KWallet and Akonadi

[mmnogueira]

Kubuntu 12.04 amd64

When the system boots a dialog pops up prompting me to type my password for opening KWallet. Well, if I type the password too fast, just after the dialog opens, Akonadi complains with something like "It was not possible to... password incorrect...", and doesn't sinchronize with GMail; on the other hand, if I wait a few seconds before typing the password, everything loads nicely. It seems to me that Akonadi needs some component that loads after the dialog. No big deal, but I think that this behaviour might interest the developers.

Congratulations for the nice job - Kubuntu 12.04 is fantastic!

[SteveRiley]

Change your wallet password so that it's blank. Then you won't be hassled with this anymore. Since a password is still required to log on to your computer, I'm comfortable with the notion of a password-less wallet.

[james147]

I'm comfortable with the notion of a password-less wallet.

Unless your on a public system where others might be able to see your home directory contents (even the sys admins) Though this is probably being paranoid.

But yes, for home use password-less wallets are fine.

[SteveRiley]

True...I was assuming a home PC here.

[mmnogueira]

Change your wallet password so that it's blank. Then you won't be hassled with this anymore. Since a password is still required to log on to your computer, I'm comfortable with the notion of a password-less wallet.

Thanks for the hint.

[Thiudans]

ecryptfs handles this well. It basically encrypts your home directory so that only with the user password or the encryption key could one view the contents of the home directory.

[woodsmoke]

And if you have passwords already in Kwallet and want to delete them you can go to Kwallet manager and find the password folder, you can't look in it unless you are root, but can just delete the folder and thereby be passwordless,. kind of like I'm clueless! lol

woodcluelesssmoke

[SteveRiley]

ecryptfs handles this well. It basically encrypts your home directory so that only with the user password or the encryption key could one view the contents of the home directory.

For the average home PC user, I usually advise against encrypting file systems. Key management is a non-trivial task.

[SecretCode]

Steve, does your comment apply to encrypting the entire /home, or also to encrypting selected subfolders? I've been doing that for years (a year at least) and I am now worried that my trivial key management is inadequate!

[SteveRiley]

I suppose I should have been explained my thinking better. Encrypting anything comes with a certain amount of risk: if you lose the key, then you lose the data -- forever. So that means you have to follow some method of backing up or achiving your keys. People are generally not good at maintaining backups -- the backups get lost, the media goes bad (when was the last time you tested your backup?), etc.

J. Random Laptopuser rarely has any data of value to Q. Opportunistic Laptopthief. It's the physical computer that said thief wants, for its quick pawning profit. The loss risk and maintenance hassle that encryption creates isn't worth the cost in most cases. Mistakes are common, while theft is rare: I've had to say "Sorry, without a key backup, I can't help you recover your encrypted data" far more often than "Boy, aren't you glad that thief won't be able to read your files?"

If you must store a few secrets, then don't encrypt your entire home directory. Instead, choose one of the many available password keeper type utilities. Then encrypt that, write the master passphrase down, and protect this piece of paper somehow.

[SecretCode]

I've got a number of secrets in a password-keeper file ... which is synchronised with Dropbox! - So that I can be sure of accessing it if I forget my login password. (My current encfs folders are encrypted with fairly short passwords, but are more experimental than serious.)

I'm not too worried about using Dropbox for this as it's encrypted with both a 64 character random file key (which I have on my hard drive and on a USB stick and on my phone, for reading the password file on my phone in the case that I can't get into my computer, but not on Dropbox) and a 5 word Diceware phrase which I have written down somewhere. If I were to encrypt my home dir, I'd add the passphrase to this file.

But perhaps this disqualifies me from standing as a candidate for "average home PC user"?

[SteveRiley]

But perhaps this disqualifies me from standing as a candidate for "average home PC user"?

Ahyup, that it does. Which, I suppose, is no surprise.