However, currently, it can only encrypt Windows operating systems and not Linux.

This is not entirely accurate. It is possible to have a truecrypt encrypted system partition by building an initramfs image that prompts for the password and unlocks the truecrypt partition. In fact, this is how I currently have my laptop setup, and have experienced no issues whatsoever. The one caveat is that you need to mount –move the truecrypt control filesystem under the root filesystem after you mount. Otherwise, the system gets confused because there is a mounted filesystem that it can\’t see.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrueCrypt

It says that the Windows version (XP or Vista) can encrypt the boot partition or the entire boot drive. I took that to mean it only worked on Windows (evidently not a good assumption).

Thanks for your corrected information. It sounds like a pretty good configuration to me.

Thanks!

Jeff

The vim editor provides a file encryption service. It is moderately secure encryption that is well described when one enters :help encrypt in the vim editor.

I use a single vim encrypted file for all my passworded logins. The one file has the url, userid and password for each site I access. I make it easy to use big nasty passwords like this: First I used apg and I generated 100 passwords which I keep in this same file. Instead of typing user id\’s or passwords, I use the linux mouse to copy strings from the vi window to the browser window.

While not perfect, this scheme has a relatively small number of exposures. I periodically print out the plain text file so I have a disaster recovery solution in case the disk fails.

The vulnerability of compressed file systems to bit errors has been very visible to me since I installed a Sony DVD RW AW-G170A. This drive has a major problem writing and reading compressed files. The drive is really in trouble reading a Ubuntu Install CD. The Ubuntu Install CDs of late have a 7mb gz compressed initramfs.gz plus a 698 megabyte squashfs.

I have seen file error situations where the decompression process simply stops with no error message.

But working my way back from a specific CD with bad files to clearly understanding what is the weakness of a specific file compression system is a time consuming process. I am playing around with altering 1 byte in a compressed file and seeing if the decompression is affected.