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Open your backup without Deucalion

What you'll do: get at your backed-up files on any computer: Linux without Deucalion, Windows or macOS.
What you need: the backup drive and its password (if encrypted); for VeraCrypt on Windows or macOS, the free VeraCrypt app.
How long it takes: 5–15 minutes (plus installing VeraCrypt if needed).

Your backup is made of normal files. Your home folder is in Deucalion-Backup/home, and extra folders in Deucalion-Backup/extras. You can open and copy them directly. Two things to know:

  • On an exFAT or NTFS drive, a few names look slightly different (report： final？.txt); see File names on exFAT.
  • Permissions and links come back only when Deucalion restores the files. Copying them by hand gives you the content.

The drive's READ-ME-FIRST.txt (on its normal part) explains the same for that drive.

No encryption

Plug in the drive; open it in the Files app; open Deucalion-Backup → home.

Plug in the drive; open it in File Explorer; open Deucalion-Backup → home. exFAT and NTFS drives can be read by Windows.

Plug in the drive; open it in Finder; open Deucalion-Backup → home. exFAT drives can be read and written; NTFS drives can only be read.

VeraCrypt

With the VeraCrypt app: open VeraCrypt; for an encrypted folder click Select File and choose Deucalion-Backup.hc on the drive; for an encrypted part or whole drive click Select Device and choose the drive's encrypted partition. Choose a free slot, click Mount, type the password. The backup appears as a drive.

Without VeraCrypt, with cryptsetup, which every Ubuntu has (for a whole drive or part, use the partition, for example /dev/sdb2, instead of the file):

$ sudo cryptsetup open --type tcrypt --veracrypt /media/alex/Photos/Deucalion-Backup.hc mybackup
Enter passphrase for /media/alex/Photos/Deucalion-Backup.hc:

$ sudo mkdir -p /mnt/mybackup && sudo mount /dev/mapper/mybackup /mnt/mybackup && ls /mnt/mybackup/Deucalion-Backup
backup.json  home  system

When you are done:

$ sudo umount /mnt/mybackup && sudo cryptsetup close mybackup
  1. Install VeraCrypt from veracrypt.fr.
  2. Open VeraCrypt. Choose a free drive letter in the list.
  3. Encrypted folder: click Select File… and choose Deucalion-Backup.hc on the drive. Encrypted part or whole drive: click Select Device… and choose the drive's encrypted partition.
  4. Click Mount and type the backup password. The backup appears as a new drive in File Explorer.
  5. When done, select it in VeraCrypt and click Dismount.

Never format

Windows may say that a drive (the encrypted part) needs to be formatted. Choose Cancel. Formatting would erase your backup.

  1. Install macFUSE and VeraCrypt (from veracrypt.fr), as VeraCrypt's instructions describe.
  2. Open VeraCrypt, choose a slot, then Select File… (Deucalion-Backup.hc, for an encrypted folder) or Select Device… (the encrypted partition), and click Mount.
  3. Type the backup password. The backup appears in Finder.
  4. When done, click Dismount in VeraCrypt.

LUKS

LUKS is built into Linux and can't be opened on Windows or macOS.

On a desktop: plug in the drive. Ubuntu asks for the password and opens it in the Files app.

In a terminal, with Ubuntu's disk tools (for an encrypted folder, first attach the file with udisksctl loop-setup -f /media/<you>/<drive>/Deucalion-Backup.luks and use the device it names):

$ udisksctl unlock -b /dev/sda1
Passphrase:
Unlocked /dev/sda1 as /dev/dm-0.

$ udisksctl mount -b /dev/dm-0
Mounted /dev/dm-0 at /media/alex/Big

$ ls /media/alex/Big /media/alex/Big/Deucalion-Backup
/media/alex/Big:
Deucalion-Backup  lost+found

/media/alex/Big/Deucalion-Backup:
backup.json  home  system

When done: udisksctl unmount -b /dev/dm-… then udisksctl lock -b /dev/sd… (the devices shown above).

Not possible: LUKS works only on Linux. Start any computer from an Ubuntu USB stick ("Try Ubuntu") to read it.

Restoring with Deucalion later

To put files back with their original names and permissions, use Deucalion on Ubuntu: from the drive's Deucalion-Tool folder (bin/deucalion open, then bin/deucalion restore …), or after installing it.

What you have now: access to your files from any computer.