External Hard Drives and UBUNTU

[Bart Silverstrim]

James Tappin wrote:
> On Wed, 24 Oct 2007 10:51:23 -0400
> Bart Silverstrim <bsilver at chrononomicon.com> wrote:
> 
> BS> I'd usually reformat it if it's not going to be used on a Windows 
> BS> system...ext3 so it carries UID/GUID and permissions.  If cross
> BS> platform  use, format or re-format FAT32.
> 
> Slow & crummy as it is, FAT32 is also advisable even between Linux boxes
> if you have different UID's on different boxes precisely because of the
> UID/GUID support in ext3.

*Probably* my *biggest* wish-I-had-it feature that I used...use...on the 
Mac and don't have readily available on the Ubuntu system is an easy way 
to encapsulate a filesystem as an encrypted file that could be mounted 
and transported easily, so for example I could have a 200 gig external 
drive with a 50 gig encrypted "file" that I double click, enter the 
password, and it mounts as an ext3 volume, then when unmounted I could 
back it up or copy it somewhere else as needed like with Macintosh DMG 
files.

I know that doesn't address the UID/GUID issue you mention, but it 
reminded me of portability across multiple platforms and some of the 
limitations of the filesystems files are hosted on...OS X has "issues" 
at times with resource files, DS_Store files, etc. when saving to 
network shares and alternative filesystems, and the encapsulated (and 
encrypted!) solution saved on headaches and privacy problems.

*sigh*

Yes, I know it's somewhat available on the Linux side, but I ran into an 
issue with Truecrypt (for some reason while trying to format it ext3 my 
system *hung*...why? Don't know.)  It seems that there are near 
solutions (I can mount .iso files as loopback, and it *seems* like it 
would be in reach) but the interfaces are difficult or lacking (you 
almost need a reference chart to create, mount, format,etc. all the 
steps with truecrypt on Linux).  It would be nice to have this ability 
in Gnome built into the interface or some similar GUI solution for your 
options, or at least make it simple to do on the command line side.