Requirements   Hardware requirements i386 or higher Linux box (not tested on other platforms). About 200 KBytes of free disk space to install BestCrypt software. Disk space for containers is not limited. Software requirements Linux system with kernel version 2.2.0-2.3.36, 2.4.3 or higher. Kernel configuration MUST allow loadable modules support (see Kernel HOW TO or Modules mini-HOW TO). BestCrypt for Linux is distributed in sources only, so you will need Linux kernel development environment ("Kernel development" category in RedHat distributions): Kernel developLinux kernel sources (the same version as you are running) GNU C/C++ compiler recommended for kernel compilation (2.2.x kernels use gcc 2.7.2, 2.4.x kernels use gcc 2.91 Containers considerations Filename format notes Different filesystems have different filename restrictions. When copying file from one filesystem to another these restrictions should be kept in mind. Most frustrating limitation is FAT filesystem file naming scheme "8.3" - only 8 characters for name and 3 characters for file extension. If you will copy files with longer names to container formatted with FAT, file names will be truncated to "8.3" format. Filesystem accessibility BestCrypt containers can be created and read under various operating systems and can be formatted with various filesystems. Following table provides filesystem accessibility matrix for BestCrypt containers. See also Filesystems-HOWTO. OS running BestCrypt DOS BestCrypt v3.2 Windows 3.x BestCrypt v3.2 Windows 95 BestCrypt v6.x, v7.x Windows 95 OSR2/98/98SE/ME BestCrypt v6.x, v7.x Windows NT 4.0 BestCrypt v6.x, v7.x Windows 2000/XP BestCrypt v6.x, v7.x Linux BestCrypt for Linux Filesystem FAT 12/16 yes(*) yes(*) yes yes yes yes yes FAT 32 (VFAT) no no no yes SP5 required yes yes NTFS v4 no no no no yes yes read-only NTFS v5 no no no no no yes read-only ext2/ext3 no no no no no no yes ReiserFS no no no no no no yes Minix no no no no no no yes (*) Note: BestCrypt for Linux uses container format incompatible with BestCrypt for DOS/Windows 3.11 containers. In order to convert containers BestCrypt for Windows 95 or later should be used. Container size (file size limitations) Container size limitations are implied by file size limitations of filesystem where container resides. Newer +Linux distributions (RedHat 7.0+, SuSE 7.0+, Debian 3.0+) include so-called Large File Support which extends conventional 2GB Linux file limit. See also Large File Support in Linux page. Filesystem Container size limit 64-bit systems and 32-bit systems with Large File Support 32-bit systems without Large File Support (old) FAT12 32MB filesystem size limit 32MB filesystem size limit FAT16 FAT32 (VFAT) 2GB 2GB ext2/ext3 2048GB 2GB ReiserFS 16384GB filesystem size limit 2GB minix 64MB filesystem size limit 64MB filesystem size limit