Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2010 02:09:14 +0000 From: RW <rwmaillists@googlemail.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: GELI file systems unusable after "glabel label" operations Message-ID: <20100123020914.250a1aee@gumby.homeunix.com> In-Reply-To: <20100123013431.GC35458@slackbox.xs4all.nl> References: <201001220908.o0M980UG017425@mp.cs.niu.edu> <20100123013431.GC35458@slackbox.xs4all.nl>
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On Sat, 23 Jan 2010 02:34:31 +0100 Roland Smith <rsmith@xs4all.nl> wrote: > On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 03:08:00AM -0600, Scott Bennett wrote: > > > > Why is that stored in the last sector of the device, rather > > than in the key file? What is the purpose of the key file if not > > to hold that type of information? The keyfile is user generated, usually just some bytes from /dev/random > All geom(4) providers use their last sector to store metadata; it's a > design decision. Probably because the first sector(s) are used for > boot blocks or filesystem metadata etc. > > It would have been possible to store the generated key in the > user-provided keyfile. But since it is not mandatory to have a > keyfile (you can also use just a passphrase), it makes more sense to > use the already provided metadata space in the last sector. Having it on the last sector allows the auto-detection of geli partitions. It would be nice to have the option of having the metadata in a separate metadata file instead of the last sector, to allow geli partitions to be indistinguishable from securely erased partitions.
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