Sample Header Ad - 728x90

Disk encryption format for external drives that works on both macos and linux

3 votes
1 answer
5689 views
Is there any disk encryption scheme or format that can be used on both macos _and_ linux? Linux cannot read Apple's drive encryption format, and LUKS is not supported on MacOS. I tried using VeraCrypt encrypted partitions in exFat format and it mounted successfully several times on MacOS but after a system update exFat mounting of veracrypt volumes does not work anymore (no issues on linux). Also, exFat does not seem to be a reliable file system, so I searched for alternatives, but apart from **fat32**, **exFat** and **ntfs** I don't see any viable alternatives for a reliable cross-platform file system. All of these formats have issues: **fat32** has file size limits, **exfat** veracrypt partitions are not mountable on macos, and **ntfs** is proprietary, linux support is not reliable, and veracrypt does not support it on linux/mac. hfsplus works fine on mac but is read-only on linux (probably worth mentioning that you can disable HFS+ journalling and allow writing on linux). I hoped to be able to use ext3/ext4 with veracrypt encryption but even though I have fuse with ext4fuse working in read-only mode working for unencrypted drives veracrypt is apparently not able to interoperate with fuse drivers. Fat32 would be a great option since it works well with veracrypt on any OS, but the file size limitation and lack of symlinks is simply not acceptable. Any other options I might have missed?
Asked by ccpizza (3233 rep)
Mar 28, 2019, 10:10 PM
Last activity: Feb 17, 2025, 02:19 PM