Chainloading TrueCrypt with GRUB2

**th3voic3** · August 2nd, 2009

I have my System encrypted according to this guide

Now I have switched to GRUB2 and tried to adapt the code to chainload the TrueCrypt bootloader

Code:

menuentry "Windows Vista" {
       insmod chain
    set root=(hd0,1)
    chainloader (hd0,2)/truecrypt.mbr
}

When I choose the Windows Vista entry it loads the TrueCrypt bootloader, but says it is damaged. Could that really be the case or is that because my code is flawed?

**z0mb1** · August 16th, 2009

I'm having the exact same issue, so any guidance on how to resolve would be great. I'm "working around" the issue by installing grub2 into the boot partition, and escaping the truecrypt loader, which then boots grub2 menu. However when installing grub2 it does warn that installing in a partition is not recommended

**th3voic3** · October 31st, 2009

Since 9.10 is out now and grub2 is the standard...well I'm still having the same issue. Does anybody have an idea?

**no_angst** · November 1st, 2009

Nothing to add except "me too". Just upgraded to 9.10 and would like to get my Truecrypt encrypted Windows partition back. Not a major problem as I don't boot into it very much any more, and I can still mount it with Truecrypt from within 9.10 for the files if I need them, but it would be nice to have it working again.

**M4NIC** · November 2nd, 2009

Unfortunately I have to use Win (at least its 7) and Im a bit annoyed with the fact that clean installations of 9.10 (at least the alternate version) dont bother asking where I want GRUB2 to be installed, and instead go on and rewrite the MBR.

What I wanted to do was install GRUB onto the /boot partition (as generally advised in Ubuntu + truecrypt tutorials) and thus chaiload GRUB through the TrueCrypt loader by pressing ESC.
GRUB2 now just shows a brief "GRUB loading" message and then just proceeds to load ubuntu. When pressing shift to see the options of the menu windows is not even mentioned, and using the grub-update in the terminal fails to find any other entries other than ubuntu and the memtest.

My plan of action is now to recover the truecrypt loader through the recovery CD I made, and then manually reinstall GRUB2 on to /boot. Luckily Ive got the CD though, as I would be in deep sh*t.

A matter of future consern maybe? Im sure there will be people not as lucky as me with a damaged truecrypt recovery CD or some similar situation :/

**The Cog** · November 2nd, 2009

It looks odd to me that the root is (hd0,1) but you are then trying to chainload (hd0,2). You do realise that grub2 numbers partitions from 1 upwards instead of the 0 upwards that grub1 used? So try using root (hd0,2) or chainload (hd0,1).

Of course, I'm guessing because I've never looked at how truecrypt boots.