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Ubuntu 17.04 (kubuntu)

today i woke up to

error: file '/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

grub rescue>

so, naturally, nothing i tried worked (i expected this) when i did {ls} it showed me three partitions, i navigated into one of them and into /grub/i386-pc/, and lo and behold, there was... no normal.mod. so it isn't there. okay.

i loaded boot-repair. i tried to repair my boot. it finished and i rebooted. and i just got the same message.

so i plugged in a live Ubuntu image and tried a few things. i thought that maybe it's the boot-repair on the USB that doesn't work so i tried to install it from the live "CD". apparently i can't install it for some reason and i'm not even sure it would fix the problem.

i then tried to mount my sda5, which is the encrypted partition, in order to recover my files. it didn't even ask me for a password and i could open it, only to find out that my files weren't there (basically everything else was, but in /home/user/, there only was .kde, .local, Access-Your-Private-Data.desktop, README.txt, .ecryptfs and .Private. i couldn't open README.txt, nor Access-Your-Private-Data.desktop (for the latter, it told me "there was an error creating the child process for this terminal" and "failed to execute child process "/usr/bin/ecryptfs-mount-private (input/output error)"

so my sda5 appeared to be mounted but the files weren't there. that sucked. i can't modify the GRUB for some reason. and i also can't simply reinstall Ubuntu (which i would have promptly done) because i'm afraid it would delete my files. it never gives me the opportunity to put in my sda5 password which i have always had to do during boot.

here's what i would want to see happen, from greatest to less great :

  • simply fix GRUB in some way and boot like that, then finally backup my files (i never do that...) before they slip away again

  • backup my files right now and reinstall the whole thing (i don't know how to do that)

  • somehow reinstall Ubuntu without wiping my files

and, lastly, what i don't want to happen but what i will have to do if nothing works :

  • wipe everything and start anew.

so, recap, GRUB is fuarked, and i can't get my files because they're behind encryption. how do i get my files and fix everything ? you're up.

user804117
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1 Answers1

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SOLVED !!!!!!! Can't access my home directory "Encrypted private directory is not setup properly" solved it all. everything was decoded into my /tmp/. i am copying the files as we speak. it's gonna take a few hours...

copied from answer :

The key for me was to first navigate to:

/media/(mypartition)/home/.ecryptfs/(foldername)

before I ran the command:

sudo ecryptfs-recover-private .Private/

Before, I just navigated to /media and ran

sudo ecryptfs-recover-private (mypartition)...

I entered my passphrase and I received a SUCCESS notification. Unfortunately, I was still unable to access /tmp/ecryptfs.(randomcharacters)

It took me two days to finally find a solution that worked.

-- i would like to thank oldfred for helping me out and giving me some hope. the techie of the house (brother) gave up four hours ago but i alone toughed through it ! well, me and oldfred. it felt so good to see all my files and folders sitting there in my file explorer.

hopefully this actually works lol

user804117
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