Creating A Truecrypt 5 Volume on Ubuntu

I had to create a new TrueCrypt volume today because I ran out of disk space on my old one that resided on my Ubuntu laptop. It was huge, so the entire process took almost an hour to complete. :-(

TrueCrypt 5.0 or a higher version comes with a nifty GUI.

Here are the steps to create a TrueCrypt ext3 volume on Ubuntu using the TrueCrypt GUI:

1. Start up TrueCrypt and create a volume using the GUI, without specifying a file system.

2. After the TrueCrypt volume has been successfully created, mount it using the TrueCrypt GUI. Ensure that under the mount options, the "Do not mount filesystem" option is checked.

3. In a terminal window, type: sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/loop0

4. After the formatting is done, use the TrueCrypt GUI to dismount and remount the TrueCrypt volume. You should now be able to start using your TrueCrypt volume. :-)