Upgrade an encrypted Ubuntu

[Basil Chupin]

On 11/03/12 03:17, Amichai Rotman wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> I have a netbook running Ubuntu Natty. I installed it using the 
> Alternative CD and chose to encrypt both the root and the home partitions.
> I plan to upgrade to the next release (12.04), but I am not sure how 
> to approach this so I do not get locked out of my data.
>
> I also thought I'd like to change the encryption method from a 
> passphrase to a key file. I got the idea watching a tutorial for using 
> an external USB device as a boot partition when installing Backtrack 5 
> on Revision3's Hak5.
>
> Can anyone point me to a step by step guide for doing this?
>
> Thanks!
>

I cannot offer help on this.

But I did want to say that you should be aware that there are 2 types of 
encryption: block encryption and file encryption and what you are using 
is block encryption. What this means is that if you copy/backup a file 
from, say, your encrypted /home to some other device (HDD or USB stick) 
that file is now just an "ordinary" file and can be read by anyone; 
UNLESS you copy that file to another directory which has been also 
encrypted on the destination device.

BC

-- 
The vulgar crowd always is taken by appearances, and the world consists chiefly of the vulgar.
                    Niccolo Machiavelli