Hi Brian,

Thanks for your input.

On 21 February 2010 12:10, Bryan Kadzban <bryan.kadzban@gmail.com> wrote:

> Selim Levy wrote:
> > The contents of the rescue's /etc/crypttab, for which I've tried various
> > things is:
> > # cat crypttab
> > sdb3_crypt /dev/sdb3 none luks
>
> So, from 1000 miles away...
>

That's fine.  I'm even further away! ;)


> Doesn't Debian's initramfs bring up udev and let you use the
> /dev/disk/by-*/ symlinks in crypttab?  That's a *LOT* better way to find
> this drive (in your case, by-id might work, and by-uuid will almost
> definitely work, assuming a new-enough udev that can find the UUID of a
> LUKS volume).  Maybe poke around in /dev/disk when you're at the busybox
> prompt, and see what you can find.
> (If it doesn't bring up udev and let you use those symlinks, then ...
> why not?  :-P  Not a question for you obviously, but more for the Debian
> maintainers.)
>
> Anyway, then you don't care which sd* name is given to this device,
> since you're using an explicitly-guaranteed-stable name for it.
>

Hmmmm.... that's really interesting.  I played around at the busybox prompt
and took down all the info in the /dev/disk/by-* directories (which do get
created).  I redirected output of 'ls -alF' commands from those directories
to file and have the info available to me.

So here's what I've now confirmed:
When I boot into my main/internal hd, /dev/sda, sdb and sdc are the
following: internal hd, cardreader, external hd (respectively).
When I boot into my rescue/external system, they are the following: internal
hd, external hd, cardreader.

How do I go about using the /dev/disk/by-* devices with dm-crypt?  Does it
only require modifying, as before, /etc/fstab and /proc/cmdline?  Or is
there something else I should play around with?

I'm definitely getting closer!  Thanks for your help!

Cheers,
Selim