# Truecrypt situation [Solved]



## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

Ok, so I have Truecrypt set up in Windows 7, and now I wan to try and install it into Ububtu (I have 12.04.1, and yes I'm aware that 13 is out. I just checked, so I have some updating to do). 


I've tried to install Standard 32 AND 64. I download them and they open their window after loading. I ran 64 first and it opened up text editor (I believe that's what it was). I saw a loading bar, and then after waiting for about a minute I get a message saying that I'm editing stuff and that I should stop. It also mentions something about formatting. I ran 32 and got the same thing.


What am I doing wrong?

Also, if I'm in Ubuntu and I want to read a Truecrypt volume that was created by Windows, is it safe to assume that volume must be in FAT?


Thanks. :smile:


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

Install Ubuntu 12.10 or 13.04 without encryption. Reboot and check all works fine.
You can then choose to encrypt your /home partition if you want.

You can encrypt during install, but if something went wrong you may be faced with a bricked hard drive.

You can only read a truecrypt volume with the truecrypt program. If this is a windows partition it should still be recognised as a truecrypt volume (not vfat or ntfs) and be read by truecrypt.


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

Alright, I'm downloading 13.04. I will let you know how everything goes.


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

Well, that didn't work as planned. Tried to completely wipe 12.04 and install 13.04. I followed the instructions from last time, making the windows drive the boot drive, but at the end it said it couldn't install grub onto it and to select a different drive. I tried the linux HD itself, including the opensuse and Ubuntu partitions themselves, but no success.

I'm going to burn 12.10 and try and do an upgrade approach instead of a wipe. I'll let you know how that goes.

NOTE: I didn't encrypt /home. Felt it better to play the safe card.


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

OK, not even that worked. I installed suse 12.3 as I did before. Everything went smoothly. Grub boot loader was perfectly fine. Then I went to install Ubuntu 13.04, and again we hit the boot loader problem. Thing is, this time Ubuntu isn't even ON the suse boot screen like before. 

Do I have to install these guys in reverse now so SUSE picks Ubuntu up?
Do I have to abandon one and stick with the other?

I am so confused as of right now...


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*



warriorjames said:


> OK, not even that worked. I installed suse 12.3 as I did before. Everything went smoothly. Grub boot loader was perfectly fine. Then I went to install Ubuntu 13.04, and again we hit the boot loader problem. Thing is, this time Ubuntu isn't even ON the suse boot screen like before.
> 
> Do I have to install these guys in reverse now so SUSE picks Ubuntu up?
> Do I have to abandon one and stick with the other?
> ...



The problem now with major distribution is that they will always install a linux boot loader. Go back 5 years and you had a choice of not installing a boot loader. This implied you knew what you were doing and could add a grub legacy or lilo stanza to the boot loader and boot your new distro.

Suse 12.3 is the only distro that has worked for you ( when you install Ubuntu
12.10 or 13.04 and never will boot, is that correct? )

If you install Ubuntu 13.04 first, reboot and make sure that Ubuntu and Windows load and then install Suse 12.3, it should overwrite grub2 and pickup windows and Ubuntu. Try these solutions first:

[SOLVED] Grub issue in 13.04

If that still fails, post from Suse ( as root) with outputs of:

blkid

fdisk -l


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*



hal8000 said:


> The problem now with major distribution is that they will always install a linux boot loader. Go back 5 years and you had a choice of not installing a boot loader. This implied you knew what you were doing and could add a grub legacy or lilo stanza to the boot loader and boot your new distro.
> 
> Suse 12.3 is the only distro that has worked for you ( when you install Ubuntu
> 12.10 or 13.04 and never will boot, is that correct? )


Yes, Suse 12.3 is the only one that works. We have it's normal boot, the "safe" boot & the Windows loader.



hal8000 said:


> If you install Ubuntu 13.04 first, reboot and make sure that Ubuntu and Windows load and then install Suse 12.3, it should overwrite grub2 and pickup windows and Ubuntu. Try these solutions first:
> 
> [SOLVED] Grub issue in 13.04
> 
> ...


I just want to make sure: If I install Ubuntu first, do I have to create a swap, root & home...or will it be created by itself? Better to ask & know if we do have to go down that path (the "last resort" path).

Also, the link you provided for Grub has me a little confused. Do I run the REISUB thing in SUSE?

Wow...I never thought this would get so confusing...


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*



warriorjames said:


> I just want to make sure: If I install Ubuntu first, do I have to create a swap, root & home...or will it be created by itself? Better to ask & know if we do have to go down that path (the "last resort" path).
> 
> Also, the link you provided for Grub has me a little confused. Do I run the REISUB thing in SUSE?



Dont bother with the REISUB thing in Suse. Install Ubuntu first, use manual partitional and create separate / , /home and /swap
Check Ubuntu works, then install Suse,choose manual partioning and create separate / and /home and direct to use the same /swap partition.
This requires 5 partitions, in additional to what you have made for windows.

With a little luck, Suse grub2 should find ubuntu and windows, if not I will create a custom grub2 entry for you.


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

swap , / and /home are all primary partitions, correct?


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

And even after wiping everything & installing Ubuntu first....

I selected the "Linux HD" and created the Swap (16,384 MB), / (20,499 MB) and /Home (121,008 MB). All were created as primary. I set the boot loader to the "Windows 7 (loader)" on sdb1. And AGAIN we hit the boot loader problem, saying it can't put the boot loader onto that hard drive. Fatal error. And any partition I attempt to put it on still yields the same result.

And now I can't even get into anything.

Are / and /Home meant to be logical while the swap is the primary? Do I have to create /boot partition? Why is this being so stubborn?!

I'm just going to re-install SUSE so I can get back to normal.


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*



warriorjames said:


> And even after wiping everything & installing Ubuntu first....
> 
> I selected the "Linux HD" and created the Swap (16,384 MB), / (20,499 MB) and /Home (121,008 MB). All were created as primary. I set the boot loader to the "Windows 7 (loader)" on sdb1. And AGAIN we hit the boot loader problem, saying it can't put the boot loader onto that hard drive. Fatal error. And any partition I attempt to put it on still yields the same result.
> 
> ...



You can only have 4 primary partitions , so you would have to make the other partitions logical.
Because you havent posted output of

blkid
fdisk -l

its not possible to know exactly what partitions you have.
For now best idea is to reinstall Suse with windows until you get more familiar
with partitioning

Linux Partition HOWTO

The above is a cut down version of disk partitioning, there are other methods such as LVM and GUID partition tables but the standard MBR (with last 64 bytes the partition table) has been around for a very long time since 1983.

Modern computers with disks > 2TB will most likely have a GUID partition table and the GUID scheme allows for an unlimited amount of partitions.


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

Suse wasn't installed on the same HD as Windows (the 1TB HD), it was put back onto the "Linux" HD (250 GB).

Still, I'll jump into SUSE when I get back from work and see what those 2 bring up.


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

Alright, here's what I got from SUSE. A few notes: First, I removed my username. Second, when I installed SUSE, I wiped Ubuntu, so if I have to re-install Ubuntu in its "problem state" for these to be completely accurate, just say so.

linux-ibvq:/home/xx # blkid
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="Media" UUID="3E147BD4147B8E21" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sdb5: LABEL="Home" UUID="52A88BB7A88B97DD" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sdb6: LABEL="Server 03" UUID="30E06837E0680586" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sdb8: LABEL="Win7" UUID="A00C2A300C2A0240" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sdd1: UUID="53461475-6670-4415-8e0e-315fefe06c0f" TYPE="swap" 
/dev/sdd2: UUID="a04988b8-1e8a-429a-853c-a6f756adab35" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sdd3: UUID="4b3cdec0-2fe1-4a64-92ee-a735fcb8ab0f" TYPE="ext4" 

linux-ibvq:/home/xx # fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 182401 cylinders, total 2930277168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x7ee2b77a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 2930272064 1465136001 6 FAT16

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x07d607d6

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 738636569 369318253+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb2 738636631 1953520064 607441717 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 738636633 958727069 110045218+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb6 958727133 1245214214 143243541 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb7 1245214720 1431283711 93034496 6 FAT16
/dev/sdb8 1431285760 1634037759 101376000 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sdc: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 182401 cylinders, total 2930277168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x7ee2b775

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

Disk /dev/sdd: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc935c935

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 2048 35407871 17702912 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdd2 35407872 79441919 22017024 83 Linux
/dev/sdd3 79441920 205279231 62918656 83 Linux


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

That looks ok, you are using a dedicated 250G HD for linux with 3 partitions,
sdd1 swap
sdd2 /
sdd3 /home

As long as you have space left on this drive you can install Ubuntu. You go to partitioning and choose manual then for each partition
you choose "logical"
You create a new partition say 20G type ext4 for / (this will become sdd5)
create new partition say 30G (or more) type ext4 for /home
(this will become sdd6)

Ubuntu will automatically see sdd1 and use it as swap

At end of install Ubuntu will install grub2, this should pickup windows and suse automatically.


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

Alright, I'll give it a run when I get up & let you know how the install went.


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

Alright, we're in the install process. I'm creating sdd5. I have "create partition" open. Size is set to 21,000 MB. "Type for the new partition" is set to Logical. "Location for the new partition" is set to "Beginning of this space". "Use as" is set to "Ext4 Journaling file system". Now what do I select in the "Mount Point" area? This has been the part that messes everything up. In all of my attempts, I have selected /, but have not gotten a positive outcome.

As of right now sdd5 (the 21,000 MB partition) is set to mount on /, while sdd6 (which will use the rest of the space on the drive) is set to /home. I'll do the install & let you know how things went.


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

Nope.

I selected sdb1 as the boot. Upon hitting the part where it installed grub, we got the "Executing 'grub-install /dev/sdb1' failed. This is a fatal error" message.

Selecting sdb resulted in "Executing 'grub-install /dev/sdb' failed. This is a fatal error"

Selecting sdd resulted in "Executing 'grub-install /dev/sdd' failed. This is a fatal error"
Selecting sdd2 resulted in "Executing 'grub-install /dev/sdd2' failed. This is a fatal error"
Selecting sdd3 resulted in "Executing 'grub-install /dev/sdd3' failed. This is a fatal error"
Selecting sdd5 resulted in "Executing 'grub-install /dev/sdd5' failed. This is a fatal error"
Selecting sdd6 resulted in "Executing 'grub-install /dev/sdd6' failed. This is a fatal error"

All of the other partitions on sdb are the other Windows OS, and sda & sdc are used for other things.

What the heck is going on?!!!

I'm selecting "Continue without a bootloader" for the moment.


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*



warriorjames said:


> Nope.
> 
> I selected sdb1 as the boot. Upon hitting the part where it installed grub, we got the "Executing 'grub-install /dev/sdb1' failed. This is a fatal error" message.
> 
> ...



From before,
sdd1 is /swap (you may have overwrote this)
sda2 / suse
sda3 /home suse

You then create
sda5 / (ubuntu)
sda6 /home (ubuntu)

Thats all. Do not create a separate /boot partition, this is where you are going wrong.
Grub2 will be installed in the mbr of disk sdb or sdd (whichever drive you boot from)
The files for grub are in the boot directory of the root partition, not a separate /boot
partition.
After installation finished reboot and you should have Suse Ubuntu and Windows
all selectable from grub menu.


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

Alright I'm gona do the walk through again. Step by step. I want you to tell me exactly where I'm messing up.

Step 1. I allow Ubuntu to load from the disk I burned it to & select "Install Ubuntu".
Step 2. I leave everything in the "Preparing to install Ubuntu" window (Download updates & Install 3rd party software) unselected & click continue.
Step 3. In "Installation Type" I select "Something else" & click Install Now
Step 4. Presently on sdd, we have sdd1 (swap), sdd2 (opensuse 12.3), sdd3 (/home for opensuse 12.3), sdd5 (ubuntu 13.04) & sdd6 (/home for Ubuntu). For the sake of this I'll be deleting the Ubuntu partitions.
Step 5. With those deleted we have 144,956 MBs of free space. When hitting the + icon, thus opening the "Create partition" window, the "type for the new partition" is automatically set to Logical, "Location of the new partition" is set to Beginning of this space & "Use as" is set to Ext4. I have set the size to 21,000 MBs & the mount point as /. Upon completion, it comes up as /dev/sdd5 under "Device", ext4 under "Type", / under "Mount point", I have selected the box under "Format?", "Size" has 20,098 MB under it, "Used has 3644 MB under it, and under "System" we have Ubuntu 13.04 (13.04).
Step 6. With the remaining free space (123,956 MB) I click the + icon again, opening the "Create partition" window. "Type for the new partition", "Location for the new partition" & "Use as are exactly the same as in #5. I set the "mount point as /home and click ok. Ic comes up as sdd6 under "Device", ext4 under "Type", /home under "Mount point, the box under "Format?" is selected, 123,955 MB is under "Size", 2142 is under "Used" & there is nothing under "System".
Step 7. Under "Device for boot loader instillation" it is automatically set to "/dev/sda (1.5 TB). I change this to /dev/sdb1 (Wondows 7 (loader). I click install now.
Step 8. I proceed with the location, keyboard type & "Who are you" (I don't select "Encrypt my home folder") 
Step 9. I skit through the stuff shown in the "Welcome to Ubuntu" part so I get to the "Any Questions" page. While I do that, the instillation takes place (copying files, configuring linux-image-extra-3.8.0-21-genaric, configuring hardware, looking for other operating systems, etc)
And essentially Step 10 is where we hit the problem. Upon hitting "Running "grub-install /dev/sdb1"…" we hit the "Unable to install Grub" window, stating "Executing 'grub-install /dev/sdb1' failed. This is a fatal error." to me. We then hit the "Bootloader install failed" and it asks if I want to choose a different device to install the bootloader on. That's when I did all that other stuff, but for this I'll select "Continue without a bootloader" so I can get back to what I was doing (I'm typing from another computer).

So what am I doing wrong?


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*



warriorjames said:


> All OK up to this point.
> 
> Step 7. Under "Device for boot loader instillation" it is automatically set to "/dev/sda (1.5 TB). I change this to /dev/sdb1 (Wondows 7 (loader). I click install now.
> Step 8. I proceed with the location, keyboard type & "Who are you" (I don't select "Encrypt my home folder")
> ...


Step 7 is wrong. You have to install grub to the mbr, *not the partition*.
You are directing to install Ubuntu in /dev/sdb1, this is your windows
partition. 
It should br /dev/sdb (sdb then uses the mbr and keeps its files in Ubuntu)

By telling Ubuntu to install grub into sdb1 which is a Windows NTFS you will most likely loose some data on that windows partition.

However, because the message that unable to install, grub-install /dev/sdb1
failed, your windows install may be ok.

Steps 1 to 6 are perfect, just the grub install /dev/sdb is the whole drive
but grub only writes to the first 446 bytes, the mbr, the partition table is preserved.

As long as you do the same as before but select sdb you will be ok, on reboot, Grub2 will be installed and pick up Windows, Ubuntu and hopefully Suse.


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

YEAY. Ubuntu is successfully installed...although its kind of strange that it doesn't have the "multiple user interface" thing that it had in 12.04.1. I let the updates run themselves, so we're up to speed.

So, I should be able to just run the download as I did before, right?

Edit: Ok, scratch that. I just tried downloading & installing.

I double checked the type (32 or 64) to make sure I downloaded the correct one. I selected the standard option, downloaded & clicked the "Truecrypt setup" and it ran its thing in "Archive Manager" (That's what it was set to open the file with by default). It runs it in "Text Editor" for some reason. Once the bar indicating the progress finishes, I get this:

"There was a problem opening the file /home/(removed username)/.cach…/truecrypt-7.1a-setup-x86.

The file you opened has some invalid characters. If you continue editing this file you could corrupt this document.
You can also choose another character encoding and try again.

Character Encoding : Current Locale (UTF-8)"

Should it open with something else?


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

Does the volume you are trying to encrypt contain unicode characters (e.g. files created under windows fat32 or ntfs?)

This may be the problem.

If so it may require a symlink to ntfs-3g driver:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/TrueCrypt


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

I'm not trying to create; I'm trying to access...though it was created by windows.

OK, the information archlinux has me confused. How do I check to see if I have the ntfs-3g driver? I've looked around on Google, but with no success.

Man, I am stupid...


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

Post the output of:

sudo ls -l /sbin/mount.nt*

This is what I see in Mint (very similar to Ubuntu)
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Apr 26 22:11 /sbin/mount.ntfs -> mount.ntfs-3g
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Apr 26 22:11 /sbin/mount.ntfs-3g -> /bin/ntfs-3g

If its the same then a symbolic link is created and you should be able to type:

truecrypt --filesystem=ntfs-3g /path/to/volume

truecrypt --filesystem=ntfs-3g --mount /file/you/want/to/mount

In your case this will be:

sudo truecrypt --filesystem=ntfs-3g /dev/sdb5


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

Alright, output of "sudo ls -l /sbin/mount.nt*" is:
/sbin/mount.ntfs /sbin/mount.ntfs-3g 

When I type "sudo truecrypt --filesystem=ntfs-3g /dev/sdb5" however, I get 
"sudo: truecrypt: command not found"

As of right now I'm just trying to INSTALL Truecrypt onto Ubuntu, but I heep hitting these roadblocks.

Or should I be able to access straight from Windows somehow?


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*



warriorjames said:


> Alright, output of "sudo ls -l /sbin/mount.nt*" is:
> /sbin/mount.ntfs /sbin/mount.ntfs-3g
> 
> When I type "sudo truecrypt --filesystem=ntfs-3g /dev/sdb5" however, I get
> ...



There is more than one problem. Truecrypt has not been properly installed on
Ubuntu (which is thw output command not found)
The output from ls -l /sbin/mount/nt*

/sbin/mount.ntfs /sbin/mount.ntfs-3g 

is not a symbolic link. The beginning should start with permissions lwrx etc
Something went wrong in copy and paste.

To copy from the terminal use (ctr+shift+c) and to paste from terminal use
(ctrl+shift+v)
In normal desktop its a standard ctrl+c or ctrl+v

These are instructions to Install Truecrypt for Ubuntu
I can't install Truecrypt on Ubuntu 12.04 - Ask Ubuntu

You now have a triple boot, Windows, Suse and Ubuntu so you are further forward. Its a matter of taking things 1 step at a time, first install truecrypt,
then use it to mount a truecrypt filesystem.

Just let me get things clear, your windows partition sdd5 is already a truecrypt volume and you just need to install truecrypt in Ubuntu to access it.


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

sda is one of the 1.5 TB Hard drives. Truecrypt encrypted
sdb is the Windows Hard Drive.
sdc is the other 1.5 TB Hard drive. Truecrupt encrypted.
sdd is the Linux Hard Drive. sdd1 is the swap, sdd2 is root for SUSE, sdd3 is /home for SUSE, sdd5 is root for Ubuntu & sdd6 is /home for Ubuntu.

We are trying to access sda and sdc...both of the encrypted 1.5 TB hard drives. They are separate encryptions. The Truecrypt program used to create the encryption was created by XP (from the partition sdb1).


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

OK, first get truecrypt installed:

I can't install Truecrypt on Ubuntu 12.04 - Ask Ubuntu

Test it with:

truecrypt --help

If you get command not found it is not installed properly or a different PATH,
so you could try:

which truecrypt

Once installed its just a matter of mounting and rweading partitions, lots of success stories, try this solution first:

[SOLVED] mount truecrypt partition under Linux


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

Alright, I'll get back to you as soon as I can. A lot of stuff has crept up on me lately and is eating away at a lot of my time.


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## warriorjames (Jan 14, 2012)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

OK, jumped back to 12.04.2 since I wanted the "Workspace switcher" back. Ran the second suggestion (the one that suggests tar xzvf). Everything installed ok, successfully ran "truecrypt --help" and successfully mounted one of the 2 partitions.

Ugh...now that was quite a trip, but at least I'm happy. Thanks again, hal8000. ^_^


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: Truecrypt situation*

Ok thanks for letting me know, I'll mark this thread solved.


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