After sys-usb installation and reboot can't type passphrase at boot (keyboard not attached)

[imstresse...@vfemail.net]

---THE PROBLEM:
Today I correctly installed sys-usb (the qube to handle USBs), what I
did not know is that rebooting just after the installation caused the
system to deatched every usb from the system, including keyboard (and
also mouse I guess). As a result I can't type my passphrase in at the
computer boot.

---WHAT I HAVE ALREADY TRIED:
Following the guide at
https://www.reddit.com/r/Qubes/comments/68ofiq/usb_qubing_not_surprisingly_seems_to_have_locked/ I first went to rescue mode using the qubes installation usb, and then I deleted the sys-usb folder at /var/lib/qubes/servicevms/, and after that I tried to modify the grub file at /etc/default/grub, BUT UNFORTUNATELY THAT "GRUB" file Is not there in the rescue mode!!! and not even if I boot ubuntu in another usb and access my HDD. SEEMS LIKE IT IS ONLY ACCESSIBLE FROM the dom0 os
itself!

---WHAT I THINK I NEED TO DO IN ORDER TO FIX THE PROBLEM
I THINK I NEED TO FIND A WAY TO MODIFY THE GRUB file and change it as
described at https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/usb/#removing-a-usb-qube BUT
HOW CAN I DO THAT IF I CAN'T BOOT MY SYSTEM AND ACCESS IT ? AND
NEITHER ACCESS IT FROM THE RESCUE MODE?


HELP PLEASE I'M SO FRUSTRATED AND STRESSED because of this little problem.


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[Unman]

On Wed, Jul 05, 2017 at 05:31:57PM +0000, imstresse...@vfemail.net wrote:
> ---THE PROBLEM:
> Today I correctly installed sys-usb (the qube to handle USBs), what I did
> not know is that rebooting just after the installation caused the system to
> deatched every usb from the system, including keyboard (and also mouse I
> guess). As a result I can't type my passphrase in at the computer boot.
>
> ---WHAT I HAVE ALREADY TRIED:
> Following the guide at https://www.reddit.com/r/Qubes/comments/68ofiq/usb_qubing_not_surprisingly_seems_to_have_locked/
> I first went to rescue mode using the qubes installation usb, and then I
> deleted the sys-usb folder at /var/lib/qubes/servicevms/, and after that I
> tried to modify the grub file at /etc/default/grub, BUT UNFORTUNATELY THAT
> "GRUB" file Is not there in the rescue mode!!! and not even if I boot ubuntu
> in another usb and access my HDD. SEEMS LIKE IT IS ONLY ACCESSIBLE FROM the
> dom0 os itself!
>
> ---WHAT I THINK I NEED TO DO IN ORDER TO FIX THE PROBLEM
> I THINK I NEED TO FIND A WAY TO MODIFY THE GRUB file and change it as
> described at https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/usb/#removing-a-usb-qube BUT HOW
> CAN I DO THAT IF I CAN'T BOOT MY SYSTEM AND ACCESS IT ? AND NEITHER ACCESS
> IT FROM THE RESCUE MODE?
>
>
> HELP PLEASE I'M SO FRUSTRATED AND STRESSED because of this little problem.
>

Keep calm.
Reboot the box.
At the GRUB menu, select Qubes and press "e" - these instructions are at
the bottom of the screen.
This will allow you to edit the boot options - delete the pesky
"rd.qubes.hide_all_usb" everywhere you see it.

F10 or Ctrl-x to boot.

That should get you in to Qubes, and you will be able to correct the
situation.

Good Luck

unman

[imstresse...@vfemail.net]

Quoting Unman <un...@thirdeyesecurity.org>:

>>
>
> Keep calm.
> Reboot the box.
> At the GRUB menu, select Qubes and press "e" - these instructions are at
> the bottom of the screen.
> This will allow you to edit the boot options - delete the pesky
> "rd.qubes.hide_all_usb" everywhere you see it.
>
> F10 or Ctrl-x to boot.
>
> That should get you in to Qubes, and you will be able to correct the
> situation.
>
> Good Luck
>
> unman

Unfortunately in my qubes OS the grub menu does Not appear at all
during boot, I even tried to press the left-shift button during boot
but it didn't show up.
OR perhaps the steps you mentioned are to do with the rescue mode
(using the qubes usb installation) ? IF so I highlight the "rescue a
qubes system" option and selected 'e', but there's no
"rd.qubes.hide_all_usb" there.
I don't know what "pesky" means, googled it but all I got was that it
had something to do with the boot.

If I can't access the grub file to edit and so fix the problem, do you
know a way I could backup my qubes VMs from here (without accessing
the system) ? Because I would happily accept to reinstall the whole OS
but I can't lose my VMs in it right now, I would just need to backup
all the vms except dom0 (which I suppose is the one containing the
misconfigured grub file)...

Or perhaps also I could just replace this broken dom0 (supposing it is
the vm containing the broken grub file) with a fresh one?

I BEG YOU KEEP HELPING ME!!!

[Unman]

So, pressing the Shift Key from Starting the box *should* bring up the
Grub menu.
Sometimes, I've tried keeping it pressed, or just repeatedly hammering
on the key from start.

If you really cant get a grub menu, then you can use a live distro to
fix the problem.If you dont have one they are not difficult to get - for
what you want to do I'd suggest something small - slitaz, dsl,nanolinux.

Boot to the live distro, mount your /boot partition and edit the
grub2//grub.cfg -
look for entries relating to TIMEOUT - if you have HIDDEN_TIMEOUT, delete
that line.
set TIMEOUT=30
Save the file.
umount /mnt (or wherever you mounted boot partition)
reboot

[Grzesiek Chodzicki]

I had the same problem a few months ago. If you have a PS/2 port on your motherboard just plug the keyboard via a ps/2 to usb adapter and never worry about that again.

[Andrew Morgan]

On 07/05/2017 10:31 AM,

Try removing the 'rd.qubes.hide_all_usb' entry from dom0's
/boot/efi/EFI/qubes/xen.cfg.

You can do this from a liveUSB or another OS if you do not have the
ability to edit it from within Qubes.

Credit to mnords on IRC for the solution.

Andrew Morgan

[imstresse...@vfemail.net]

>
> So, pressing the Shift Key from Starting the box *should* bring up the
> Grub menu.
> Sometimes, I've tried keeping it pressed, or just repeatedly hammering
> on the key from start.
>
> If you really cant get a grub menu, then you can use a live distro to
> fix the problem.If you dont have one they are not difficult to get - for
> what you want to do I'd suggest something small - slitaz, dsl,nanolinux.
>
> Boot to the live distro, mount your /boot partition and edit the
> grub2//grub.cfg -
> look for entries relating to TIMEOUT - if you have HIDDEN_TIMEOUT, delete
> that line.
> set TIMEOUT=30
> Save the file.
> umount /mnt (or wherever you mounted boot partition)
> reboot

I went with a live os from another usb, decrypted the HDD, and since I
couldn't find any grub2 folder or grub.cfg file I started searching
for grub files, I looked at them all, and only 1 had the TIMEOUT Lines
etc, It is located at '/etc/sysconfig' . So once in the sysconfig
folder I did the 'sudo nano grub' and modified the following lines
FROM :
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
TO:
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=30
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=false
GRUB_TIMEOUT=30

saved the file, unmounted the HDD, and on reboot I pressed the
left-shift (during all boot) and nothing, just a black screen with
some "_" showing up sometimes, and after a few seconds it gets into
the uefi-boot. got the same thing hammering the left-shit instead of
just pressing it from the start. Got the same result.
Then I rebooted without pressing anything and it went to the uefi-bios
AND I NOTICED THAT NOW "Qubes" OS DOESN'T EVEN SHOW UP in the bios
list, and rebooting again and again the OS IS NOT EVEN LOADED ANYMORE
and the passphrase is not asked anymore!!!!!
:(((( DESPERATION IS RISING UP

Plus when I went back booting the live OS from the usb, and going back
to /etc/sysconfig and issuing 'nano grub', I noticed the file remained
unchanged, which if you think about it, it's normal because it's wrote
on it that to apply the changes you have to issue "update-grub", which
btw I can't do because i'm not in the qubes OS!!!
_______________________________________________________________________________

> I had the same problem a few months ago. If you have a PS/2 port on
> your motherboard just plug the keyboard via a ps/2 to usb adapter
> and never worry about that again.

I would have tried that but I do not have the ps/2-usb adapter. Now
that I know I could use one I would think about buying one as a last
resource, but since now the problem got even worse and the os is not
loaded and consequently the passphrase is not even asked, thats not
gonna help :(
_______________________________________________________________________________

> Try removing the 'rd.qubes.hide_all_usb' entry from dom0's
> /boot/efi/EFI/qubes/xen.cfg.
>
> You can do this from a liveUSB or another OS if you do not have the
> ability to edit it from within Qubes.
>
> Credit to mnords on IRC for the solution.
>
> Andrew Morgan

Unfortunately booting with a live OS from a usb, accessing the
internal HDD, going to /boot as you said, unfortunately that folder is
completely empty, not even hidden files are there. (not even 'ls -a'
didn't show anything)
_______________________________________________________________________________

:(((( DESPERATION IS RISING UP
Isn't there a way to copy my Vms from the live OS (in the usb) ? so I
can just reinstall the system and change the vms folders like when
using Vbox ?

Thank you for the attempts to help till now, I truly and deeply hope
to get out of this trouble.. it's a nightmare to me.

[Unman]

It's really important that you take it steadily, and stay calm.

At this stage I would ensure that I have all the data secure.

Since you know how to decrypt your Qubes partition and mount it, you can
take a backup of the data - the VMs are all in /var/lib/qubes - and the
xml file you see there contains Qubes internal data.
But the actual data can be secured by copying the appVM directories to an
external drive.
Do that and the feeling of panic will subside, because you know your
data is safe.

At that point you can do what you like - reinstall, or continue to try
to solve the boot problem. I would have a cup of tea while the files are
backing up - very soothing.

[imstresse...@vfemail.net]

>
> It's really important that you take it steadily, and stay calm.
>
> At this stage I would ensure that I have all the data secure.
>
> Since you know how to decrypt your Qubes partition and mount it, you can
> take a backup of the data - the VMs are all in /var/lib/qubes - and the
> xml file you see there contains Qubes internal data.
> But the actual data can be secured by copying the appVM directories to an
> external drive.
> Do that and the feeling of panic will subside, because you know your
> data is safe.
>
> At that point you can do what you like - reinstall, or continue to try
> to solve the boot problem. I would have a cup of tea while the files are
> backing up - very soothing.
>

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Alright, good, thank you, I've done the backup of the whole
/var/lib/qubes directory.

Now that I'm more calm, I was thinking of doing the following to try
to fix the boot problem:
Since I have already deleted the sys-usb folder at
/var/lib/qubes/servicevms/, I'm installing qubes OS in an external
drive, and the thought behind it is to copy the relative boot folders
and files of this working qubes OS, and paste in the internal HDD
(with the broken boot/grub thing) in order to fix the boot.

So basically the idea is to copy the currently working boot of the
working qubes OS freshly installed in the external drive, and paste it
in the broken qubes OS to fix it, and so be able to launch the OS again.

NOW THE QUESTION IS, what folders and files should I copy? ANY IDEA?
The alternative is to completely reinstall qubes, and replace the
whole qubes folder (got from /var/lib/qubes) to import the old vms,
but I would cringe a bit doing that since I had set up my qubes
panels, mouse speed, general settings, etc.

By the way Thank you a lot for the support shown till now, it really
is super appreciated!

[imstresse...@vfemail.net]

Solved reinstalling the OS.

IF youre' a user that is going through the same problem let me tell
you that WHAT PEOPLE FORGOT TO SAY is that to find the freaking grub
file you DO NOT NEED to mount your hard drive, decrypt it and search
for the file. Actually doing that you won't solve anything. THE grub
file is found on another place: go to a live usb OS (on the same
computer where your qubes Operating system is of course), then go to a
tool like "disks" (disks for ubuntu), click on your hard drive and
select the smallest memory partition of that memory device, like the
200mb one, inside it you'll find the xen.cfg file (search for it in
that partition cuz its inside a directory which i cant remember the
name), then modify it REMOVING THE .hide_allusb thing that we have
discussed in the prior messages of the thread, it should work. BEFORE
MAKING ANY CHANGES REMEMBER TO make a backup of the files you are
modifying. Also if that doesnt work you can search for a grub file in
the other partition of the same memory drive, this one should be
around 500mbs. find the file and modify it removing the .hide_all_usbs
thing etc.

the key point is that the grub file is not on the normal partition
(the one which you have all the directories of your qubes OS, like
"var" "etc" "usr" bla bla bla...).