Score:2

Not able to access an encrypted partition from a persistent Live Ubuntu Installation

cn flag

I installed a Live Ubuntu 20.04 with persistent storage on a USB (a). And I have been using it very well until now. However, when I tried to access another USB (b) with an encrypted partition, I got a message saying that I do not have the right authority (level) to access that partition.

It seems that I am even able to unlock the partition with my password. After this screen: enter image description here

  • I am then prompted with this screen:

enter image description here

.

Thanks for the replies. Cheers.

Score:2
jp flag

I have seen this before. The directory under /media/ where this type of mounting takes place (from a GUI File Manager) is probably owned by root.

In my case I just did the following:

sudo chmod 777 /media/jeff

Now /media looks like this:

jeff@dvXubu2004:~$ ls -la /media/
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Mar 24 2020 .
drwxr-xr-x 20 root root 4096 Jun 29 11:54 ..
drwxrwxrwx+ 4 root root 4096 Jul 4 12:56 jeff

I believe that this is fine for a single-user system or a persistent USB but I'm open to suggestions if others disagree. Read on to see why...

I mount a LUKS encrypted usb drive with my File Manager as you are trying to do. Once mounted, notice that the device name "WdMyBk4TB01" now appears as a directory under /media/jeff with jeff:jeff ownership and no access for any user other than jeff. So I contend that even on a multi-user system that only I would have any access to the drive.

jeff@dvXubu2004:~$ ls -la /media/jeff/
total 16
drwxrwxrwx+ 4 root root 4096 Jul 4 12:56 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Mar 24 2020 ..
drwx------ 5 jeff jeff 4096 Jun 27 17:44 WdMyBk4TB01

But then why not just do this?:

sudo chown jeff:jeff /media/jeff/

and

sudo chmod 700 /media/jeff/

jeff@dvXubu2004:~$ ls -l /media/
total 8
drwx------+ 4 jeff jeff 4096 Jul 5 22:27 jeff

And why doesn't Ubuntu do it this way--or at least offer to do it this way. I and only I should ever use /media/jeff. Right?

I read a long thread about Access Control Lists that made my hair hurt.

chmod 777 just seems wrong so I just had to come back and offer another solution.

Hope that helps.

goldenself avatar
cn flag
Thank you Jeff! You have shared a lot of information and it will take a while for me to digest it all. But I will do it in due time. Thank you again. For now, I've just made a new full installation of Ubuntu 20.04 on a USB ─and it is working fine from the start. Cheers.
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