Putting cryptoloop back in Debian

For reasons detailed in Debian Bug #559961 the cryptoloop module has been dropped from the Debian kernel as of the 2.6.32-trunk binary packages. I've filed a complaint at that bug. I know what I'm doing, and am unhappy that the Debian kernel maintainers have taken it upon themselves to gratuitously delete functionality from the Linux kernel image…

In the meantime, here's how you put cryptoloop back.

  • Install the linux-source-2.6.32 package.
  • Make a /usr/src/cryptoloop directory.
  • Put a copy of cryptoloop.c from /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.32/drivers/block/ (yes, it's still there) in your new cryptoloop directory.
  • Go to the cryptoloop directory and create the following Makefile:
    obj-m := cryptoloop.o
        
    all:  
    	make -C /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build M=$(PWD) modules  
    
    clean:
    	make -C /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build M=$(PWD) clean
    
    (Be careful that those tabs at the beginning of the make lines are hard.)
  • Say "make all".
  • As root, say:
    cp cryptoloop.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/block/
    depmod -a
    modprobe cryptoloop
    

If all goes well, you should be cryptolooping again. Remember that until Debian is (hopefully) fixed you will have to rebuild cryptoloop.ko whenever you upgrade your kernel. The cryptoloop.c source is unlikely to change, but you might want to check first.

Have fun. Friend of Bart

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not working on current debian version

Hi,

I tried to follow your route to create the cryptoloop.ko file, but I cannot compile it, cause of a missing Makefile.

I got the error:

/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-3-common/scripts/Makefile.build:44: /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-3-common/scripts/basic/Makefile: file not found

and there is no MAKEFILE in this directory. there are just 2 files: ==> docproc fixdep

Any idea whats went wrong?

thx for helping

Something weird.

Retested just now and it works for me, so something is weird with your setup or install. Sorry I don't have any great idea offhand. Friend of Bart

Thanks!

Thanks a lot!

It really is incredible that they would deactivate this without a warning. I'm not a power user, so I didn't even know how to get read access to my volume anymore!

I mean, I'm okay for switching, but I need to access the previous system for that...

By the way, in the line "cp cryptoloop.ko /lib/modules/uname-r/kernel/drivers/block/", you forgot a space between "uname" and "-r".

Have a nice day!

Fixed the typo, thanks

Thanks much for the kind words. I fixed the typo you noted—looks like a copy-paste error. Friend of Bart

Thanks

Although I'm using dm-crypt, I still do need cryptoloop, too. I have many cryptoloop encrypted media (DVDs).

Just reburn them all LOL

Sorry I missed your comment a while back. Yeah, I'm not sure what folks with cryptolooped non-rewritable media are supposed to do. I have some too. Friend of Bart

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