Do I need to wipe out luks to install os?

[dgermann]

Friends--

Over the past week I have tried to install three different OSes to a couple of my old 32 bit machines: lubuntu, peppermintos, and xubuntu.

Both machines have prior ubuntu versions on them, in a luks/lvm environment.

I have used DVD disks (created via brasero) as well as thumb drives (created via startup disk creator). Only got one of them to actually boot up the lubuntu installer, and it said it could not mount the DVD (although I was installing via the usb drive). I even tried the usb stick on a 64 bit machine and got the same errors--this machine also has lvm/luks.

It seems that perhaps the luks environment is giving all of these installers difficulties.

So, do I have to completely wipe the disks to be able to install, or even to use a live disk? (I was hoping to preserve the luks setup and simply install the new os inside luks.)

Thanks!

[GhX6GZMB]

With a 32-bit machine you're in a bad spot.
All Ubuntu dialects are out.
I believe debian is still an option, but am not knowledgeable there.

[dgermann]

@ml9104--

Thanks. The versions of these OSes I have downloaded are all 32 bit versions.

Even so, a 64 bit machine was not able to open them. That makes me consider luks as the issue.

[GhX6GZMB]

OK.
So the Lubuntu version you have is 18.04 (LXDE desktop) or 18.10 (LXQt desktop).
The .iso is hopefully downloaded from the archives of lubuntu.me and NOT from lubuntu.net, which is a cybersquatter site.
Luks or no luks: it doesn't matter. You'll need to do a live boot with following install, including formatting (preferably ext4), luks is not the issue, a live boot should always work.

[guiverc]

The "Erase disk" option of the Lubuntu calamares installer will not care what was there before hand, just erase it & install a new system. LVM makes no difference.

Lubuntu only supports amd64 now, and only 18.10 & 19.04 ISOs were generated with the `calamares` installer.

Releases prior to LXQt were available in two ISOs, the main ISO used the `ubiquity` installer which had no issues with LVM either as I recall just erasing whatever was there and creating a new partition table/file-system as the user selected.

The alternate ISO used the debian installer which was more limited; but it was created for systems that had 768MB or less of RAM and couldn't run the live system and installer at the same time, back when Lubuntu supported machines with 256-768MB of RAM. If using a machine with that limited resources, I'd likely be using terminal commands to erase & create new file-systems before hand, or run a live system & create the file-systems I wanted (using `gparted` etc if the box is capable of it), then just install into the pre-prepared disk/file-systems. I never had issues with either approach, but 18.04.5 was a long time ago, and the alternate ISO was never re-spun so you'll have to go back to 2018-April for QA-testing of that ISO which was a long time ago.

Lubuntu 18.04 LTS is end of life so please be aware of that; yes the packages you have that are in common with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Desktop are still supported and receive security fixes, but that's not your whole system. You can use

ubuntu-support-status

to confirm which packages on your system are still supported thus received security fixes, and which don't, but all LXDE components are EOL, so if flaws are detected you'll need to patch them yourself.

FYI: I still have Lubuntu 18.04 LTS installed on a IBM Thinkpad t43 which I've used for numerous pastes and examples; my own usage hasn't made me want to switch the box to Debian yet - but you decide on how you use your machine.

I've never had issues removing a prior file-system regardless of what was on the drive (be it LVM or other) with working hardware - have you checked you have a reliable system? If using live media, the media validated correctly etc.

[dgermann]

@ml9104

Thanks. I downloaded from https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/r...18.04/release/ which seems legit to me, but I will redownload from lubuntu.me.

@ guiverc

I think however I did the alternate so that might be the issue with lubuntu. I will switch to the main iso.

Please tell me if I am interpreting your post correctly: I ought to be able to leave my lvm/luks set up as is, and simply install the new OS inside that? And the installer should handle that for me, without my worrying about unlocking the disk before running the installer?

Thanks!

[guiverc]

If it came from cdimage.ubuntu.com it'll be an official ISO created by Ubuntu infrastructure.

lubuntu.[net] isn't related to the Lubuntu/Ubuntu project, but was used by the Lubuntu team until they had a web site of their own; and usually didn't offer downloads directly; but linked to the main Canonical ubuntu.com site for downloads. We have no control over anything on non-Ubuntu/non-Lubuntu sites.

If you're using LVM because of encryption; be aware that current methods differ to what was used in releases long since gone/EOL (ie. pre-18.04). As Lubuntu 18.04 LTS is EOL I won't provide support for it, however I did do QA-test installs of Xubuntu 22.04 LTS & Lubuntu 22.04 LTS onto encrypted drives which were setup/installed using older no-longer default encryption methods and all that was required was to add the required package on to the live system before I started the installer (so it could cope with it). I'm mentioning Xubuntu as it uses the `ubiquity` installer same as Lubuntu 18.04 LTS used (excluding alternate ISO; Lubuntu now uses only `calamares`). The package was added as the older encryption system is no longer used (by default); thus the ISOs don't include the required package to deal with it. I won't & really can't advise with debian installer as I don't use it often enough

[dgermann]

@ guiverc

Thank you. I think I am understanding. These luks/lvm were set up under 18.04.

"all that was required was to add the required package on to the live system before I started the installer (so it could cope with it)" What is the process to do that, if you please?

Thanks!

[guiverc]

If luks/lvm was setup on 18.04 then unless you added packages in order to set it up, you'll have everything you need already.

An example of packages I was thinking of include partition encryption provided by `ecryptfs-utils` which from memory was default on 17.10 (artful) and earlier, but it's not provided by default any longer on ISOs thus won't be found for example on current kinetic daily - https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/d...amd64.manifest

I don't recall well differences between the alternate and primary 18.04 ISO (for Lubuntu, as we don't support 18.04 any longer), however I do know no flavor was involved in the last release of Ubuntu 18.04.6 as we were all EOL already, thus we don't have patches for boothole vulnerability etc, which can create an issue in that installed systems can receive upgrades/fixes, but re-installation of patched systems is impossible as you need 18.04.6 media for which no flavor provided due to EOL. This is unlikely your issue though if you're using a i386 box in my opinion. (if it was the issue which I don't believe it is, you'd get around this via a Ubuntu Server 18.04.6 install, then changing that into the flavor like Lubuntu you really want)

FYI: The kinetic daily was used only because it was easy/known to me, a patched bionic (18.04.6) manifest can be viewed here - https://releases.ubuntu.com/18.04/ub...amd64.manifest

[dgermann]

@guiverc

Thanks! Now I get it (I think).

Will play with it a bit and report back.