Ubuntu – ECryptfs: Input/output error

I figured out my problem. I was running the command and giving it my HOME directory, and for some reason it was saying it was successful in mounting it. However, it was lying. Turns out you need to run the command with the .Private folder that each user has, its located in

sudo ecryptfs-mount-private /home/.ecryptfs/<username>/.Private

The command is supposed to recurse and find that folder for you, but I was impatient and gave it my home folder. I'm not sure why it said it was successful when it clearly wasn't, but if you give it that .Private folder, and then enter your login password, it should mount it to a folder inside /tmp/ and you can do whatever else you want to do with the data =)

I think you want these two eCryptFS tools (scripts really):

1. ecryptfs-recover-private - find and mount any encrypted private directories

   Use this to mount your old encrypted home, and copy / back them up somewhere safe.

2. ecryptfs-migrate-home - migrate a user's home to directory to an encrypted home setup

   It's man page contains this warning:

   WARNING: Make a complete backup copy of the  non-encrypted  data  to
   another  system  or  external media. This script is dangerous and in
   case of an error, could result in data lost, or lock USER out of the
   system!
   

So I'd definitely do the ecryptfs-recover-private and create backup copies first, if the data has any value.

BUT you absolutely must have your old login passphrase in order to decrypt your old encrypted home (unless you already have a backup copy of the actual eCryptfs mount passphrase). From your statement I forgot my password you might be out of luck unless you can guess/remember your old password.

Recovering your files from a backup copy would be much easier, if you have a backup copy (everyone really should have backup copies of important data, all drives fail eventually, and forgetting passphrases is easy to do).

FYI, your actual encrypted files and wrapped-passphrase file should be stored in /home/.ecryptfs, along with every user's encrypted home. The actual home folder (for example /home/[username] only has links to the actual folders, and 2 help files. Specifically:

• Your encrypted files should be in /home/.ecryptfs/[username]/.Private
• wrapped-passphrase and other config files should be in /home/.ecryptfs/[username]/.ecryptfs