How should I upgrade an OS on an OPAL encrypted drive?












0















I'm currently running Kubuntu 17.04 installed on a Samsung NVMe EVO 960 SSD drive.



I managed to install it with OPAL encryption enabled by using sedutil, but it took me about 2 days to make it work (I had to compile the image by hand, since the binary provided by the project would not work for me).



Now I'd like to upgrade to Kubuntu 18.04 and I was thinking which is the best way to do it.




  1. Is there a way to safely and correctly update to 18.04 from 17.04 without reinstalling the OS? This would probably be the mostplausible and hassle free way to avoid re-setting up the OPAL disk, but I fear it will probably create issues with old settings.

  2. Can I just decrypt my SSD, and stick a liveCD and boot from it and install Kubuntu as if it was a normal disk? Would this preserve the encryption and would the system boot up again correctly? I'd love to see this work.

  3. Do I have to remove OPAL encryption, install the new Kubuntu and spend an other day recompiling a new OPAL image and activating the encryption on the SSD? I fear this will be the probable correct way of doing things...


I have already read all the documentation about sedutil but I didn't find anything about upgrading an OS, which I believe means that I simply have to disable OPAL encryption, perform the upgrade as usual and re-enable it, but I wanted to be sure if there are easier alternatives.





Obviously I'll backup all important information and user configuration from the old OS before trying this upgrade.










share|improve this question

























  • How about just boot the Kubuntu 17.04 and let it update itself? It can install new packages now, can't it? Or is it using some type of read-only filesystem?

    – Xen2050
    May 23 '18 at 0:59











  • @Xen2050 You cannot update directly from 17.04 to 18.04. In any case I'd like a more general answer too. If I wanted to install, say, CentOS instead of Ubuntu that possibilty is gone. I want to know: is there a way to avoid disabling OPAL encryption when reinstalling the OS?

    – Bakuriu
    May 23 '18 at 6:22











  • Right, you have to stop at 17.10 first, but if it works it would solve your problem #1 directly. And do you need a special opal-built kernel all the time? How do you enter the passphrase when booting, doesn't the BIOS decrypt the drive, and therefore the OS too? If sedutil is just for managing/changing the drive's encryption, maybe you only need a opal-built kernel on a live USB/DVD for occasional use.

    – Xen2050
    May 23 '18 at 13:28
















0















I'm currently running Kubuntu 17.04 installed on a Samsung NVMe EVO 960 SSD drive.



I managed to install it with OPAL encryption enabled by using sedutil, but it took me about 2 days to make it work (I had to compile the image by hand, since the binary provided by the project would not work for me).



Now I'd like to upgrade to Kubuntu 18.04 and I was thinking which is the best way to do it.




  1. Is there a way to safely and correctly update to 18.04 from 17.04 without reinstalling the OS? This would probably be the mostplausible and hassle free way to avoid re-setting up the OPAL disk, but I fear it will probably create issues with old settings.

  2. Can I just decrypt my SSD, and stick a liveCD and boot from it and install Kubuntu as if it was a normal disk? Would this preserve the encryption and would the system boot up again correctly? I'd love to see this work.

  3. Do I have to remove OPAL encryption, install the new Kubuntu and spend an other day recompiling a new OPAL image and activating the encryption on the SSD? I fear this will be the probable correct way of doing things...


I have already read all the documentation about sedutil but I didn't find anything about upgrading an OS, which I believe means that I simply have to disable OPAL encryption, perform the upgrade as usual and re-enable it, but I wanted to be sure if there are easier alternatives.





Obviously I'll backup all important information and user configuration from the old OS before trying this upgrade.










share|improve this question

























  • How about just boot the Kubuntu 17.04 and let it update itself? It can install new packages now, can't it? Or is it using some type of read-only filesystem?

    – Xen2050
    May 23 '18 at 0:59











  • @Xen2050 You cannot update directly from 17.04 to 18.04. In any case I'd like a more general answer too. If I wanted to install, say, CentOS instead of Ubuntu that possibilty is gone. I want to know: is there a way to avoid disabling OPAL encryption when reinstalling the OS?

    – Bakuriu
    May 23 '18 at 6:22











  • Right, you have to stop at 17.10 first, but if it works it would solve your problem #1 directly. And do you need a special opal-built kernel all the time? How do you enter the passphrase when booting, doesn't the BIOS decrypt the drive, and therefore the OS too? If sedutil is just for managing/changing the drive's encryption, maybe you only need a opal-built kernel on a live USB/DVD for occasional use.

    – Xen2050
    May 23 '18 at 13:28














0












0








0








I'm currently running Kubuntu 17.04 installed on a Samsung NVMe EVO 960 SSD drive.



I managed to install it with OPAL encryption enabled by using sedutil, but it took me about 2 days to make it work (I had to compile the image by hand, since the binary provided by the project would not work for me).



Now I'd like to upgrade to Kubuntu 18.04 and I was thinking which is the best way to do it.




  1. Is there a way to safely and correctly update to 18.04 from 17.04 without reinstalling the OS? This would probably be the mostplausible and hassle free way to avoid re-setting up the OPAL disk, but I fear it will probably create issues with old settings.

  2. Can I just decrypt my SSD, and stick a liveCD and boot from it and install Kubuntu as if it was a normal disk? Would this preserve the encryption and would the system boot up again correctly? I'd love to see this work.

  3. Do I have to remove OPAL encryption, install the new Kubuntu and spend an other day recompiling a new OPAL image and activating the encryption on the SSD? I fear this will be the probable correct way of doing things...


I have already read all the documentation about sedutil but I didn't find anything about upgrading an OS, which I believe means that I simply have to disable OPAL encryption, perform the upgrade as usual and re-enable it, but I wanted to be sure if there are easier alternatives.





Obviously I'll backup all important information and user configuration from the old OS before trying this upgrade.










share|improve this question
















I'm currently running Kubuntu 17.04 installed on a Samsung NVMe EVO 960 SSD drive.



I managed to install it with OPAL encryption enabled by using sedutil, but it took me about 2 days to make it work (I had to compile the image by hand, since the binary provided by the project would not work for me).



Now I'd like to upgrade to Kubuntu 18.04 and I was thinking which is the best way to do it.




  1. Is there a way to safely and correctly update to 18.04 from 17.04 without reinstalling the OS? This would probably be the mostplausible and hassle free way to avoid re-setting up the OPAL disk, but I fear it will probably create issues with old settings.

  2. Can I just decrypt my SSD, and stick a liveCD and boot from it and install Kubuntu as if it was a normal disk? Would this preserve the encryption and would the system boot up again correctly? I'd love to see this work.

  3. Do I have to remove OPAL encryption, install the new Kubuntu and spend an other day recompiling a new OPAL image and activating the encryption on the SSD? I fear this will be the probable correct way of doing things...


I have already read all the documentation about sedutil but I didn't find anything about upgrading an OS, which I believe means that I simply have to disable OPAL encryption, perform the upgrade as usual and re-enable it, but I wanted to be sure if there are easier alternatives.





Obviously I'll backup all important information and user configuration from the old OS before trying this upgrade.







kubuntu opal self-encrypting-drive opal-ssc sedutil






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Jan 15 at 14:43









͏͏͏

2,67211214




2,67211214










asked May 11 '18 at 18:17









BakuriuBakuriu

822311




822311













  • How about just boot the Kubuntu 17.04 and let it update itself? It can install new packages now, can't it? Or is it using some type of read-only filesystem?

    – Xen2050
    May 23 '18 at 0:59











  • @Xen2050 You cannot update directly from 17.04 to 18.04. In any case I'd like a more general answer too. If I wanted to install, say, CentOS instead of Ubuntu that possibilty is gone. I want to know: is there a way to avoid disabling OPAL encryption when reinstalling the OS?

    – Bakuriu
    May 23 '18 at 6:22











  • Right, you have to stop at 17.10 first, but if it works it would solve your problem #1 directly. And do you need a special opal-built kernel all the time? How do you enter the passphrase when booting, doesn't the BIOS decrypt the drive, and therefore the OS too? If sedutil is just for managing/changing the drive's encryption, maybe you only need a opal-built kernel on a live USB/DVD for occasional use.

    – Xen2050
    May 23 '18 at 13:28



















  • How about just boot the Kubuntu 17.04 and let it update itself? It can install new packages now, can't it? Or is it using some type of read-only filesystem?

    – Xen2050
    May 23 '18 at 0:59











  • @Xen2050 You cannot update directly from 17.04 to 18.04. In any case I'd like a more general answer too. If I wanted to install, say, CentOS instead of Ubuntu that possibilty is gone. I want to know: is there a way to avoid disabling OPAL encryption when reinstalling the OS?

    – Bakuriu
    May 23 '18 at 6:22











  • Right, you have to stop at 17.10 first, but if it works it would solve your problem #1 directly. And do you need a special opal-built kernel all the time? How do you enter the passphrase when booting, doesn't the BIOS decrypt the drive, and therefore the OS too? If sedutil is just for managing/changing the drive's encryption, maybe you only need a opal-built kernel on a live USB/DVD for occasional use.

    – Xen2050
    May 23 '18 at 13:28

















How about just boot the Kubuntu 17.04 and let it update itself? It can install new packages now, can't it? Or is it using some type of read-only filesystem?

– Xen2050
May 23 '18 at 0:59





How about just boot the Kubuntu 17.04 and let it update itself? It can install new packages now, can't it? Or is it using some type of read-only filesystem?

– Xen2050
May 23 '18 at 0:59













@Xen2050 You cannot update directly from 17.04 to 18.04. In any case I'd like a more general answer too. If I wanted to install, say, CentOS instead of Ubuntu that possibilty is gone. I want to know: is there a way to avoid disabling OPAL encryption when reinstalling the OS?

– Bakuriu
May 23 '18 at 6:22





@Xen2050 You cannot update directly from 17.04 to 18.04. In any case I'd like a more general answer too. If I wanted to install, say, CentOS instead of Ubuntu that possibilty is gone. I want to know: is there a way to avoid disabling OPAL encryption when reinstalling the OS?

– Bakuriu
May 23 '18 at 6:22













Right, you have to stop at 17.10 first, but if it works it would solve your problem #1 directly. And do you need a special opal-built kernel all the time? How do you enter the passphrase when booting, doesn't the BIOS decrypt the drive, and therefore the OS too? If sedutil is just for managing/changing the drive's encryption, maybe you only need a opal-built kernel on a live USB/DVD for occasional use.

– Xen2050
May 23 '18 at 13:28





Right, you have to stop at 17.10 first, but if it works it would solve your problem #1 directly. And do you need a special opal-built kernel all the time? How do you enter the passphrase when booting, doesn't the BIOS decrypt the drive, and therefore the OS too? If sedutil is just for managing/changing the drive's encryption, maybe you only need a opal-built kernel on a live USB/DVD for occasional use.

– Xen2050
May 23 '18 at 13:28










0






active

oldest

votes











Your Answer








StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "3"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});

function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: true,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: 10,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});


}
});














draft saved

draft discarded


















StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fsuperuser.com%2fquestions%2f1321892%2fhow-should-i-upgrade-an-os-on-an-opal-encrypted-drive%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown

























0






active

oldest

votes








0






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes
















draft saved

draft discarded




















































Thanks for contributing an answer to Super User!


  • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

But avoid



  • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

  • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




draft saved


draft discarded














StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fsuperuser.com%2fquestions%2f1321892%2fhow-should-i-upgrade-an-os-on-an-opal-encrypted-drive%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown





















































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown

































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown







Popular posts from this blog

Сан-Квентин

Алькесар

Josef Freinademetz