Checking status of potentially hibernating encrypted BTRFS?

Checking status of potentially hibernating encrypted BTRFS?

[Michael Zacherl]

Hello,
after I accidentally rendered a system with encrypted BTRFS un-bootable, I’m trying to check the state of the BTRFS before I try to mount it externally.
After some intense experience *) I’d prefer to proceed very carefully.
I’ve to assume the system is hibernating, so the FS is not in a clean state.
In order to fix the system I’d have to mount the FS externally.

What’s a save way to proceed?
Thank you very much!

Michael.


*) https://lore.kernel.org/linux-btrfs/12ad8fa0-a4f6-815d-dcab-1b6efa1c9da8@bluemole.com/

Re: Checking status of potentially hibernating encrypted BTRFS?

[Phillip Susi]

Michael Zacherl <ubu@bluemole.com> writes:

> Hello,
> after I accidentally rendered a system with encrypted BTRFS un-bootable, I’m trying to check the state of the BTRFS before I try to mount it externally.
> After some intense experience *) I’d prefer to proceed very carefully.
> I’ve to assume the system is hibernating, so the FS is not in a clean state.
> In order to fix the system I’d have to mount the FS externally.
>
> What’s a save way to proceed?
> Thank you very much!

If you must mount any fs from an external system while it is still
mounted by a hibernated system, the only way to stay safe is to delete
the hibernation image and never try to resume that system.

Re: Checking status of potentially hibernating encrypted BTRFS?

[Michael Zacherl]

> On 16.01.2024, at 17:08, Phillip Susi <phill@thesusis.net> wrote:
> 
> Michael Zacherl <ubu@bluemole.com> writes:
> 
>> Hello,
>> after I accidentally rendered a system with encrypted BTRFS un-bootable, I’m trying to check the state of the BTRFS before I try to mount it externally.
>> After some intense experience *) I’d prefer to proceed very carefully.
>> I’ve to assume the system is hibernating, so the FS is not in a clean state.
>> In order to fix the system I’d have to mount the FS externally.
>> 
>> What’s a save way to proceed?
>> Thank you very much!
> 
> If you must mount any fs from an external system while it is still
> mounted by a hibernated system, the only way to stay safe is to delete
> the hibernation image and never try to resume that system.

Thanks a lot, that was exactly what I needed to know!
Extra ‘fun’ was provided by the fact that the system is encrypted via LUKS.
The swap file was indeed identified as hibernation file, so I did mkswap on the file with its original swap UUID, to be sure all works like before.
Bottomline, the kernel fix worked!
Thanks again,
Michael.