[dm-crypt] loop file with partition problems

[Giovanni Di Stasi <gdistasi@gmail.com>]

Hi everyone,

I am having problems accessing a partition I have created on a file. I 
have never managed to mount it after reboot.
I am using Debian (testing).

This is what I did:

# sudo -i
# echo aes >> /etc/modules
# echo dm_mod >> /etc/modules
# echo dm_crypt >> /etc/modules
# dd if=/dev/urandom of=.encrypted bs=1024 count=500000
# sudo cryptsetup -y create crypt .encrypted
# echo "crypt /home/giovanni/.encrypted none none" >> /etc/crypttab
# sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/crypt
# mkdir /home/giovanni/cip
# chown giovanni:giovanni /home/giovanni/cip/
# sudo mount /dev/mapper/crypt /home/giovanni/cip
# ls /home/giovanni/cip/
# sudo umount /home/giovanni/cip
# sudo mount /dev/mapper/crypt /home/giovanni/cip

After rebooted, I don't really know how to mount my partition.
I have tried this:

# sudo -i
# cryptsetup luksOpen .encrypted crypt
Device /dev/loop0 is not a valid LUKS device.

Did I lost all my data as I suspect? If so, why?

Thanks a lot,
Giovanni