putting ext2 or ext3 on a truecrypt volume

fakie_flip · 03-04-2007, 06:26 PM

How can I change the filesystem of a truecrypt volume to ext3 or ext2? I tried it, but after that, it would not mount anymore. I also tried not giving the truecrypt volume a filesystem, but I still could not get put ext2 or ext3 on a truecrypt volume. Most of the instructions I found for doing formatting with another filesystem were for windows, not linux.

stress_junkie · 03-05-2007, 07:45 PM

This is how you create a True Crypt volume on /dev/hda3.

Code:

truecrypt -c /dev/hda3

Answer the questions. Once all of the questions have been answered it will create the True Crypt volume on /dev/hda3.

This is how you map the True Crypt volume whether it has a file system or not.

Code:

truecrypt -N 3 /dev/hda3

It will prompt you for the password. When you enter the password it will map /dev/hda3 to a virtual device named /dev/mapper/truecrypt3.

Once the partition is mapped to a True Crypt virtual device you can format it.

Code:

mkfs -t ext3 /dev/mapper/truecrypt3

If the partition has already been formatted via a True Crypt virtual device then in the future you just map the partition and mount it.

Code:

truecrypt -N 3 /dev/hda3
Password:
mount /dev/mapper/truecrypt3 /home

The man page for True Crypt is helpful. I mainly used the examples at the end of the man page to figure out how to work with True Crypt.

fakie_flip · 03-21-2007, 02:50 PM

Thanks for the info, but I want to know how to put ext2 (not ext3 because of security problems with journaled filesystems) on a virtual encrypted disk within a file, not a real partition.

I did

mk2fs /dev/mapper/truecrypt0

but after that, the file test.tc would not mount.