[Bug 1386005] Re: Password not accepted graphical boot for encrypted root system

Tue Feb 2 09:15:51 UTC 2016

After searching and trying for a long, long time, I finally found a
solution which is acceptable for me. The situation is rather complex, so I
try to describe it as structured as possible.

Configuration
-------------
Hardware configuration:
DH87RL board
i7-4771 CPU
GeForce GTX 970

Software configuration:
Ubuntu 15.10

Driver selection
----------------
You can either go with the open nouveau driver which is installed by
default, or use the proprietary nvidia driver. Next, the "plymouth" package
which enables you to configure the graphical boot up, is strongly involved.
Using the nvidia driver together with plymouth does not work for me, but for
all other 3 possible combinations, the solution is described below.

There are 2 issues here closely connected, one is being able to enter the
password for encrypted hard disks during boot, and the other is being able
to switch to the console when X is up and running. Both issues are described
below.

Being able to enter the password for encrypted hard disks during boot
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Nouveau driver with plymouth:
The Nouveau driver works "ok" - this means I have to press the down arrow on the
keyboard while booting so the text mode appears. There, the password is
asked. (Some stars may already be displayed - delete them before entering the
password...)

This solution was ok, but I needed the nvidia driver to work, because with
nouveau, for example, I had no proper 3D acceleration inside virtualbox.

Nvidia driver without plymouth:
The nvidia driver I use is nvidia-352 currently. I installed it via apt-get.
So I did not download and install the driver from the nvidia.com site
directly, but used the distribution (in my case: Ubuntu 15.10) package for
the nvidia driver instead.

For the nvidia driver to work, I had to disable plymouth. This can be done
for example by passing the "noplymouth" option to the kernel parameters.

--- /etc/default/grub (example) ---
[...]
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash noplymouth"
[...]

--- update-grub ---
Afterwards, execute update-grub from the command line:
# update-grub

With that changes, I can see the screen flicker shortly during the graphical
boot (obviously the password prompt appearing for a fraction of a second,
and then disappearing again). But now I know that the password
prompt is there, and I can start to type the password. The prompt will
reappear with the first character typed, having recognized the typed
character already.
If insecure whether the password prompt is ready or not, I can still press
the down arrow as described above.

Yes, that´s not a perfect solution - but after searching and trying for such
a long, long time: At least it is working - and you can get used to it.

Just out of curiosity, I also tried the nouveau driver with plymouth disabled:
In that case it works much smoother, as the password prompt really appears
and stays on the screen.

So it seems the free nouveau driver is doing something better than the
nvidia driver. I guess NVIDIA has some homework to do here!

Switch to console
----------------
With the nouveau driver, it is easily possible to switch to the console
(CTRL-ALT-F1)

With the nvidia-352 driver, switching to the console is NOT possible!
Pressing CTRL-ALT-F1 just does nothing.
A (n ugly) workaround I found for this is to restart the window manager from
within your X session. Working for me with lightdm as windows manager, not
tested for others. Please save all your open documents BEFORE doing this, as
all applications of your X session will be killed:
sudo service lightdm restart

So again, the nouveau driver does this better than the official nvidia
driver. I need to say that I´m really disappointed by NVIDIA about that!

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to plymouth in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1386005

Title:
  Password not accepted graphical boot for encrypted root system

Status in plymouth package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  After upgrading to 14.10 from 14.04, I am unable to enter my password for decypting the root filesystem.  The password is echoed in plaintext on the  graphic boot screen and does not show up in the password entry box  on the graphic.   In order to boot the system, I have to boot in recovery mode and enter the password during the text mode boot.  This problem was also described by another user in problem# 1385027.   I did not have a probem in 14.04.   I am using nvidia drivers.   I am set to resolution 1920x1200.  I am running module uvesafb with changes to /etc/default/grub for the module and resolution.  I assume this is a plymouth package bug but am not positive.
  --- 
  ApportVersion: 2.14.7-0ubuntu8
  Architecture: amd64
  CurrentDesktop: Unity
  DefaultPlymouth: /lib/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-logo/ubuntu-logo.plymouth
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.10
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-04-21 (189 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140417)
  MachineType: Dell Inc. Latitude E6500
  NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
  Package: plymouth 0.9.0-0ubuntu7
  PackageArchitecture: amd64
  PccardctlIdent:
   Socket 0:
     no product info available
  PccardctlStatus:
   Socket 0:
     no card
  ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.13.0-37-generic root=/dev/mapper/hogwarts_vg-root ro recovery nomodeset
  ProcFB: 0 VESA VGA
  ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.13.0-37-generic root=/dev/mapper/hogwarts_vg-root ro recovery nomodeset
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-37.64-generic 3.13.11.7
  Tags:  utopic
  TextPlymouth: /lib/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-text/ubuntu-text.plymouth
  Uname: Linux 3.13.0-37-generic x86_64
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to utopic on 2014-10-23 (4 days ago)
  UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin plugdev sambashare sudo
  _MarkForUpload: True
  dmi.bios.date: 12/06/2011
  dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.bios.version: A27
  dmi.board.name: 0PP476
  dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.chassis.type: 8
  dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA27:bd12/06/2011:svnDellInc.:pnLatitudeE6500:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0PP476:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
  dmi.product.name: Latitude E6500
  dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

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