Re: Blocked out from reinstalling by system konsole GELI passphrase request

On 7/14/26 15:51, John Gaskill wrote:
> After getting 15.1 installed on my new system, a closer inspection 
> revealed it did not go down as I thought I had specified, so I wiped out 
> the old install and reinstalled with more of what I wanted.
> 
> All new AMD/ASUS system with lots of ram, good CPU and SSDs.  Followed 
> instructions through the install menus and set up a ZFSRAID1 file system.
> 
> I probably should not have opted for GELI encryption, but did, kept 
> accurate record of input and successful passphrases, etc. and finished 
> installation.
> 
> When attempting to reboot into FreeBSD afterwards, the following screen 
> appeared and entering the strong passphrase correctly does not allow me 
> to pass and get further.

Is it re-prompting for the password after you enter it or is it doing 
something else? At 3 failed attempts to get a password to decrypt it 
should move on to the next device(/partition?). With layouts using 
labels/IDs instead of raw device entries I've had geli prompt across all 
detected variations when trying to fail attempts but not sure if the 
early boot prompts have that too.

If you made changes such as using a different keyboard layout then you 
need to be aware that such layouts are not present when prompted for the 
password before the kernel and such is loaded.

> I would like to use "gpart destroy -F" to clear the three SSDs of the 
> ZFS systems and FreeBSD installation and reinstall it without the 
> encryption and other hardening options I selected last time around.

As long as you can boot your install media, you should be able to use 
alt+F# where different #s go to different terminals and some will take 
you straight to an interactive prompt. From there you can issue whatever 
commands you desire including "camcontrol/nvmecontrol format/sanitize" 
or "dd" operations if you want to go further than just changing/erasing 
partition data.

Asus usually supports pressing F8 during boot to get a menu of bootable 
devices for a one time override or you can temporarily/permanently 
change boot device order in the UEFI (both F2 or del should enter if I 
remember Asus right). If you have booted other media and still get the 
password prompt, entering incorrect values 3 times should have it move 
on. A more drastic choice would be disconnecting the disk until bootup 
has gone further but UEFI settings and hardware needs to support hot 
swapping to connect it after power on. You could also use another OS 
version or type that doesn't have GELI support to get past it getting 
stuck on a GELI password.

> Not much out there on this subject from what I can find.
> 
> Suggestions please on getting past this screen?
> 
> Tried UEFI shell but although I can render a list of devices, I don't 
> seem to be able to mount them.
> 
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