Re: [SD4L-user] Scramdisk broken by 2.6.32-24 kernel in Lucid

[Stewart M. <smm...@gm...>]

On Sun, 2010-08-29 at 16:26 +0200, Hans-Ulrich Juettner wrote:
> Hi Stewart,
> 
> I'm sorry that it took a long time. But now I've just
> published the new version 2.0-3 which has been updated
> to compile on kernels 2.6.34 and 2.6.35.
> Along with this new version I also provided packages
> for the Ubuntu 10.04 with the updated kernel 2.6.32-24.
> 
> Best regards
> Ulrich

Thanks, Hans-Ulrich. After I posted this, I took a look at the
development notes, and thought you were busy. I decided to wait.

In the meantime, I did a clean install to replace the upgrade (because I
had always wanted a separate /home partition) and recreated my accounts
using Ubuntu's Encryptfs system for an encrypted /home directory (in
part because another feature of the 2.6.32-24 kernel was this: you can't
direct Firefox to place a user profile inside an encrypted container). I
installed Truecrypt for use with my existing containers. However,
Truecrypt requires that my ordinary daily use account have sudo
privileges, something I do not like for it to have (there are hacks
around this, admittedly). For that reason, and more, it's good to have
Scramdisk back. I revoked sudo privileges for this account shortly after
installing 2.03. :-)

While Ecryptfs is a nice system, there are advantages to container
encryption as well, and it's good to be able to use both options.

When I was looking around for a temporary fix in the meantime, I noted
that the Ubuntu software repository had encryption programs in it which
have not been updated for a number of years (say, 2005 or 2006).
Truecrypt is up-to-date but suffers from a "weird license", as one
poster put it. Scramdisk, by contrast, is supported AND covered by a GPL
license.

I had brought up in the past "Why not put Scramdisk in the Ubuntu
repositories?" I think it may be time to ask that question again. If I
might be allowed a "blue sky" daydream moment, I think it would be
fantastic if Scramdisk could evolve into a mainstay in Linux
distributions, capable of not only creating/handling Truecrypt, legacy
Scramdisk, "new" Scramdisk (i.e, Scramdisk 4-line password entry but
other ciphers/filesystems) containers and partitions, as it does now,
but also could provide a GUI for LUKS containers and partitions. Except
for the full-disk encryption methods (which I suppose must be done
during installation) and Ecryptfs it would cover everything.

I have no idea how much additional work it would place upon you and the
Scramdisk project. On the other hand, if Scramdisk were to become a
mainstay in Linux repositories and integrated into them, it might mean
that your efforts at issuing fixes after-the-fact might be mitigated
somewhat.

Stewart

> Stewart Millen wrote:
> > Hans-Ulrich,
> > 
> > I just upgraded my desktop to Lucid. In re-installing Scramdisk, it also
> > downloaded the older kernel for compatibility (which was good). The
> > older kernel, however, breaks my NVIDIA video card driver. So a
> > recompiled version would be very helpful.
> > 
> > (I can still boot to the older kernel in the meantime, but only in
> > low-graphics mode).
> > 
> > Stewart