for a couple of months now i’ve been running my notebook from an encrypted filesystem (which works really well, i’ve to say). my external backup disk has, of course, also been converted to an encrypted filesystem.

what has been annoying me, though, is that everytime i plug the USB disk in, kubuntu comes along pops up a dialog box asking me for the password to decrypt the partition — well, let me rephrase: i think that’s a splendid idea for stuff that i do not regularly mount. for my backup disk, i’d much prefer to have my system do this automatically. a quick search turned up that /etc/crypttab might be the way to go here: add the partition and the key file, which should be reasonably secure since the filesystem hosting the key file is itself encrypted, and off we go…

…well, not really. kubuntu doesn’t consult /etc/crypttab after some further research i came across a bug report on launchpad that contained the necessary ingredients:

1. fix the bug in /lib/cryptsetup/cryptdisks.functions and change:

   if [ "${stdin#/dev/null}" != "$stdin" ] && [ "$ON_VT" != "yes" ]; then
       exec env ON_VT=yes /usr/bin/openvt -f -c `fgconsole` -w $0 "$@"
   fi
   

   to

   if [ "${stdin#/dev/null}" != "$stdin" ] && [ "$ON_VT" != "yes" ]; then
       exec /usr/bin/env ON_VT=yes /usr/bin/openvt -f -c `fgconsole` -w $0 "$@"
   fi
   

2. add a new udev rule /etc/udev/rules.d/50-nick.rules with the following content:

   KERNEL=="sd?1", ATTRS{serial}=="L608130H", NAME="$kernel", \
       SYMLINK+="maxtor_backup", RUN+="/usr/sbin/invoke-rc.d cryptdisks restart"
   

3. create a key file — for example, /etc/keys/backupdisk — with a password of your choice.

4. add the key to your disk:

   cryptsetup luksAddKey /dev/DISK /etc/keys/backupdisk
   

5. add the device to your /etc/crypttab file:

   luks_crypto_7123c970... /dev/disk/by-uuid/YYY...  /etc/keys/backupdisk luks
   

done.

yesterday matthias schüssler and roger zedi from digitalk along with their technically well-versed dog visited us in rüschlikon to do a podcast about virtual worlds! having always been on the receiving end of podcasts (i just love listening to podcasts) it was a very interesting and exciting experience to be for once on the “sending” end.

so, if you understand german and swiss german and are interested in hearing dr scofield live tune in here.

this morning i learnt that on monday afternoon my very good friend (and colleague) steve wright died after a motorbike accident in twyford.

to say that i’m devastated and sad is an understatement.

all day long pictures of steve keep coming up: our first project together for a UK mobile phone operator, working frantically through the night to get the demo running next morning at 9:00 … steve picking mrs d and me up at the end of our southdowns walk last year and whisking us back to bigpath farm … steve taking care of their cat bramble … steve preparing the BBQ … us having a ridiculously expensive pint of guinness at disneyland paris … seemingly endless and escalating sametime exchanges of more and more ridiculous icons that we each had found on the internet … his two words of german “moin moin” with which he would start all his sametime sessions with me … DVDs with those missed topgear or dr who episodes arriving from the UK … steve taking us on a mini-pub crawl through pubs of hampshire … URLs with links to fantasticly looking new bikes … URLs to ridiculous stuff each of us had found on the internet … our planned trip to the bike exhibition in milano in three weeks, him as the CEO of bigpath enterprise, me as the bigpath enterprise sales director germany and switzerland … his “right!” when he’d just finished something … standing in line at the coffee bar in hursley … his shed full of bikes and bike parts … his wit … his humour … having a laugh with him…

sigh.

we have lost a very good friend and i miss him terribly. our thoughts are with his family who must miss him even more.

here’s to you, steve! i hope we’ll see each other again some day!