblock on /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root.
Nate T avatar
it flag
The same as earlier? That shouldnt be the superblock. It is the LV itself. I know that is the right mount point. Try changing the name and then mounting. Did you copy paste the command?
DrBrad avatar
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Ya, its a copy paste, what should I change the name to?
Nate T avatar
it flag
Put another dash I guess. That way it will be easy to change it back if needed. If that doesn't work, at least you know you are mounting correctly. That may be more bad news than good though... Maybe someone else will have a better answer.
DrBrad avatar
us flag
I sent the response in the chat room you opened.
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