Reformat PureOS w/ Librem Key

Software PureOS
1

Hello,

I have Librem 13v4 set up with Coreboot/Heads and also LUKS decryption via Librem Key as outlined here. I have run into some roadblocks with PureOS and would like to format the drive. My problems mainly stem from an inability to access and manage cryptocurrency. I can’t install a chromium based browser, can’t use add-ons in PureBrowser and also can’t get Monero wallet to run. I have made a number of changes to PureOS including adding Debian repositories, installing qt to build Monero. It still doesn’t work and I have no idea how to undo what was done. Boxes does not recognize my hardware wallet so I plan to try getting these things working in a less customized distribution like Mint or Ubuntu. I have backed up files and tried to simply load the Mint ISO image on USB through Heads but it just rebooted Heads. I do like PureOS (other than no browser extensions) and plan to continue using it and ideally I would like to create two partitions on the drive (500 GB NVMe) and run a dual boot setup with PureOS and a smaller Mint/Ubuntu partition to manage cryptocurrency but I figured I would ask for guidance first regarding how to go about this. Specifically:

  1. Do I need to do anything about the hard drive encrypted through the Librem Key prior to formatting?

  2. Can I format and partition the drive through Heads or should I revert to seaBIOS/coreboot first? Once dual boot is set up could I go back to Heads with Librem Key?

  3. Will I have to abandon Librem Key decryption for LUKS on the drive or is it possible to decrypt LUKS with Librem Key on the PureOS partition or both partitions?

  4. Is there anything else to consider that I am missing?

Thank you

2

You can.

Possibly, your other problems can also be solved without formating, but I’m less knowledgable about them

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3

See https://tracker.pureos.net/w/troubleshooting/firefox_compat_mode/ for how to enable PureBrowser to install any Firefox-compatible extension.

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4

See

I read over the article and based on my own experience trying to install Gnucash on PureOS, I am not hopeful about success in completing all the steps described in the article, but as this is the last item in your list, it would make sense to me to follow this path, rather than try a dual-boot PureOS/Ubuntu approach.

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5

Thank you for the help and the article. I have tried this and similar instructions on Monero github and built it unsuccessfully a couple of times but maybe I am missing a simple step. I see at least one of the dependencies hasn’t installed properly, do you know how to resolve this? I tried ‘sudo apt install libunwind-dev’ which didn’t seem to help.

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
libunwind8-dev : Depends: libunwind-dev (= 1.1-4.1) but 1.2.1-9 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

6

This works, thank you

7

This works, thank you for the link!

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8

I’m sorry, but this sort of thing is all too common and will require a more expert party to unravel.

9

I’m unclear as to what exactly the issue is. I’ve read through thread but I don’t understand what type of configuration is desired. Is it to work somehow with a Monero wallet?

10

Yes, I was trying to get the Monero wallet with GUI running but was unable to do so. Also I am wondering if there is a simple way to revert to stock PureOS with LUKS configured to unlock with the Librem Key, I have made a number of changes through trial and error to the OS and would be interested in undoing it all and making the few changes I know are effective. The system is still stable and everything works fine though so this isn’t a high priority. Thank you.

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11

Monero is on the todo list! Interesting to hear about your experiments, I’ve tried a bit as well but haven’t come as far.

As far as reverting to stock PureOS I’m afraid my recommendation is to reinstall. Instructions here: https://tracker.pureos.net/w/installation_guide/oem_installation/

If you’ve backed up your data from disk, or if you don’t have data that you need to keep on disk, reinstallation is likely going to be the most straight forward approach. I don’t know the state of your system so I can’t advise you on how to go backwards, it’s like trying to refreeze a melted ice cube back into exactly the same state it was in.

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