Arch Linux

misterwhite

Member

Registered: 2006-02-07

Posts: 7

block mounting of partition

Hello All,

I'm curious as to whether there is a way to block mounting of a partition.

Specifically, I'm letting someone borrow my desktop computer. I've created a partition and thrown Ubuntu on it for them. They are qualified enough to act as their own administrator on that installation, but I'm looking to avoid accidents so would like to prevent their access to my other partitions. The main problem is that my other install partitions appear in the 'Places' Menu under gnome on Ubuntu, and gnome-mount allows them to be auto-mounted.

Any thoughts on how to avoid this person accessing or mounting these partitions, without eliminating their ability to administer their ubuntu installation?

Thanks in advance,
Alex

iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: block mounting of partition

You could always encrypt the other partitions - Ubuntu couldn't read them then. Of course, that doesn't prevent cat /dev/urandom > /dev/sda2.

I think TrueCrypt can do entire partitions. Not sure how difficult it is to install and then reverse the process when the machine is back in your posession. The manditoy data backup applies here, obviously.

Last edited by iBertus (2008-08-04 19:47:01)

misterwhite

Member

Registered: 2006-02-07

Posts: 7

Re: block mounting of partition

Interesting idea. I haven't played with encryption yet though, and would prefer to avoid it. It may be that the easiest solution is just to slap another hard drive in there and unplug the one I've been using.  A bit more cumbersome, but I suppose ultimately much more fail-safe.

Still, other ideas are welcome. I'm still hoping to avoid busting out the screw-drivers

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,018

Re: block mounting of partition

I'm not sure if this would work, but dd'ing superblock somewhere and writing rubbish there might work. To recover you'd just have to dd the superblock back.