patches & Linux Encryption HOWTO

[Christoph Hertel <c.hertel@usa.net>]

Hello everyone,

I did not find a reference to the archive of this ML in the 'Linux
Encryption HOWTO', so if I ask questions asked before consider my first
suggestion and add a link/hint in section 1.4 "Mailing List".

Now for my beginner's question: I have a Debian system running with the
package util-linux 2.10q-1. The changelog.Debian.gz states for version
2.10d-5:
* Included patch from "J.H.M. Dassen (Ray)" <jhm@cistron.nl>:
  - Restored enhanced losetup(8) manpage.
  - Restored encrypted filesystem support, by applying util-linux-2.9w from 
    patch-int-2.2.13.3.gz as found on ftp.kerneli.org (modified to work with 
    Debian's kernel-patch-int's crypto.h).
  (closes: #54657)
Does this mean that I can skip section 4.2 "Patching the util-linux
source" in the HOWTO? If yes, then please add a comment to the HOWTO.
What is "Debian's kernel-patch-int's crypto.h"? Is there a special patch
for Debian?

Next Question: Kernel 2.2.14 is running very smoothly on my machine, I
have a slow 33.6 modem and [etc.] -> I don't want to update my kernel to
2.2.18 (or whatever is out there, or even 2.4.0). May I use the 2.2.17.6
crypto patch or do I have to use the 2.2.14.x? Yes, the HOWTO says "It
should apply without rejects to all recent 2.2.1x kernels." But I'm
afraid of messing things up.

That's for now. Nevertheless I found typos:
* section 1.3 "Aims of this document":
"These efford(t?)s are"
"Kjeldaas ( astor@fast.no) in" (space in front of email-address).
* section 4.3 "Making an Encrypted Folder"
"home dire(c)tory of"
"Just make sure it contains no data and replace the filename ~/.config
in the following discussion" (is ~/.config meant, or ~/.crypto ?)
* section 4.1 "Configuring the Kernel"
"The help texts as well as the glossary at the end of this document will
help you with that" (the ciphers are not discussed in the glossary)
* section 4.4 "Automagically Encrypting the Home Directory with `EHD''"
"If you are interested, give my(e?) a call."
* section 6.1.1 "How can I encrypt swap?"
"See the sections on individual approaches below." (there's nothing
below?)


Btw, great job with the HOWTO and all! Thanks! I'm not a native speaker
and sometimes very confused, so please excuse anything wrong above :-)


Christoph

p.s. Are there any plans to replace/merge the "Loopback Encrypted
Filesystem HOWTO" with the "Linux Encryption HOWTO"? The former was the
first HOWTO I found on this topic, but it seems to be outdated and not
actively maintained anymore.
-- 
PGP (GnuPG) encrypted mail welcome! (Key 0xBAC8E4D5)

Linux-crypto:  cryptography in and on the Linux system
Archive:       http://mail.nl.linux.org/linux-crypto/