I suspect you actually created the ext4 filesystem after luksFromat, thereby destroying the LUKS header. What you need to to is 1. luksFromat 2. luksOpen to map /dev/md3 e.g. to /dev/maper/c1 3. Create the filesystem on /dev/mapper/c1 However I would say that with this mistake (filesyste and LUKS on the same level), you do not really understand what you are doing. You will likely not be secure as a consequence, even if you get it to work. I strongly suggest reading up on encryption and filesystem layers. Some info can be found in the cryptsetup FAQ, but you need more. A possible start is Wikipeadia on the topics "filesystem", "encryption" and "disk encryption". That should clear things up a bit. Arno On Sun, Apr 29, 2012 at 11:03:57AM -0700, Lucy Brentwood wrote: > Hello all, > > Following an advice found in an Internet forum, I am sending this list my request for help in hope someone will be able to answer it. > > I am installing Debian in a new computer (so I am pretty flexible about what I can do). > > > I started following a tutorial for RAID5 + DM-CRYPT + LVM2 and I now face a weird issue. > > I launch the computer with the latest Debian live distribution and work on the hard drives from there. > > > The first steps that concern this issue are: > > I partition the 4 hard drives using fsdisk, one partition with 10GB for /boot, one with 130GB for swap, and two big partitions for the operating system and for additional data. /boot is set as bootable, all as Linux Raid devices (code fd). > > > I create a RAID5 array with the four hard drives: > > > # mdadm --create /dev/md3 --level=5 --raid-devices=4 /dev/sda4 /dev/sdb4 /dev/sdc4 /dev/sdd4 > > > Then I format it to ext4: > > # mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/md3 > > Then I encrypt the partition: > > # KEYFILE="/media/PENDRIVE/picture.jpg" > # cryptsetup --hash sha512 --key-size 256 --cipher aes-cbc-essiv:sha256 luksFormat /dev/md3 $KEYFILE > > WARNING! > ======== > This will overwrite data on /dev/md3 irrevocably. > > Are you sure? (Type uppercase yes): YES > > > > And then I try to open the RAID5 array: > > # cryptsetup --key-file $KEYFILE luksOpen /dev/md3 md3encrypted > > And I get: > > Device /dev/md3 is not a valid LUKS device. > > Can anyone let me know what is happening or what I did wrong? > > Thank you in advance, > > Lucy > _______________________________________________ > dm-crypt mailing list > dm-crypt@xxxxxxxx > http://www.saout.de/mailman/listinfo/dm-crypt -- Arno Wagner, Dr. sc. techn., Dipl. Inform., CISSP -- Email: arno@xxxxxxxxxxx GnuPG: ID: 1E25338F FP: 0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F ---- One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision. -- Bertrand Russell _______________________________________________ dm-crypt mailing list dm-crypt@xxxxxxxx http://www.saout.de/mailman/listinfo/dm-crypt
