Installing Truecrypt 4.2 on Ubuntu 6.06

[kabronkline]

Hi there;
As a stop-gap solution, I've posted the binary package on:
http://www.savefile.com/files/1316093

the md5 sum of the file is:
6117f6d6e13ec70fc094d07aa44572bc tc_dapper.tar

Download the tar archive, un-tar it in any temporary directory and run:
sudo ./install.sh

This should work as long as the main kernel version number remains 2.6.15... . However, "sudo ./install.sh" part has to be re-done whenever the 'sub-number' (for instance, from 2.6.15-25-386 to 2.6.15-28-386) changes. I'll try to re-compile and post the update (and report here) if there is a main kernel number change and TrueCrypt is not included in Ubuntu (see below).

A few comments, if I may:

Write to Ubuntu distribution owners with demands/suggestions to include TrueCrypt in their "official" application repository. They refuse to do that due to the doctrinal reasons: TrueCrypt is open source, but the license is not GPL, and that seems to make it unpalatable to to them. However, no alternative comes even remotely close to TC in terms of both security and utility; this (AND the fact it's open source, so it can be inspected) is all that users care about.

Linux will not replace Windows until there is a stable binary kernel interface, and that will not happen as long as the inept linux kernel hackers do not understand that USERS DO NOT COMPILE APPLICATIONS! Or, failing that, Ubuntu will not replace Windows until Ubuntu distribution authors do not understand that any ONE UBUNTU RELEASE DOES NOT CHANGE KERNEL VERSIONS. If, in addition, linux application writers would be willing to learn from MacOSX application packaging - what a world it would be...
cheers, marcip

Awesome... I will be posting your instruciton in the HowTo as the primary method for install. The manual method will only be secondary. Thanks big time for your support!

[rso]

If you have ddclient installed, check if it still works after the upgrade!

I had to reinstall the old kernel with synaptec and completely deinstall ddclient and the install it to make it work again. After a reboot ddclient did not start with the old kernel even though it was in /etc/init.d

Unfortunately now I cannot use truecrypt since I keep getting

FATAL: Error inserting truecrypt (/lib/modules/2.6.15-25-server/extra/truecrypt.ko): Invalid module format
truecrypt: Failed to load TrueCrypt kernel module

I reocompiled the kernel 2 times, rebooted, recompiled truecrypt, used the binary. Nothing seems to work

[kabronkline]

HowTo has been updated with a new method.... if anybody could provide more mirrors for download of the file it would be greatly appreciated by many! Let me know if there are any problems.

[RolatoR]

*doh*

finished my installation minutes befor the first post was updated^^ but ...well my first compiled modules :] and it seems that truecrypt works fine. thx for the howto.

*notice for me: read the entire thread*

[kabronkline]

Sorry to hear I didn't get the update in time.... my bad. Thanks for the feedback - glad to hear it's working for you.

[Teunis]

Thanks all for the fine (and growing) tutorial!

I've got both the 386 and 686 kernel available and installing the deb in the 386 worked fine.
For the 686 kernel it was necessary to go by option #2 that worked as well.

I did get the compile errors rso reported but so far they don't seem to affect anything.

One question; the opened directory plus content are owned by root, even when the commands are done without sudo, this way you can't add or modify anything.
How to get them owned by the user opening the container?

[kabronkline]

Good question. I believe the answer lies within Step 10 of Method #2 - When you are prompted for the following if you answer with an "N" and this should provide the solution you are looking for.

3. Allow non-admin users to run TrueCrypt [y/N]:N

[jvl]

One question; the opened directory plus content are owned by root, even when the commands are done without sudo, this way you can't add or modify anything.
How to get them owned by the user opening the container?

truecrypt /encrypted/device /mount/point -u

[nanotube]

Big amendment to your howto:
in method #2, step 8 (the compiling of all the kernel modules) is completely unnecessary. the truecrypt build.sh takes care of compiling only its own truecrypt module, using the kernel sources. there is no need to compile any other modules, you can just skip step 8 completely (as it happens, the most time consuming and error-prone step).

so, you might wish to modify your original howto (which is good in all other respects) with this in mind.

oh and another thing. very important to verify the gpg key after downloading the truecrypt source archive. to do that, download the gpg signature file as well, and then import the key with command:

gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv F0D6B1E0

and then verify the signature

gpg --verify truecrypt-4.2-source-code.tar.gz.sig truecrypt-4.2-source-code.tar.gz

that would also be a good thing to add to your howto.

[kabronkline]

Thank you very much for the feedback! I will definitely be making changes to the HowTo..... I appreciate your attention.