[ale] Help with data recovery

[Jim Ransone]

Your earlier suggestions helped me get there, Bob! Much thanks! I'll post
an update after the restore is done.

On Mon, Aug 24, 2020, 6:03 PM Bob via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:

>
> Hi Jim,
>
> Never mind what's below; I see that you're way ahead of me.
> Congratulations!
>
> --Bob
>
>
> On 2020-08-24 5:59 p.m., Bob via Ale wrote:
> >
> >
> > Hi Jim,
> >
> > I'm not seeing why you are thinking that the password must be on the
> > backup drive somewhere.   There could be a standard phrase in a
> > particular location on the backup drive like "The quick brown fox jumped
> > over the lazy dog" except that the phrase is encrypted.  You enter the
> > key=password, and Deja Dup uses that password to decrypt the encrypted
> > version of the standard phrase.  If the decrypted phrase does turn out
> > to be "The quick brown fox ...," then the password you entered is
> > assumed to be correct.  (This is pure speculation---I do not know how
> > Deja Dup actually works.)
> >
> > I'm still leaning towards the most likely explanation is that you are
> > not correctly remembering your password.  If there were a failure to
> > store the password, that seems like it might be equivalent to not
> > checking the box asking it to remember the password.  However, you're
> > entering the password, which seems like it has nothing to do with
> > whether Deja Dup saved the password in the gnome keyring.
> >
> > Here's an experiment, and I take no responsibility if it goes horribly
> > wrong.  :-)  Since you've installed Deja Dup on the older, spare laptop.
> >   Plug in the external backup drive to the older, spare laptop and
> > attempt to restore a few files.  Do not backup anything to the external
> > hard drive.  However, see if you can restore a few files from the
> > external hard drive with what you think is the password.
> >
> > If you were to try the above, I think I'd re-install the os and Deja Dup
> > on the laptop.  Don't ask Deja Dup to remember any password.  Don't save
> > anything to the backup drive.  Just plug in the external backup drive
> > and see if you can restore a file or two with what you think is the
> > password from the external hard drive to your old laptop.
> >
> > Before trying the above, you might want to wait and see if some of the
> > other say, "UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU DO WHAT HE SUGGESTED."  :-)
> >
> > --Bob
> >
> > On 2020-08-24 4:19 p.m., Jim Ransone wrote:
> >> Much thanks to everyone for the suggestions and advice so far! Here is
> an
> >> update:
> >>
> >> I have attempted to duplicate the entire scenario on an older spare
> >> laptop.
> >>
> >> - I installed the same OS - Ubuntu Studio 20.04.
> >> - I created a folder and filled it with a handful of files.
> >> - I used Deja Dup to back up the folder onto a usb flash drive. (Didn't
> >> want to risk doing something weird to my actual backup drive.) Was
> >> asked to
> >> create a password.
> >> - Reinstalled Ubuntu Studio 20.04 with the same settings as before
> >> (erasing
> >> everything.)
> >> - Reinstalled Deja Dup.
> >> - Used Deja Dup with the password to successfully restore the backup.
> >>
> >> This indicates to me that you are right, Bob. The password was the
> >> password. There is no other key that's being created and stored
> >> somewhere.
> >> It also would seem to indicate that the password is somewhere on the
> >> backup
> >> drive, but I don't have any idea where on the drive that would be.
> >>
> >> So either I am misremembering the original password, as you suggested,
> >> Bob,
> >> or there is some other issue. I have seen comments online about a bug
> >> that
> >> cause it to sometimes fail to store the key.
> >>
> >> Jim
> > <snip>
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