Re: Using Windows and bitlocker

On Fri Jun 20 09:09:43 2025 Milan Broz <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> On 6/20/25 12:55 AM, Mark Foley wrote:
> > On Thu, 19 Jun 2025 21:45:30 Michael Kjörling <[email protected]>wrote:
> >>
> >> On 19 Jun 2025 11:57 -0400, from [email protected] (Mark Foley):
> >>> [...] I've downloaded and installed cryptsetup 2.7.5. [...]
> >>
> >> Most Linux distributions include cryptsetup in their repositories; you
> >> should not need to download and install it manually through
> >> out-of-band means. Using the distribution's packaged version is
> >> generally better unless you are working on the cryptsetup code; you
> >> get updates through the distribution's normal update process, and you
> >> don't risk unknowingly introducing incompatibilities between for
> >> example the kernel, libcryptsetup, and cryptsetup.
> > 
> > Michael, thanks for your prompt response. My distro (Slackware) does not ship
> > with cryptsetup
>
> AFAIK Slackware packages cryptsetup, at least in recent versions.
> While it is one of the oldest distros I know, it is not so generic :)
>
> Milan
>

You're right! I have cryptsetup 2.4.3 installed on Slackware. I didn't even try
checking for it before downloading 2.7.5

I guess "generic" depends on what one is used to. It does use the older rc.d
startup scripts, not systemd, but other than that, I don't find much difference
with e.g. Debian -- although it's been a while since I've used Debian. AFAIK
kernels and modules are not tweaked in any way for Slackware. Having using
Slackware without problems for the past 30 years as NAS servers, domain
controllers, etc., I'll probably stick with it until compelled to change (maybe
when Patrick Volkerding retires). 

Thanks for your feedback.

--Mark