DizzyCoder
January 30th, 2010, 11:08 PM
Okay, so I have an external USB TB hdd that I keep stuff on. Surely, I would not want to lose it or have it stolen, but it happens. My idea is this:
* install 9.10 using alternate CD w/ LVM encryption
* boot off the drive while on the go and access my data
* plug in and mount only the 'data' partition while at home
I can get so far w/ this setup, but it's not portable -- I can only get it to boot from the computer I installed it on... otherwise I get a "no such partition" error.
at the grub rescue> prompt an 'ls' gives me just (hd0) and (hd0,1) whereas the /boot partition (as we know from the 'guided setup with LVM encryption') should be at (hd0,5)
1) I wonder if it's just a weird BIOS thing that makes it so I can't boot from my workstation, figured I could chainload the disk if I wanted to boot from USB at my workstation
2) would it not be just as adventageous to use USB Live install on FAT32 partition at the front of my disk and create a LUKS partition for my data after that...
a) I ask, b/c from a security stand point, the whole disk is not encrypted and (although unlikely) it is possible to gleen information needed to break the encryption from the persistence file and/or swap (does the live USB even have a swap partition??)
3) I've read VARIOUS tuts on the subject but none seem to be exactly this "portable ubunut 9.10 on LUKS full disk encrypted USB" -- am I over complicating this? What would you do if you wanted a way to boot the USB drive on multiple computers but keep your data safe?
a) I also wanted to have an unencrypted partition that could contain downloaded files, etc, which are not sensitive in nature and could help while plugged into a windows PC... ie: FreeOTFE, ISO's that could be chainloaded from GRUB (ie: backtrack, antivirus live CD's, etc)
* install 9.10 using alternate CD w/ LVM encryption
* boot off the drive while on the go and access my data
* plug in and mount only the 'data' partition while at home
I can get so far w/ this setup, but it's not portable -- I can only get it to boot from the computer I installed it on... otherwise I get a "no such partition" error.
at the grub rescue> prompt an 'ls' gives me just (hd0) and (hd0,1) whereas the /boot partition (as we know from the 'guided setup with LVM encryption') should be at (hd0,5)
1) I wonder if it's just a weird BIOS thing that makes it so I can't boot from my workstation, figured I could chainload the disk if I wanted to boot from USB at my workstation
2) would it not be just as adventageous to use USB Live install on FAT32 partition at the front of my disk and create a LUKS partition for my data after that...
a) I ask, b/c from a security stand point, the whole disk is not encrypted and (although unlikely) it is possible to gleen information needed to break the encryption from the persistence file and/or swap (does the live USB even have a swap partition??)
3) I've read VARIOUS tuts on the subject but none seem to be exactly this "portable ubunut 9.10 on LUKS full disk encrypted USB" -- am I over complicating this? What would you do if you wanted a way to boot the USB drive on multiple computers but keep your data safe?
a) I also wanted to have an unencrypted partition that could contain downloaded files, etc, which are not sensitive in nature and could help while plugged into a windows PC... ie: FreeOTFE, ISO's that could be chainloaded from GRUB (ie: backtrack, antivirus live CD's, etc)