[ale] Upgrade encrypted hard drive

[Phil Turmel]

On 12/07/2013 10:48 AM, Edward Holcroft wrote:
> Hi all
> 
> On Ubuntu 13.10. Got an encrypted 1TB drive using LVM.  This machine was
> installed with full disk encryption and requires a password at boot time. I
> need to upgrade to a 2TB drive (actually I don't need to, I just want to).
> 
> From what I have found there is no easy way around this e.g.
> 
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ResizeEncryptedPartitions
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=726724
> http://askubuntu.com/questions/245112/can-i-disable-full-disk-encryption
> 
> Has anyone faced  this before. So far I have created a disk image of my
> encrypted 1TB drive and placed it on a 2TB drive. Took 18 hours. I thought
> I would simply use gparted to increase the size, well that, as I now know,
> is not possible. So I thought I could "just" decrypt the volume, dd it to
> the larger drive and re-encrypt. It's not that simple. You cannot "just"
> remove full disk encryption.

It would help if you could post a more detailed report of your current
disk / partition / LVM / volume layout.  "lsdrv" [1] or "lsblk --tree".

> I'm starting to think (and many of the articles suggest this) the fastest
> method would be a fresh installation on the new 2TB drive, unless anyone
> here can tell me some clever method that will be quicker or easier.
> 
> Even using the instructions I have, the very first step is a puzzler for me:
> 
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=726724
> 
> "1. Boot a live CD and, using any tool, create a new partition, lets call
> it /dev/sda6 , next to and to the left of (after) your crypt."
> 
> How can I create a new partition to the left of my crypt when that space is
> already allocated to the boot partition? I have plenty of space open to the
> right of my crypt.

They were confused: "left of (after)".  I would presume they meant
"right of (after)".

I don't use ubuntu myself, so I would normally recommend using
SystemRescueCD for the procedures involved (lvm and cryptsetup are
already present).

Phil

[1] http://github.com/pturmel/lsdrv