problem converting 2.6.18 IDE to 2.6.23 PATA (mkinitramfs can't handle encrypted devices?)

I just installed a new Debian machine. It has encrypted root on an IDE disk.

For default 2.6.18 kernel the disk is seen as /dev/hda and encrypted root is /dev/mapper/hda2_crypt.

For the 2.6.23.x kernel with PATA, the disk is seen as /dev/sda, but the encrypted device doesn't change its name, and is still /dev/mapper/hda2_crypt.


To start from a crypted partition, one needs to create a initramfs. This works fine with the default 2.6.18 kernel, but doesn't work at all with a kernel using PATA.


A command like below:

mkinitramfs -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.23.12-pata 2.6.23.12-pata

will create a initrd image which tells the kernel to start the system from a wrong device - conf/conf.d/hooks/cryptroot in the initrd file will contain:

target=hda2_crypt,source=/dev/hda2,key=none


Obviously, this will fail on a PATA kernel, which should rather look for a source on /dev/sda2.

Using LABELs doesn't help as well - then, mkinitramfs doesn't create a conf/conf.d/cryptroot file at all, and booting fails.

There are several problems with /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/cryptroot and the way it fetches information from /etc/fstab:

1. When a LABEL is used for /, it creates an initrd which won't boot from an encrypted device.

2. When a device is used (like /dev/mapper/hda2_crypt) it mistakenly assumes it will always be on /dev/hda2. For PATA kernels it's simply not true.


So far, the only way to overcome this for me is to uncompress an initrd file, edit conf/conf.d/hooks/cryptroot to contain /dev/hda instead of /dev/sda (or, editing /etc/fstab before running mkinitramfs, and changing it back).


Are there any more maintainable ways to make a IDE -> PATA conversion, where root is on an encrypted partition?


--
Tomasz Chmielewski
http://wpkg.org


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