10 ms·
It's not encrypted ext4, it's ecryptfs (which acts as a separate layer entirely, creating a virtual encrypted filesystem on top of ext4) - probably doesn't supp
by shittyadmin 8y ago
It's not encrypted ext4, it's ecryptfs (which acts as a separate layer entirely, creating a virtual encrypted filesystem on top of ext4) - probably doesn't support some inotify feature or some extended attributes that aren't set correctly when used through ecryptfs.
If instead you used dmcrypt and encrypted the whole device or partition you'd probably have no issue as it looks just like any other EXT4 FS to the system.
Would be a lot better if they specified what features they need the underlying FS to support.
- fuzzy2 8y agoThe (supposed) Dropbox engineer refers to Extended Attributes. Maybe they’re doing uncommon stuff with ’em that uncommon filesystems cannot cope with... ;)
- ronjouch 8y ago> "It's not encrypted ext4, it's ecryptfs (which acts as a separate layer entirely, creating a virtual encrypted filesystem on top of ext4) - probably doesn't support some inotify feature or some extended attributes that aren't set correctly when used through ecryptfs." Thanks, I updated the title.
- rcarmo 8y agoHome directory encryption via ecryptfs is now the default in most Ubuntu variants, and it would be insane not to attempt to support it. That said, given that my Dropbox subscription just renewed (and that Linux is pretty much the only reason I'm still using it, since there is no OneDrive client I can rely on), I am really sad this seems to be a future direction for Dropbox.
- jorvi 8y agoIf you feel comfortable with Google, Gdrive has a great client in the form of OverGrive.
- dawnerd 8y agoAnd there’s always rclone. Combine that with whatever encryption you want and you’re set.
- pythonaut_16 8y agoIf it just renewed and this changes breaks your use case you can probably request a refund since your system is no longer supported.
- eloff 8y agoI get a terabyte free with onedrive, because of the office subscription. I wish I had a good way to utilize it on Linux.
- jonbarker 8y agoUse a flow to replicate your onedrive in Azure Files, then mount it to your Linux box: https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/galleries/public/templates/2f90b5d3-029b-4e2e-ad37-1c0fe6d187fe/when-a-file-is-uploaded-to-onedrive-copy-it-to-azure-storage-container/ https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/galleries/public/templates/... AND https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/files/storage-how-to-use-files-linux https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/files/storage...
- fowl2 8y agoThat would be very much not free
- owaislone 8y agoOut of curiosity, what happens if you office subscription ends? Obviously you won't be able to sync but does onedrive have some sort of grace period to let you download your stuff and at what point would it go and completely delete your data?
- godzillabrennus 8y agoOffice stops working if your subscription ends so most likely they will renew their subscription.
- thesephist 8y agoI believe the modus operandi for most personal cloud storage providers here is to make the entire dataset read- and delete-only until the user gets enough storage space (by upgrading or deleting files) to be able to write/upload again. That, plus some incessant push messages to your client devices about upgrading, which is annoying but expected.
- 8y ago
- Androider 8y agoOn the contrary, Ubuntu 18.04 dropped the home directory encryption entirely and now only supports full disk encryption.
- ronjouch 8y agoIndeed: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BionicBeaver/ReleaseNotes#Other_base_system_changes_since_16.04_LTS https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BionicBeaver/ReleaseNotes#Other_base... > "The installer no longer offers the encrypted home option using ecryptfs-utils. It is recommended to use full-disk encryption instead for this release."
- shittyadmin 8y agoThere was also a series of issues found by with the encryption used by ecryptfs: https://defuse.ca/audits/ecryptfs.htm https://defuse.ca/audits/ecryptfs.htm The full disk block-based (as opposed to this file-based) encryption is really the way to go if you want a good security and performance margin.
- h4b4n3r0 8y agoThere is (or at least _was_ when I last tried FDE) one major fly in this ointment: you lose the ability to reboot your machine remotely. Upon restarting it required that you enter the password, which you can only do from a local keyboard.
- mjevans 8y agoFor such systems I consider the primary root file-system to be part of the 'bootloader'. Everything that I want to keep actually secure is inside of the encrypted PVs backing LVM volumes. Yes, this presents a security risk in that someone could (offhand I think the term is 'evil maid'?) attack the root filesystem, but they could still have done that to the bootloader anyway. Remote interaction is then required to bring the VMs on that system up.
- beardbound 8y agoI use Google drive, but the Linux support was awful and I started using insync. It's about $25 for a lifetime license and I love it. I run Ubuntu with encrypted home and have for years. It works great and I highly recommend it, and I don't work there, just a happy user. The Nautilus integration is decent too.
- kryogen1c 8y agoNot trying to rain on your parade, I hope it fills your use case. However, my IT company onboarded a media-intense client with insync and it has been nothing but a nightmare. There are hardcoded limits (like only syncing two files at a time, IIRC) that make it effectively useless for anything beyond small, personal use. It's cheap and you get what you pay for.
- _e 8y agoNot sure what your exact role is but is there a possibility to move this client from insync to rclone? rclone is rsync for cloud storage services -- https://rclone.org/ https://rclone.org/
- IronBacon 8y agoI seldom use it, so I can't say how well it runs, but from Gnome version 3.22 if I'm not wrong, Google drive is integrated with Nautilus (the file manager) via GVfs/GIO and the couple of times I used it to share a file worked flawlessly. YMMV ^__^;
- fovc 8y agoWhat issues have you found with this Onedrive client[1]? I've been using it for over a year without any hiccups beyond the odd duplicate file [1] https://skilion.github.io/onedrive/ https://skilion.github.io/onedrive/
- framerate 8y agoI second this. I created my own systemd service so it runs when I’m not logged in and it’s been as reliable as Dropbox. On the one occasion (in 3 years) it did screw up, I simply ended up with two copies of the same file.
- gpvos 8y agoYou could use Nextcloud instead.
- StavrosK 8y agoI recently switched to Nextcloud because Dropbox's Android app is terrible, and like it a lot. It does everything Dropbox does, I get as much space as my server has, and the apps are all better than Dropbox. I also use Syncthing, which I am very impressed by, it works really well.
- kevin_thibedeau 8y agoJust put /home on a separate partition and please the BOFH gods.
- wutbrodo 8y agoI'm surprised to hear anyone is still mounting home and root on the same partition, frankly. It's made my life sooo much easier since I started doing it ages ago.
- Paul-ish 8y agoSecurity concerns aside, I found home directory encryption to have awful performance. It also caused issues with file name length.
- russdill 8y agoThe backing files for your ecryptfs will still get synced though, correct?
- shittyadmin 8y agoIf you point it at the backing files and they're stored on a supported FS, I see no reason why they wouldn't.
- kenferry 8y agoWhat do you think are the chances that Dropbox “just works” on a file system on which it isn’t regularly tested but which nominally has the right feature set? I’d go with “not good”. :-)
- x0x0 8y agoThis whole article read (to me!) as them wanting to reduce test load, and probably workarounds in their codebase.