GNU/Linux: "device mapper: create ioctl failed" "device or resource busy"

Question

I can't mount my encrypted devices anymore.

The error is:

device mapper: create ioctl failed 
device or resource busy

This error arises both with two different programs to access TrueCrypt encrypted devices: TrueCrypt and Tc-play.

In this case, the recommendation is to remove /dev/mapper/truecrypt* directories, or look for processes that are blocking the device. However, there is no /dev/mapper/truecrypt* directory, and lsof returns nothing.

One TrueCrypt device takes a whole HDD. According to fdisk, this partition is formatted with HPFS/NTFS.

Another TrueCrypt device is on a partition on /dev/sda. According to fdisk, this partition is "Linux" (ext3 or ext4, if I remember correctly).

What could be causing the error?

Software:

• Debian GNU/Linux 6

Solution

First install 7.1a (if you can find it anymore) was the latest totally working version of truecrypt. You might try to install that and see if it fixes your problem.

However, this product is now basically obsolete as the developers have apparently stopped development of truecrypt for reasons not yet really fully understood. The current release 7.2 contains only a DECRYPT and not any of the encrypt functionality.

I'd be thinking seriously of shifting away from this project to something else. Although, I don't have a good feel on what that will be.

Comments

[Eleno]

Yes, I knew that TrueCrypt had been discontinued. The version 7.1a is not available anymore. The 7.2 could work because I would only need to read the files to migrate them elsewhere. But I can't determine whether the 7.2 can be trusted.

[text]

Perhaps somebody on the web still has v7.1a kicking around.