[Solved] Advice for securing data

[Hallvor]

I have got a Packard Bell TE69KB. It is ugly, it is slow, but it is good enough to keep in the cabin. However, I am concerned someone might steal it and recover my passwords and data.

Normally, I would just do an encrypted install, but there are a couple of problems:

1. I can not enter the BIOS to change the boot order. The password is long forgotten. (What a great idea that was...)
2. It will not boot from CD-Rom.
3. I therefore do not know how to make a reinstall. (I was able to install Debian Stretch from CD-Rom a few months ago when there was no OS on the HDD, however, but am a little reluctant to do it again, if that should fail.)

Is there an easy and safe way to encrypt the home partition, or should I wipe the current install and hope it is possible to reinstall...? Any advice?

[CwF]

reset the bios? find the jumper or contact pad, pull the battery, whatever. Always worked for me.

Then full disk encryption.

[Hallvor]

I removed the CMOS battery and put it back in. Now it will not boot anything, not even the HDD.

[CwF]

? That's past the post screen, yes? When it boots press F2 or F12 before the screen you see there...

[golinux]

Have a look at Tomb:
https://www.dyne.org/software/tomb/
https://github.com/dyne/Tomb

[Hallvor]

? That's past the post screen, yes? When it boots press F2 or F12 before the screen you see there...

F2 will just ask for a BIOS password, which I do not have. F12 does nothing at all.

When it boots, I only get two options.

1: The HDD (with Debian). It gives me an error. See screenshot above.
2. The external CD-ROM with Debian Stretch Netinstall. It gives the same error as above.

[Hallvor]

Have a look at Tomb:
https://www.dyne.org/software/tomb/
https://github.com/dyne/Tomb

Thanks for the tip.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

I removed the CMOS battery and put it back in. Now it will not boot anything, not even the HDD.

Disable Secure Boot.

If it still wants a password then maybe you need to trip the reset with a jumper (if the machine has one).

[CwF]

r a BIOS password, which I do not have. F12 does nothing at all.

Then the battery trick did nothing. Search around a bit, I see that there is talk of a different bios for this issue and unlock instructions. I searched "TE69KB clear bios" and seems plenty. I'm low bandwidth so you do the clicking!

Check for a cmos jumper and also the default password in case that's all it it.

[Hallvor]

I removed the CMOS battery and put it back in. Now it will not boot anything, not even the HDD.

Disable Secure Boot.

If it still wants a password then maybe you need to trip the reset with a jumper (if the machine has one).

It is impossible to disable Secure Boot without a password. I'll try resetting it with a jumper and let you know how it goes.

[debiman]

the trick with the cmos battery: i keep reading you should keep it removed for quite a long while, like 30min or so. you can also short circuit the battery contacts, a little easier than searching for jumpers.

i also read that it doesn't always help. certainly hasn't helped last time i tried it.

[Hallvor]

the trick with the cmos battery: i keep reading you should keep it removed for quite a long while, like 30min or so. you can also short circuit the battery contacts, a little easier than searching for jumpers.

i also read that it doesn't always help. certainly hasn't helped last time i tried it.

Yes, maybe I didn't remove it long enough. It was only out for 30 seconds or so.

[Hallvor]

Well, I took out the main battery, left the CMOS battery out for halv and hour and held the power button for 30 seconds to deplete any power. It did not help. I think I may be out of luck on this computer.

[Dai_trying]

I saw this web page that might have some useful information for you including some default BIOS passwords and a few methods to clear the settings. You might have already seen it but as have seen no mentions of pages that might help I thought I would post this one.

[Hallvor]

I saw this web page that might have some useful information for you including some default BIOS passwords and a few methods to clear the settings. You might have already seen it but as have seen no mentions of pages that might help I thought I would post this one.

Yes, yes, yes! I got into the BIOS! After a few failed password attempts, there was a numeral code. I visited https://bios-pw.org/ , entered the code and was presented with two passwords I could try to unlock it. The very first one worked! Thanks!

Marking thread as solved.

[debiman]

^ i should try that on our fujitsu-siemens laptop!

it's hard to believe that there's a master key for this - even if it's reverse-engineered.
where's the security in that?

of course you, hallvor, will secure your data properly, unlike those harebrained bios manufacturers.

[Hallvor]

Just this once I am happy about poor security.

At least now I can get a proper LUKS-install.

[golinux]

@Hallvor . . . That is most excellent news! I'm very happy for you!!

[Hallvor]

@Hallvor . . . That is most excellent news! I'm very happy for you!!

Thank you!