Installing TrueCrypt 5.1a & 6.1a On Ubuntu 8.04, 8.10 or 9.04
TrueCrypt was finally made available for Linux with the release of version 5.1a. Here’s how to install it.
**Update**
I have been made aware by Onopoc in the comments section that this same tutorial will work with TrueCrypt 6.1a as well. Simply change the name of the file in the respective spots where the exact file name is used
Installing TrueCrypt
- Open a terminal window and type: ‘wget http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads/truecrypt-5.1a-ubuntu-x86.tar.gz’
- Once that is done, type: ‘tar zxvf truecrypt-5.1a-ubuntu-x86.tar.gz’
- Now go to ‘Places‘ –> ‘Home Folder‘ and look for a file called
‘truecrypt-5.1a-setup-ubuntu-x86‘ and double click on it
- You should get a dialog box asking you what you want to do with it. Choose ‘Run in Terminal‘
- You should now see another dialog box with the option to ‘Install TrueCrypt‘ at the bottom. Choose this.
Encrypting Thumb Drives With TrueCrypt
Last week I wrote a post on how to encrypt entire hard drives with TrueCrypt. We all know how easy it is to have your laptop lost or stolen and how important it is to protect sensitive data. However, something that is even easier to lose and often has just as sensitive data on it is thumb drives. I know personally I’ve lost a couple of them over time.
Today we’re going to learn how to encrypt these drives to keep them from prying eyes.
Setting Up
Just a few things to get you prepared for the encryption process.
- Grab TrueCrypt if you don’t already have it.
- Make sure your thumb drive is plugged in and move everything on it to your desktop. This is important because TrueCrypt is going to format the drive during the encryption process.
- Open the main TrueCrypt window
