Re: loop-aes and SuSE-kernel

[Jari Ruusu <jari.ruusu@pp.inet.fi>]

Juergen Schmidt wrote:
> is there a way, to get loop-aes to work with standard SuSE kernels?
> 
> On my experiments it compiles (with a lot of rejects in the ignore
> section though), but refuses to load loop.o:
> 
> ./loop.o: init_module: Input/output error

Most likely this also results in "Unable to get major number 7 for loop"
kernel error message, viewable using dmesg.

Above means that your kernel already has initialized loop driver in kernel.
To use loop-AES' externally compiled module, you must disable loop driver in
your kernel by recompiling your kernel with CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LOOP=n.

> This was with 2.4.10-4GB from a SuSE 7.3. I suppose, this is due to the
> fact, that SuSE included their own loop extensions.

loop-AES' loop.o provides many bug fixes not available in SuSE kernel loop,
so you are better off replacing that buggy code.

> BTW: Do the mount/losetup tools of SuSE work with loop-aes ?

Should work OK, but with different command line syntax. Many features won't
be available in SuSE mount/losetup/swapon.

> Or do the ones patched for loop-aes work with loop-fish2?

Yes, they work with SuSE's loop_fish2. Twofish loop module from
http://loop-aes.sourceforge.net/ciphers-v1.0h.tar.bz2 can be used in SuSE
compatible mode but with better interactive response than SuSE's loop_fish2.
That code has preemption points so kernel cipher code won't hog all
available CPU cycles.

Regards,
Jari Ruusu <jari.ruusu@pp.inet.fi>

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