Re: 2_linux newbie versus Mandrake

[pplf <pplf@wanadoo.fr>]

Earl wrote:
> imagine that Linux, even with XWINDOW, is still faster than WIN XP.

My old Thinkpad is a Pentium 200 MMX / 90 MB RAM, and it runs Mandrake 
8.2 perfectly (of course, even if KDE / Gnome are installed, I prefer 
use Fluxbox or WindowMaker) with swap encryption and an encrypted 
container in my /home.

I'm not sure that XP Professional can run with its crypto EFS and the 
Luna GUI on a such laptop ;-)


> Any comments on VMWARE, especially parallel port connections to
> Logitech scanner?

This is off-topic on this list, but see the Mandrake hardware 
compatibility list. And VMware is not the Paradise.


> If I decide to make both laptops multi-boot, I am thinking of 1 WIN
> partition, 1 Mandrake encrypted partition, 1 Linux SWAP partition.  I
> think it would be better for me to have things like /home, /var, /tmp,
> etc. as subdirectories and not partitions.

Read the docs to understand the Linux FS style (hierarchical FS).


> One important question is "plausible deniability".  pplf, does
> Mandrake 9.0 allow putting certain data on still another partition
> with a different password without this being apparent?

"plausible deniability" is not possible because /etc/fstab "knows" that 
some volumes are encrypted.


> words, if put under pressure, can one divulge one passphrase to open
> up a part of the OS without showing that there is still another
> encrypted partition?

BTW, cryptography is not the 100% perfectly final solution. It is a 
fairly good protection, in some cases, but nothing more. If someone can 
access your laptop during 10 minutes, he can boot on a floopy and put a 
rootkit with a keylogger and your encryption is dead...


> Do all encrypted partitions have known headers?

Good question. I don't know.


-- 
pplf - French OpenPGP page "OpenPGP en francais"
http://www.openpgp.fr.st
pplf@wanadoo.fr
"Microsoft solutions aren't solutions. They are problems" C.Casteyde

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