cryptsetup: Cannot wipe header on device

[lads]

I am trying to encrypt an external hard drive on Ubuntu 14.04 followig this guide. I have previously ran badblocks that return zero errors; I am also sure the disk is not mounted:

$ findmnt /dev/sdb
$ findmnt /dev/sdb1
$

Whenever I try the initialisation with cryptsetup I get this same error:

$ sudo cryptsetup -y -v luksFormat /dev/sdb1

WARNING!
========
This will overwrite data on /dev/sdb1 irrevocably.

Are you sure? (Type uppercase yes): YES
Enter passphrase: 
Verify passphrase: 
Cannot wipe header on device /dev/sdb1.
Command failed with code 5: Cannot wipe header on device /dev/sdb1.

dmesg is not reporting anything out of the ordinary:

$ dmesg
[ 3208.032228] usb 2-1.4: new high-speed USB device number 7 using ehci-pci
[ 3208.140990] usb 2-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=059f, idProduct=0651
[ 3208.141001] usb 2-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 3208.141024] usb 2-1.4: Product: LaCie Hard Drive USB
[ 3208.141031] usb 2-1.4: Manufacturer: LaCie
[ 3208.141037] usb 2-1.4: SerialNumber: 10000E000BD8A671
[ 3208.177576] usb-storage 2-1.4:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 3208.178112] scsi4 : usb-storage 2-1.4:1.0
[ 3208.178183] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[ 3209.176917] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access     SEAGATE  ST3160812A       3.AA PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[ 3209.177561] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[ 3209.181342] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 312581808 512-byte logical blocks: (160 GB/149 GiB)
[ 3209.182337] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 3209.182348] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 53 00 00 08
[ 3209.183339] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 3209.201618]  sdb: sdb1
[ 3209.229465] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk

In the log a strange message is reporting something with block 0:

$ tail /var/log/syslog
Dec  8 09:18:20 MekanikDestruktiwKommandoh kernel: [ 3698.016311] end_request: critical target error, dev sdb, sector 0
Dec  8 09:18:28 MekanikDestruktiwKommandoh wpa_supplicant[1188]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-STARTED

I have tried writing zeros over sector zero, but cryptsetup returns the same error:

$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb1 bs=1M count=10
10+0 records in
10+0 records out
10485760 bytes (10 MB) copied, 0.564427 s, 18.6 MB/s

I also tried to wipe the whole thing, but again I recieve a message I can not interpret:

$ sudo wipefs -a /dev/sdb
wipefs: WARNING: /dev/sdb: appears to contain 'dos' partition table

Any ideas what is going on here? Thank you.

[sudodus]

Try to use the guided standard method of making an encrypted disk. See for example the following link (actually made for testing, but it works also for making a system that you intend to use - but install a released version of Ubuntu).

Install (entire disk with lvm and encryption) in Ubuntu Desktop amd64 for Trusty Daily

[lads]

Try to use the guided standard method of making an encrypted disk. See for example the following link (actually made for testing, but it works also for making a system that you intend to use - but install a released version of Ubuntu).

Install (entire disk with lvm and encryption) in Ubuntu Desktop amd64 for Trusty Daily

Thanks for replying. I am not looking to install the system on this disk, however.

[sudodus]

Thanks for replying. I am not looking to install the system on this disk, however.

???

[lads]

???

This is an external hard drive that I intend to use as a backup for some critical stuff that I prefer to keep encrypted. I do not wish to make it bootable, it is a somewhat bulky piece of hardware. All I want is an encrypted partition expanding over the whole disk.

Thank you.

[sudodus]

I see.

I have not used cryptsetup as a standalone program, so I cannot help you with details. Let us hope someone, who reads this thread, knows better and can help you

[sudodus]

I will move the thread to the security subforum in order to increase the chances that people who can help will find it.