Hi,

I now literally read every single thread about crypto api in all Linux/Slackware forums I know, but still, IT DOESN'T WORK

When I try to create an encrypted partition I get this error after entering a password:

ioctl: LOOP_SET_STATUS: Invalid argument

I'm using Kernel 2.4.22 and want to encrypt partitions. From what I've read, 2.4.22 has built-in crypto api support, but lacks cryptoloop. Ok, following this Thread (linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=113905), I downloaded and applied this patch: kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/hvr/testing/patch-cryptoloop-jari-2.4.22.0

After doing that I compiled a new kernel, but that was hopeless as I realized 30 minutes later. When going through the "make menuconfig" options, there is no new option for cryptoloop, but I guess there should be one. These are my options in .config:

#
# Cryptographic options
#
CONFIG_CRYPTO=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_HMAC=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_NULL=m
CONFIG_CRYPTO_MD4=m
CONFIG_CRYPTO_MD5=m
CONFIG_CRYPTO_SHA1=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_SHA256=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_SHA512=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_DES=m
CONFIG_CRYPTO_BLOWFISH=m
CONFIG_CRYPTO_TWOFISH=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_SERPENT=m
CONFIG_CRYPTO_AES=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_DEFLATE=m
CONFIG_CRYPTO_TEST=m

There SHOULD also be these options, but they aren't there:

CONFIG_CRYPTO=y
CONFIG_CRYPTODEV=y
CONFIG_CRYPTOLOOP=y
CONFIG_CRYPTOLOOP_ATOMIC=y

WTF?! I mean, what the hell am I doing wrong?!?

The patch's purpose is to add cryptoloop, so why's it not there? I applied the patch like that:
cat patch-cryptoloop-jari-2.4.22.0 | patch -p1

I'm really stuck, ANY help is greatly appreciated

Can't you upgrade to 2.6? It's already built in it. I remember that was a real pain to have the cryptoloop working under 2.4, and I already forgot how to do it, sorry.

Hi,

actually I wanted to build a running 2.4.22 system, not because I need 2.4.22 or something, just because it's the standard slack 9.1 kernel. But you're right, getting cryptoloop working is really a pain, so I already thought about upgrading to 2.6.

But can I just compile a 2.6 Kernel on a fresh Slackware 9.1 2.4.22 install? Or are there other things I need to change/upgrade in order to get a 2.6 system? (libraries,... whatever). Don't want to change my "cryptoloop"-problem for a "upgrading to 2.6"-problem. I mean, that's not a 2.4.22 to 2.4.23 update, it's 2.4.x to 2.6.x, so I thought there would be some problems.

If it's easy as just compiling the new kernel and all is ok, I'll upgrade. I'm trying to get cryptoloop working for more than a week now and still the same error "ioctl: LOOP_SET_STATUS: Invalid argument".

MfG, Slacker0815

Upgrading to 2.6.x is imho easier than compiling the old 2.4.22.
You just need to recreate the symlink /usr/src/linux to point to linux-2.6.x, do a
make mrproper
make menuconfig or xconfig or oldconfig
make
make modules_install
make install - provided you edited lilo.conf and added a new entry that points to vmlinuz.old.

There's a whole thread on this subject in this forum, enough info to get you going. Don't forget to build in reiserFS in the new kernel, it's disabled by default.

Compiling 2.4.22 would not be the problem, did that several times and it worked. I just thought that upgrading to 2.6 would be more work than just compiling the 2.6 kernel, but if it's not, great.

Just one question: Why's compiling done different than with 2.4? No make dep and make bzImage anymore?

Because now when you do "make" or "make all" it also builds all the modules, vmlinuz (the kernel),
and bzImage (the compressed kernel image).
Don't know where are the dependencies made tho...

I have the same problem...

ioctl: LOOP_SET_STATUS: Invalid argument

on slackware 10.1... I've also already tried to upgrade to 2.6 kernel and it all went well except that unfortunately this kernel had many other glitches (mounting a usb key worked nomore etc. etc) so I think that if slack comes with the default 2.4 kernel there's a reason.

And by the way.. I had the same " ioctl: LOOP_SET_STATUS: Invalid argument " error also on 2.6!!!!

I've tried all the steps again with a new 2.6 kernel and this time I don't get the ioctl error... instead

root@luwrr:/home/pkkle# losetup -e blowfish /dev/loop0 crypt.iso
/dev/loop0: No such device or address

root@hkh,k:/home/bkkk# losetup -e blowfish /dev/loop1 crypt.iso
/dev/loop1: No such file or directory

Note the different error message between dev/loop0 and /dev/loop1
It looks so damn difficult to set it up