[LAU] [ot] encrypted directory

[6c62]

Hi Julien,

Julien Claassen schrieb:
> Hi everyone!
>    What would be the best way to get an encrypted directory, on which I can 
> still easily work? So not just gpg or pgp encrypt some data, because it's 
> around 3G and I wouldn't want to pack and unpack it all the time, there's 
> audio in there as well.

as a general linux advice, use cryptsetup-luks. It works at the kernel
level, thus being way faster than any software-based solution. Depending
on your system, you need the packages "cryptsetup" and "dmsetup."
Cryptsetup integrates easily with all modern desktop environments - with
the necessary packages installed, it's as simple as "plug in, type in
passphrase, use." ;)

A good (German) introduction to cryptsetup can be found here:
http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/LUKS

Be aware, though, that crytsetup is designed to encrypt entire
partitions. If you want to encrypt a single directory on an unencrypted
partition, it's a good idea to use Truecrypt (http://www.truecrypt.org/)
which provides pre-compiled packages for a number of distributions.
Truecrypt allows you to create a crypto-container into which you can
save your directory.
(The same is possible with cryptsetup using a loop-device, but I haven't
found a GUI for this yet, so you'd have to open and close it on the
commandline every time.)

Always remember that every encryption need processing power. So, of
course, working with audio software on encrypted partitions challenges
your hardware more than working without encryption. It's a good idea to
test the impact on your machine before starting with production work.

Hope that helps,
Lutz