Hi Markus, Thank you for your help. > > $ sudo ./build-initrd.sh /boot/initrd.conf [this > copied a bunch of > > files and only generated warnings about not being able > to preserve > > permissions on two files] > > which ones? Here is what I get once I run build-initrd.sh (after having edited build-initrd.sh to point DESTINATIONPREFIX to the mount point of my usb key rather than /boot): knoppix@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix/loop-AES-v3.2c$ sudo ./build-initrd.sh ../ek/initrd.conf Loading config from '../ek/initrd.conf' 16+0 records in 16+0 records out 16384 bytes (16 kB) copied, 6.8158e-05 seconds, 240 MB/s 32 inodes 16 blocks Firstdatazone=5 (5) Zonesize=1024 Maxsize=268966912 Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /ramdisk/home/knoppix/loop-AES-v3.2c/tmp-i-900 11 10 1 91% /ramdisk/home/knoppix/loop-AES-v3.2c/tmp-d-900 -rw------- 1 root root 2440 Sep 24 14:59 /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek/initrd.gz Copying /sbin/losetup to /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek Copying /lib/tls/libc.so.6 to /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek Copying /lib/ld-linux.so.2 to /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek Copying /sbin/insmod to /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek Copying /lib/tls/libc.so.6 to /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek Copying /lib/ld-linux.so.2 to /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek Copying /sbin/insmod.modutils to /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek Copying /lib/tls/libc.so.6 to /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek Copying /lib/ld-linux.so.2 to /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek Copying /bin/loadkeys to /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek Copying /lib/libcfont.so.0 to /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek Copying /lib/libctutils.so.0 to /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek Copying /lib/libconsole.so.0 to /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek Copying /lib/tls/libc.so.6 to /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek Copying /lib/ld-linux.so.2 to /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek Copying /usr/bin/gpg to /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek cp: setting permissions for `/ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek/gpg': Operation not permitted cp: preserving ACL for `/ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek/gpg': Operation not permitted knoppix@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix$ knoppix@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix$ ls -l ek/gpg -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 837272 Dec 6 2006 ek/gpg My usb key was mounted at /ramdisk/home/knoppix/ek when I ran build-initrd.sh. > Are all the necessary device nodes present in your initrd > image? > namely /dev/hdaX and /dev/sdaX This is what I got: knoppix@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix$ sudo mount /dev/sdd ek knoppix@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix$ cp ek/initrd.gz . knoppix@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix$ gzip -d initrd.gz knoppix@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix$ sudo mount -o loop initrd tmp2 knoppix@Knoppix:/ramdisk/home/knoppix$ sudo ls -l tmp2/dev/ total 0 crw------- 1 root root 5, 1 Sep 24 11:28 console brw------- 1 root root 3, 4 Sep 24 11:28 hda4 brw------- 1 root root 7, 5 Sep 24 11:28 loop5 crw------- 1 root root 1, 3 Sep 24 11:28 null brw------- 1 root root 1, 0 Sep 24 11:28 ram0 brw------- 1 root root 1, 1 Sep 24 11:28 ram1 brw------- 1 root root 8, 0 Sep 24 11:28 sda crw------- 1 root root 5, 0 Sep 24 11:28 tty crw------- 1 root root 4, 1 Sep 24 11:28 tty1 crw------- 1 root root 1, 5 Sep 24 11:28 zero I can see hda4 and sda in there. Does this otherwise look ok? > please post your initrd.conf, if all fails I can clone an > initrd for you with it. Here it is: BOOTDEV=/dev/sda # partitionless USB-stick device BOOTTYPE=vfat CRYPTROOT=/dev/hda4 ROOTTYPE=ext3 CIPHERTYPE=AES256 LOADNATIONALKEYB=1 INITIALDELAY=6 The only change between this and the earlier version was replacing "hda3" with "hda4". I have noticed two things when I try to boot from the key. First, once I enter the passphrase and hit enter, there isn't that usual delay which occurs when I mistype the passphrase: instead, I get the Command "/lib/losetup -e AESS256 -I 0 -K /lib/rootkey.gpg -G /lib /dev/loop5 /dev/hda4" returned error message instantaneously; as soonas I press 'enter'. It is not usually like that when I mistype the passphrase. Second, the *first* time that I enter the passphrase after booting, before the "Command /lib/losetup [...]" message one can read "Error: gpg key file decryption failed". However, in the attempts that follow only "Command /lib/losetup [...]" shows up. (I don't know if this is important, I just noticed it.) Again thanks for any hint on what I am doing wrong. ~J __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Sie sind Spam leid? Yahoo! Mail verfügt über einen herausragenden Schutz gegen Massenmails. http://mail.yahoo.com - Linux-crypto: cryptography in and on the Linux system Archive: http://mail.nl.linux.org/linux-crypto/