Remove LUKS Encryption

[masaud]

How to remove LUKS encryption completely?

I installed Manjaro-gnome-20.04 on 256 GB NVMe with LUKS encryption on boot. I want to remove LUKS encryption (I know the passphrase).

Thanks.

[megavolt]

I never used LUKS, but it should be:

1. Backup your data
2. Delete the Partitions
3. Reinstall without LUKS
4. Restore Backup

[masaud]

To remove LUKS, I have tried the following but so far I have been failed:

1. Re-installing Manjaro (the setup terminates in the partition stage)
2. Re-installing LINUX MINT (the setup terminates in the partition stage)
3. Using arch live iso to create new partition table (But after finalizing new partition table, i see the old partitions when I hit “lsblk”)
4. Tried “sudo dd bs=4M if=/dev/zero of=/dev/nvme0n1p2 status=progress”
5. Using arch wiki help cryptsetup-reencypt --decrypt /dev/nvme0n1p2 with Arch live USB

[moson]

You can actually decrypt without reinstalling. But i guess with the dd command, things are messed up now, so:

Before installing, open gparted in the live session and wipe out the partitions.

[Twifty]

@moson

You can actually decrypt without reinstalling.

Although no longer useful to @masaud, it would be helpful to users of the search function if the answer to the question was actually posted in the thread.

[masaud]

Hello,

I have luks encryption on NVME.

I am failed to remove encryption after trying five different approaches.

I have posted it also in forum. Here is the link Remove LUKS Encryption

Please guide me to remove it. I have been trying but getting nowhere.

Data is not important. I just want my NVME back.

Thanks

[linux-aarhus]

@masaud

• Re-installing Manjaro (the setup terminates in the partition stage)
• Re-installing LINUX MINT (the setup terminates in the partition stage)
• Using arch live iso to create new partition table (But after finalizing new partition table, i see the old partitions when I hit “lsblk”)
• Tried “sudo dd bs=4M if=/dev/zero of=/dev/nvme0n1p2 status=progress”
• Using arch wiki help cryptsetup-reencypt --decrypt /dev/nvme0n1p2 with Arch live USB

Since you hare tried just about everything - I suspect the encryption is implemented by the hardware.

@masaud

of=/dev/nvme0n1p2

One thing caught my eye - you have not zapped your device only content of the partition - which leaves the partition table behind.

Possible methods to clear a disk

To avoid someone copy pasting thus wiping their primary disk - replace $DEViCE with the actual device - in this context /dev/nvme0n1 - don’t append any partitions - just the device path.

Any one of the following commands should should be enough - but you can use all three if you like.

Execute as root (adding a failsafe layer to the listed commands)

Removes all traces of partition information including super blocks etc.

# sgdisk --zap-all $DEVICE

Write zeroes to the first 10M - effectively removing partition information

# dd if=/dev/zero of=$DEVICE bs=1M count=10

Creates a new GPT partition table with a single unformatted partition of Linux filesystem type

# printf 'o\ny\nn\n\n\n\n\nw\ny\n' | gdisk $DEVICE

SSD memory cell cleaing

• Solid state drive/Memory cell clearing - ArchWiki

(From my notes at nix.dk)