cannot access external hard drive after update

[rocket5375]

Hi-I wonder if someone can help me. I have an external  drive ( Maxtor OneTouch) connected via firewire, and encrypted using Truecrypt. I normally gain access thru Konsole ( kdesu truecrypt) which brings up a prompt for the root password, and then the Truecrypt window loads.After carrying out a system update a few days ago, I get this coming up in Konsole :

[robin@localhost ~]$ kdesu truecrypt
Xlib:  extension "Generic Event Extension" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "Generic Event Extension" missing on display ":0.0".

I can still get the Truecrypt window to load, but cannot get into the drive. Could this be a problem with the graphics card (ati 9700 pro using the "x1950 and earlier" driver-I've tried to use the proprietary driver in Utilities, but the installation appears to fail), or xorg ? I have no idea. No other program seems to have been affected, and the system  is fully up to date. Any help would be much appreciated.

[Xero]

 Have you tried logging out and back in, or even rebooting?

[AndrzejL]

Hi rocket5375.

This is a harmless / meaningless error caused by the fact that we are in the middle of a big upgrades (crossroad between KDE3 / KDE4 + new kernel + new xorgs in the near future). It was explained before. What You are experiencing cant be related to it.

Search forum for "xlib extension" (skip the "") to find out more.

Maybe reboot will help like Xero suggested?
What kernel do You use (uname -a in konsole)?
What version of PCLinuxOS do You use?
Which repo do You use to upgrade?
Are You fully updated or are You skipping some packages?

I dont know anything about truecrypt but hang on tight some of our guys with more brains will try to help.

Anything else You may want to add that may help them help You?

Andy

EDIT: If You use 26.8 kernel can You try installing 27.31.tex5 from the repo? OR hang on - next 2 weeks maybe 3 repo will be flooded with new / updated software + 2010 iso will be released... This could improve things A LOT .

[rocket5375]

Many thanks for your replies. In answer to your questions; I am new to Linux--logging on/off/rebooting makes no difference--I am using pclinuxos 2009--kernel release is 26.8--(I don't see an upgrade in synaptic)--I only update thru synaptic from the Indiana repo--I update everything in one go--I've been using Truecrypt for some time with no problem( until after the last upgrade)-- I have never seen these errors in Konsole prior to the upgrade--I haven't yet found any other program that has been adversely affected. Any other comments would be gratefully received, but if you think I should wait a few weeks, that's fine.

[AndrzejL]

1 ) Open synaptic Go to Settings > Repositories > Uncheck indiana > Check pclosusers and OK to close the settings window
2 ) Click Reload in the top left of Synaptic
3 ) Wait till its finished
4 ) Click Mark All updates
5 ) Click Mark
6 ) Click Search
7 ) Type in 27.31
8 ) Click OK
9 ) Mark for installation kernel 27.31.tex5
10) Click Apply
11) Click Apply again

If during update You will be told that downloading failed and asked do You want to continue without some packages ALWAYS choose no and close synaptic (quit the changes) and start from the point 1.

When all is installed reboot and after the BIOS loads up choose new kernel in the Grub

Report back from there...

Hope this helps. If it does not helps then wait till someone wiser then me comes over and replies ...

Andy

[rocket5375]

Thanks, Andy--I followed your advice to the letter. There was an "extra output" message at the end of the kernel installation; FATAL:" Module (I think it said module-stupid, I should have written it down) ide floppy not found".However, the system seems to t be working fine. Sadly, it hasn't fixed my problem. The same error message is still coming up in Konsole, and Truecrypt seems unable to access any folders on the external drive.Thanks for your help, all the same-at least I now have the latest kernel !

Robin

[AndrzejL]

No problem...  sorry I dont know more to help...

Andy

[rocket5375]

One extra piece of info which may or may not be of any use; I have found that I can access folders on the drive if logged on as root, although not if I change to root from within the user account-- slightly surprising as I get the exactly the same error message in both cases:

[root@localhost robin]# truecrypt
Xlib:  extension "Generic Event Extension" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "Generic Event Extension" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "Generic Event Extension" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "Generic Event Extension" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "Generic Event Extension" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "Generic Event Extension" missing on display ":0.0".
/root/.gtkrc-2.0:56: Clearlooks configuration option "menuitemstyle" is not supported and will be ignored.
/root/.gtkrc-2.0:57: Clearlooks configuration option "listviewitemstyle" is not supported and will be ignored.
/root/.gtkrc-2.0:58: Clearlooks configuration option "progressbarstyle" is not supported and will be ignored.

Truecrypt always says the drive is mounted, but that is as far as I can get, unless I'm logged in to the  root account.

[AndrzejL]

can You please try running

Code: [Select]

kdesu truecrypt
from the console as a user?

Andy

[Old-Polack]

One extra piece of info which may or may not be of any use; I have found that I can access folders on the drive if logged on as root, although not if I change to root from within the user account-- slightly surprising as I get the exactly the same error message in both cases:

[root@localhost robin]# truecrypt
Xlib:  extension "Generic Event Extension" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "Generic Event Extension" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "Generic Event Extension" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "Generic Event Extension" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "Generic Event Extension" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "Generic Event Extension" missing on display ":0.0".
/root/.gtkrc-2.0:56: Clearlooks configuration option "menuitemstyle" is not supported and will be ignored.
/root/.gtkrc-2.0:57: Clearlooks configuration option "listviewitemstyle" is not supported and will be ignored.
/root/.gtkrc-2.0:58: Clearlooks configuration option "progressbarstyle" is not supported and will be ignored.

Truecrypt always says the drive is mounted, but that is as far as I can get, unless I'm logged in to the  root account.

I'm not using the current version of truecrypt, but older versions needed a line in /etc/sudoers to be able to access truecrypt files/partitions as a normal user;

%truecrypt ALL=(root)  NOPASSWD:/usr/local/bin/truecrypt

Any normal user that was a member of the truecrypt group would then be able to access the files/partitions, if they also knew the specific password to the specific file/partition.

Could it be that /etc/sudoers was replaced by the update? Look for a backup file, /etc/sudoers~ and check for that line in both, /etc/sudoers and /etc/sudoers~.

[root@fatman ~]# ls -l /etc |grep sudoers
-r--r-----  1 root root      651 Jan 27 14:41 sudoers
-r--r-----  1 root root      650 Feb  7  2009 sudoers~

 [root@fatman ~]# cat /etc/sudoers  
# sudoers file.
#
# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
#
# See the sudoers man page for the details on how to write a sudoers file.
#

# Host alias specification

# User alias specification

# Cmnd alias specification

# Defaults specification
# Defaults syslog=auth

# Runas alias specification

# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL) ALL

# Uncomment to allow people in group wheel to run all commands
#%wheel ALL=(ALL)       ALL

# Same thing without a password
# %wheel        ALL=(ALL)       NOPASSWD: ALL
# %users  ALL=/sbin/mount /cdrom,/sbin/umount /cdrom
# %users  localhost=/sbin/shutdown -h now

%truecrypt ALL=(root)  NOPASSWD:/usr/local/bin/truecrypt
ALL ALL=NOPASSWD:/bin/mount -o loop* -t iso9660* /home/*/.kisotmp/* ,/bin/umount /home/*/.kisotmp/*
  
Try the above, and post your results.

[rocket5375]

Success ! You were absolutely right-everything seems to be fine, now The error messages are still come up in Konsole- I am assuming they are of no consequence. The line BELOW the one I needed to add in the sudoers file is also absent- I don't know if this is of any importance ( I haven't added it).
Thank you so much for your trouble- I don't think I would ever of found the solution by myself.

Regards

[Old-Polack]

Success ! You were absolutely right-everything seems to be fine, now The error messages are still come up in Konsole- I am assuming they are of no consequence. The line BELOW the one I needed to add in the sudoers file is also absent- I don't know if this is of any importance ( I haven't added it).
Thank you so much for your trouble- I don't think I would ever of found the solution by myself.

Regards

The last line from my sudoers file is for mounting .iso files from a set of aliases I wrote, so wouldn't do much for you. The error messages come from a partial upgrade of the xorg stuff, and will disappear when the upgrade is complete. In the meantime they are harmless and can be ignored.

Glad the fix was so simple, and everything is now working for you. Enjoy.  

[rocket5375]

I thought I had this problem nailed, but alas no. I did, as stated, follow old-polack's instructions to the letter (once I had worked out how to use "vi").The extra line of script is now present in both the sudoers file (see below) and sudoers~, Truecrypt worked  normally after this  until I had to reboot, after which the problem returned. I can get Truecrypt to work again by entering the sudoers file in Kwrite and clicking on File>Save, but I have to do this every time I start up/reboot. Once again, any advice would be gratefully received.

# sudoers file.
#
# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
#
# See the sudoers man page for the details on how to write a sudoers file.
#

# Host alias specification

# User alias specification

# Cmnd alias specification

# Defaults specification
# Defaults syslog=auth

# Runas alias specification

# User privilege specification
root   ALL=(ALL) ALL

# Uncomment to allow people in group wheel to run all commands
#%wheel   ALL=(ALL)   ALL

# Same thing without a password
# %wheel   ALL=(ALL)   NOPASSWD: ALL
# %users  ALL=/sbin/mount /cdrom,/sbin/umount /cdrom
# %users  localhost=/sbin/shutdown -h now

%truecrypt ALL=(root) NOPASSWD:/usr/local/bin/truecrypt

[Old-Polack]

I thought I had this problem nailed, but alas no. I did, as stated, follow old-polack's instructions to the letter (once I had worked out how to use "vi").The extra line of script is now present in both the sudoers file (see below) and sudoers~, Truecrypt worked  normally after this  until I had to reboot, after which the problem returned. I can get Truecrypt to work again by entering the sudoers file in Kwrite and clicking on File>Save, but I have to do this every time I start up/reboot. Once again, any advice would be gratefully received.

# sudoers file.
#
# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
#
# See the sudoers man page for the details on how to write a sudoers file.
#

# Host alias specification

# User alias specification

# Cmnd alias specification

# Defaults specification
# Defaults syslog=auth

# Runas alias specification

# User privilege specification
root   ALL=(ALL) ALL

# Uncomment to allow people in group wheel to run all commands
#%wheel   ALL=(ALL)   ALL

# Same thing without a password
# %wheel   ALL=(ALL)   NOPASSWD: ALL
# %users  ALL=/sbin/mount /cdrom,/sbin/umount /cdrom
# %users  localhost=/sbin/shutdown -h now

%truecrypt ALL=(root) NOPASSWD:/usr/local/bin/truecrypt

1. Despite what it says in the file, I always edit /etc/sudoers with kwrite, and have no problems.

2. Did you end the file with a new line, before saving it?

3. Did you make your normal user a member of the truecrypt group?

4. I set that line in /etc/sudoers immediately after the initial installation of truecrypt, on each installation I have, which means some go back to early 2007. This particular installation is from late 2008, and once set, have not had any problems related to the sudoers file. There should be nothing that writes to the file in any automated manner that could change it's permissions.

5. Sudoers is totally weird, as it's permissions say it's not writable at all, even by root. Internally it says only visudo can be used, yet it can, in fact, be edited by most editors. 

[root@fatman ~]# ls -l /etc/sudoers
-r--r----- 1 root root 651 Jan 27 14:41 /etc/sudoers

[rocket5375]

OK- I had better come clean and admit that I tried to use the Konsole method you recommended , but could not work out how to do the editing. Instead, I opened the file in Konqueror and added the line there. However, I didn't end the file with a new line (I assume that you mean moving the cursor to the line below the added one)- I had no idea that this was necessary. I saved the changes, but noticed that they had not been mirrored in Sudoers~,so I decided it would be best to remove the line and do the job again thru Konsole, once I had done some reading on how to use "vi". After this, the alteration appeared in the back-up file. Since your last post, I've revisited the file in both Konqueror and Konsole and highlighted the line below before saving again.
In answer to question 2--I have been into "Users and Groups" and added robin (myself) and root to the Truecrypt group. One last point- I have always had to use the "kdesu truecrypt" command in Konsole to open the program ; if I try to open it in the normal way, it prompts me for the Truecrypt password, which it accepts, and then for the Administrator password, which it refuses (failed to obtain Administrator privileges)-this is still the case. You could say that my experience with this program has been problematic right from the start!

P.S>I have found that I can get into the drive thru Konqueror in Super-User mode once I have mounted it in Truecrypt-I guess I may have to be satisfied with this.

Regards