Multiple Encrypted Folders _luks.4fs possible?

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wdx12
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Multiple Encrypted Folders _luks.4fs possible?

Post by wdx12 »

Hello,

Currently migrated from my NTFS USB with puppy_fossapup_64_9.5 to FAT32 given my new
laptop is UEFI picky and won't boot my old NTFS USB puppy. IE i had to do FAT32.

I had a very large 68G fossapup64save_luks.4fs file which was nice.
Now living in FAT32 I'm maxed out to 4G file size.

Questions:
1. Can I have multiple ***save_luks.4fs file that I can open for safe storage?
2. Would it be possible to have USB drive with FAT32 and NTFS partitions.
Boot via FAT32 and have fossapup64save_luks.4fs file on NTFS partition?
3. TrueCrypt? I used this app before in windows. Is there an alternative for PuppyLinux?

Thanks Sr.

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mikeslr
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Re: Multiple Encrypted Folders _luks.4fs possible?

Post by mikeslr »

Don't know the answer to "1. Can I have multiple ***save_luks.4fs file that I can open for safe storage?" But why Fat32? UEFI needs a Fat32 partition to hold a boot-loader. But the grub.cfg on it used to call an operating system can pass control over to an operating system on Linux Formatted partition. They have no size restriction. The easy way to set them up would be:
1. Locate your Puppy(s) in folders on the Linux Formatted partition without their save_luks.4fs file(s).
2. If necessary from a Puppy on a USB-Key, install and run grub2config, viewtopic.php?p=29703#p29703 placing the bootloader on the Fat32 partition and selecting the Linux formatted partition as the location on which it should look for Puppys. It will create a boot-loader with grub.cfg on the former offering choice of booting into Windows and/any Puppy(s) on the Linux Formatted partition.
3. Copy over your save_luks.4fs file to the folder which holds the rest of its system.

"Would it be possible to have USB drive with FAT32 and NTFS partitions.
Boot via FAT32 and have fossapup64save_luks.4fs file on NTFS partition?"

Yes. Just format the 2nd partition as NTFS. But why use NTFS rather than Linux? If the answer to that is so that you can access your TrueCrypt containers from both Windows and you Puppy, then the best solution would be to create 3 partitions: (a) a small (150 +/-) fat32 partition to hold the boo-tloader; a 2nd NTFS partition large enough to hold TrueCrypt containers you now have and (see below) the veracrypt containers you may later create; and a 3rd Linux-formatted partition to hold Puppy(s).
As a precaution, after creating the partitions using gparted under some Puppy, boot into Windows and use it to reformat the 2nd partition before copying anything into it. Sometimes Windows doesn't like how Linux formats things. FYI, the reason for the construction order placing the Linux partition last is that Windows can not natively read Linux partitions. When it reaches the end of a Fat32/ntfs partitions --the beginning of a Linux Formatted partition-- it stops reading. So it won't see either any Fat32 or ntfs partitions which follow a Linux formatted partition.

AFAIK, truecrypt ceased updating several years ago. It was forked to veracrypt which you can find here, https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Downloads.html. I haven't worked with it since Xenialpup 32-&-64 were the new 'kids on the block'. IIRC, the debs worked OOTB under Xenialpups. But I created an SFS for Xenialpup64 you can obtain here, https://www.mediafire.com/file/5zgbcqvc ... 5.sfs/file. Edit: It won't work under recent Puppys and the current version won't work OOTB. Running Fossapup64 and ldd on the extracted version for Ubuntu 20, reveals the following missing dependencies:

libayatana-appindicator3.so.1 => not found
libwx_gtk3u_adv-3.0.so.0 => not found
libwx_gtk3u_core-3.0.so.0 => not found
libwx_baseu-3.0.so.0 => not found
libwx_gtk3u_adv-3.0.so.0 (WXU_3.0) => not found
libwx_baseu-3.0.so.0 (WXU_3.0) => not found
libwx_gtk3u_core-3.0.so.0 (WXU_3.0.5) => not found
libwx_gtk3u_core-3.0.so.0 (WXU_3.0) => not found

PPM or hunting on pkgs.org may find them, but I'm not going to as pzip suffices for my encryption needs. See the post linked below.

See this post regarding your using your Truecrypt containers, https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/veracrypt.html
Caution2. While composing this I recalled that there were problems using veracrypt. See, viewtopic.php?p=8263#p8263 and especially, https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... 85#p826185 Don't discard your Truecrypt containers or a way to get into them until you're satisfied you have a working solution.

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Re: Multiple Encrypted Folders _luks.4fs possible? Follow-up

Post by mikeslr »

Hi again wdx12,

While looking for a solution I discovered that Truecrypt was abandoned when Microsoft withdrew its support (contemporaneous with its abandonment of Windows XP). Shortly thereafter Microsoft built 'BitLockers' into some of the operating systems it published (Pro-editions and higher).
There are posts which explain how to convert your Truecrypt containers to 'bitlockers' and other posts on how to access them under Linux. [I didn't dig deep enough to know if 'access' just means READ, or also enables WRITE].

It is probably best if you were to explain your intended use of true-crypt containers (the ones you currently have) and the alternative to true-crypt if you intend to continue encrypting information. In particular do you intend to use the containers under both Linux and Windows?

And, NO, the simplest solution, XP-veracrypt under Wine, doesn't work. I tried.

wdx12
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Re: Multiple Encrypted Folders _luks.4fs possible?

Post by wdx12 »

Outstanding! You gave me enough ammo to tweak it further.
3 partitions route sounds like a plan.

Great tip on making Linux partition last!

As for purpose, just old habits I'm old school EE now semi retired and trying to simplify things as safe as I can
make it as it becomes more portable.

I did check a bit BitLocker, I'd rather have something written by the community.

Again thank you for the time it took to write this! Much appreciated.

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Re: Multiple Encrypted Folders _luks.4fs possible?

Post by mikeslr »

Regarding the newer Puppys' problems with veracrypt, I had a similar thought to that bigpup posted here, viewtopic.php?p=45398#p45398. Veracrypt did work under Xenialpup. Bit of a PITA though, having to boot into/out of another Puppy to encrypt/decrypt documents. Might be more efficient to setup virtualbox under Fossapup.

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