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Are there any instructions or a tutorial for installing Veracrypt multiboot

user9000
2019-08-03
2019-08-07
  • user9000

    user9000 - 2019-08-03

    The only tutorial available is for 'Create an encrypted file folder'. That same tutorial is all over the web. What if you want to do something else? Such as 'Encrypt the system partition or entire system drive'. There's no information. Nearly every search result is for a single-drive laptop while I have a multi-drive desktop. There is also some information about setting up a single-boot which is not what I need. I'm worried about causing a serious problem or wrecking the computer due to the lack of information on how to proceed. If I have to guess what to do, I'll probably make mistakes. I'm not going to know what I should be doing - ie. is there something I need to do to protect Grub while installing Veracrypt, and if so, what? I've been searching google and duckduckgo for days, asking on IRC, searching this forum, and searching other forums with no success on finding instructions tailored to this configuration. Sure, I could try and follow instructions for a different configuration and guess what alterations I have to make, but if one thing is off, it's likely to cause a real mess.

    I want to install Veracrypt on the Windows drive. I want to encrypt the whole drive, not just a folder. How does this affect the Linux bootloader which is on that drive? Would running boot-repair afterwards be enough?

    What are the instructions for this setup?

    My configuration: PC with 3 HDDs
    Legacy BIOS, not UEFI
    Windows Vista on main drive (C:, aka sda)
    Linux Mint on 2nd drive (sdb, encrypted with luks)
    Linux Mint on 3rd drive (sdc, not encrypted, may reinstall it and encrypt it later)
    Linux bootloader is on sda
    Do I have an HPA that I want to encrypt? I don't know

    The HPA question pops up in one of the Veracrypt setup screens. I don't know if I should choose Yes or No. After getting part way through the setup, I cancelled because there are too many questions I don't have answers for.

     
  • user9000

    user9000 - 2019-08-07

    I moved grub from sda to sdc like this: dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdc bs=512 count=1.
    That worked. The grub menu appeared on boot like it should.

    That meant when installing, at the 'Boot drive' step, I thought I had to choose "No", to answer "Is the currently running OS installed on the boot drive?" Except I got an error. "Veracrypt does not currently support encrypting on operating systems that do not boot from the drive on which it is installed." So after all that, days spent finding out how to move the bootloader to another partition, I had to choose "Yes" anyway. It's like the installer wants to confuse you.

    Then at the 'Non-Windows bootloader in MBR' step, the only answer I can choose is "No" because the installer tells you you can't continue if you choose "Yes". I had no choice but to choose "No".

    Eventually I managed to install Veracrypt on Windows.

    Now the problem is, it only goes to the Veracrypt Bootloader screen. It ignores my two Mint drives. There's no grub menu. There's no way for me to get into my Mint installations. I moved grub to sdc to avoid this problem. What is the exact solution for this issue?

     

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