Month: December 2023

Temporarily access NixOS with encrypted LUKS from Ubuntu Live

Setup

  • Boot Ubuntu Live as usual
  • Change keyboard layout with setxkbmap <lang>
  • Install useful packages with sudo apt install vim nix-bin

Open crypt device

  • Idenitify LUKS device with lsblk --fs. Look for crypto_LUKS: 
    nvme0n1
├─nvme0n1p1   vfat        FAT32
└─nvme0n1p2   crypto_LUKS 2
  • Open encrypted device with cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/<root partition (sda2 or similar)> secure
  • Check sucessfull open with lslbk. You should now see the crypt partition(s): 
    nvme0n1       259:0    0 476.9G  0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1   259:1    0   549M  0 part
└─nvme0n1p2   259:2    0 476.4G  0 part
└─enc-pv    253:0    0 476.4G  0 crypt
  ├─vg-swap 253:1    0    16G  0 lvm
  └─vg-root 253:2    0 460.4G  0 lvm

Mount partitions

  • lvchange -a y /dev/vg/swap
  • lvchange -a y /dev/vg/root
  • mount /dev/vg/root /mnt
  • mount /dev/<boot partition (sda1 or similar)> /mnt/boot
  • swapon /dev/vg/swap

Temporarily access NixOS

  • Access with nixos-enter
  • Optional:
    • Add additional channel if needed
      nix-channel --add https://github.com/NixOS/mobile-nixos/archive/refs/heads/master.tar.gz mobile-nixos
    • Update channels nix-channel --update
  • Change config
  • Rebuild system nixos-rebuild boot

Enable sshd for root on Ubuntu Live

  • Set keyboard layout with setxkbmap <lang>
  • Update package repo with sudo apt update
  • Install sshd and vim with sudo apt install openssh-server vim
  • Update sshd config with sudo vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config
    • Set PermitRootLogin yes
    • Set PasswordAuthentication yes
  • Set password for root with sudo passwd root
  • Restart SSHD service sudo systemctl restart ssh.service
  • Login via ssh to machine