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I'm a Ubuntu beginner trying to do an encrypted dual boot with Windows 10 and Ubuntu 18.04. For the Ubuntu installation, I have followed some guides where the partitions are encrypted using a bootable USB, and starting Ubuntu without installing it, for example:

Both of these guides tells you to stay in the USB environment after installation to finish up the last steps. The last one being running update-initramfs -k all -c in a chroot environment.

Every time I try to run it, Ubuntu tells me:

update-initramfs is disabled since running on read-only media.

I have tried sudo, which did not work. I have also tried live-update-initramfs, which did not exist, and installation of it using apt get did not work either.

This is my third time trying to install the encrypted Ubuntu partition, and I really can't figure it out, I would really appreciate some help.

EDIT: Since it seems that the creation of the logical volumes might be the problem, here is the steps I have been following before the installation, this time from the second tutorial mentioned above.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/nvme0n1p5

WARNING!


This will overwrite data on /dev/nvme0n1p5 irrevocably.


Are you sure? (Type uppercase yes): YES
Enter passphrase for /dev/nvme0n1p5: 
Verify passphrase:


ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/nvme0n1p5 nvme0n1p5_crypt
Enter passphrase for /dev/nvme0n1p5: 
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo pvcreate /dev/mapper/nvme0n1p5_crypt 
  Physical volume "/dev/mapper/nvme0n1p5_crypt" successfully created.
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo vgcreate ubuntu-vg /dev/mapper/nvme0n1p5
  Device /dev/mapper/nvme0n1p5 not found.
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo vgcreate ubuntu-vg /dev/mapper/nvme0n1p5_crypt
  Volume group "ubuntu-vg" successfully created
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo lvcreate -n swap_1 -L 16g ubuntu-vg
  Logical volume "swap_1" created.
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo lvcreate -n root -L 290g ubuntu-vg
  Logical volume "root" created.
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root 
mke2fs 1.44.1 (24-Mar-2018)
Creating filesystem with 76021760 4k blocks and 19005440 inodes
Filesystem UUID: 79a0b577-0e14-444f-9bac-816bebd67be4
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
    32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208, 
    4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616


Allocating group tables: done

Writing inode tables: done

Creating journal (262144 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done


ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mkswap /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-swap_1 
Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 16 GiB (17179865088 bytes)
no label, UUID=4552fc09-0e77-4eab-a379-e221d83b0e3f
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

Here follows the commands I applied after the installation, where I chose "something else", and assigned the volumes according to the tutorial. This time the update-initramfscommand worked, but gives some warnings.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo blkid /dev/nvme0n1p5
/dev/nvme0n1p5: UUID="db4b0e02-96ab-438b-8961-b0c8ad6ad65c"  TYPE="crypto_LUKS" PARTUUID="80424d8a-ad5f-4c59-bacd-5979d2a68a92"
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root /mnt
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1
nvme0n1    nvme0n1p1  nvme0n1p2  nvme0n1p3  nvme0n1p4  nvme0n1p5  nvme0n1p6  
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p4 /mnt/boot
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo chroot /mnt
root@ubuntu:/# mount -t proc proc /proc
root@ubuntu:/# mount -t sysfs sys /sys
root@ubuntu:/# mount -t devpts devpts /dev/pts
root@ubuntu:/# nano /etc/crypttab
root@ubuntu:/# cat /etc/crypttab 
# <target name> <source device> <key file> <options>
nvme0n1p5_crypt UUID=db4b0e02-96ab-438b-8961-b0c8ad6ad65c none luks,retry=1,lvm=ubuntu-vg
root@ubuntu:/# update-initramfs -k all -c
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-42-generic
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/tgl_dmc_ver2_04.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/skl_guc_33.0.0.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/bxt_guc_33.0.0.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_33.0.0.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/glk_guc_33.0.0.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_33.0.0.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/icl_guc_33.0.0.bin for module i915
root@ubuntu:/#
Becczor
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    Are you able to chroot without any problems? The error that you are getting suggests that something went wrong with creating the partitions / VG's / file systems. Posting the output of lsblk and mount | grep /dev would help with diagnostics. – Mikebdict Aug 21 '20 at 18:34

1 Answers1

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After following this guide (How can I install Ubuntu encrypted with LUKS with dual-boot?) and trying to install a fourth time, I finally got it t work.

I think the differences between my runs were that the chroot probably did not go through like it was meant to. Instead of running sudo su in the beinning, I wrote sudo before every command. This way I was able to clearly identify when I was in the chroot environment and when I was not.

Also, for the boot partition, I previously chose ext4, but this time I chose ext3. I also chose /mnt as the directory for mounting, and not /target.

Becczor
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