Comments on: Encryption, USB Drive, Ubuntu, Windows, and You!

By: Paul B.

Paul B. — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:49:40 +0000

Steve, RE LUKS & FreeOTFE
How did you get Windows to recognize the second (encrypted) partition on Windows? I find that Windows just assigns a drive letter to the first (unencrypted) partition, and FreeOTFE won’t mount the second partition without a drive letter. Did you have this problem and find a workaround?

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:34:01 +0000

Thanks for the reply. As an update, I wound up making two partitions, one encrypted with LUKS by Ubuntu and the other just holding FreeOTFE so that I can use it at a Windows XP machine. It is not truly portable as you need Administrator rights in Windows with FreeOTFE. I could not use FreeOTFE Explorer as it does not yet have the functionality to mount Linux partitions (the website says it is coming).

All works well so I am happy for the moment.

GPG was not a portable option for me as it runs on Windows only

You directions helped tremendously. Thanks again

By: james

james — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:59:35 +0000

Well, if I remember correctly the reason I originally went with FreeOTFE was the “portable” mode which allowed me decrypt and mount the volume on a locked down Windows machine. I had used it back when I was doing Windows support at my old job but I’ve been out of that job and 100% Windows free I’m not sure if that holds up under Vista or 7. That said, the FreeOTFE site still advertises it as a truly portable solution:

Not only does FreeOTFE offer “portable mode”, eliminating the need for it to be installed before use, it also offers FreeOTFE Explorer – a system which allows FreeOTFE volumes to be accessed not only without installing any software, but also on PCs where no administrator rights are available. This makes it ideal for use (for example) with USB flash drives, and when visiting Internet Cafés (AKA Cybercafés), where PCs are available for use, but only as a “standard” user.

As for the partitions, I went the route of encrypting the whole device rather than just a slice of it. At the time it just seemed easier even if it was overkill. :-/

As an alternate solution, you could go with GPG which offers a portable solution. Off the top of my head you zip a directory of files that you might need then encrypt that file and store it on your thumb drive with GPG2Go; I haven’t tried that so your mileage may vary.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:58:58 +0000

This seems to be a good cross platform alternative to TrueCrypt. My only concern is that this may not be a true “portable” solution as FreeOTFE is required to be installed in any Windows machine you are using in order to access the encrypted file/volume. In other words, if you are at a friends house you can not access the USB Drive without obtaining Administrative privileges and then installing FreeOTFE.

Even if you had Administrative rights you would need to download FreeOTFE from the internet as you would not be able to transfer it off of the USB Drive as it is in a format that Windows does not recognize (without help from FreeOTFE that is). If you try to have multiple partitions on the USB Drive so that on partition is FAT 32 so that you can have FreeOTFE Portable, you still have problems as Windows does not like to have more than on partition of a USB Drive and will not read the drive at all.

Is there any workaround for this so that you can have a truly cross platform encryption that can work with both Ubuntu and Windows and will allow you to use a computer that is not your own which would not require Administrative rights?

Thanks.

Steve

By: How to create an encrypted USB drive?

How to create an encrypted USB drive? — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:33:31 +0000

[...] Acknowledgment Those 2 articles greatly helped me find my way around the problem:Encryption, USB Drive, Ubuntu, Windows, and You! [...]

By: Jan

Jan — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:34:57 +0000

Copying 170 Gb between to luks/ntfs formattet disk with success, including 4 > 4 Gb files. Transparent in linux and windows.
Set drive name and re-formatted to ntfs in windows.

Let my known if you known linux commands for that ntfs formatting and setting drive name.

Thank you :=)

By: Jan

Jan — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:43:31 +0000

Used windows to format partition to ntfs, but it would be nice to get linux commands … :=)

I am trying to copy 170 Gb from one luks/ntfs formattet usb disk to an other luks/ntfs formattet disk (ubuntu 8.10).
First try gave copy error, and lost connections to the two usb drives. Couldn’t reconnect. Couldn’t soft restart ubuntu.
“lost page write due to I/O error on dm-0″ errors in /var/log/messages.
Second try after hard restart in progress. 3½ hours left …

By: james

james — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:25:39 +0000

You can change that in cfdisk by selecting Linux Extended, I believe… I’d need to dig up a flash drive to test it though.

By: Jan

Jan — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:19:32 +0000

Ok, I can see that the problem is fat32:

/dev/mapper/luks_crypto_f7de6d63-aa8d-4754-91e6-dbd35d8b65e2
302547920 87332688 215215232 29% /media/disk
filesystem vfat (FAT32)
cfdisk: 1 primar partition linux ext3 309961,46 Mb

Where did Fat32 came from ?

By: Jan

Jan — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:33:25 +0000

Is there any file size limits?
Got “file too large” when copying a large files (5.1/5.3 Gb) to uksformat formattet usb harddisk.