Prey
Prey is a set of bash scripts that helps you track your computer when it is stolen.
This guide shows you how to install Prey.
Contents
Installation
Install prey-tracker from the AUR.
Configuration
Edit /usr/share/prey/config
and add your device key and API key, both of which are listed in Prey's control panel.
Run /usr/share/prey/prey.sh
as root to ensure that the configuration is correct.
Enable systemd service prey-tracker to automatically start Prey at boot # systemctl enable prey-tracker.timer
Modules
To enable/disable modules, you must change the executable permissions for the the "run" files in prey's respective modules/core subdirectories. Adding executable permissions to a module will enable it, while removing permissions will disable the module.
GUI config
You can use a GUI to configure prey using the prey-config
script:
# /usr/share/prey/platform/linux/prey-config.py
Note that if this doesn't work call it by using python2 specifically:
# python2 /usr/share/prey/platform/linux/prey-config.py
Standalone Mode
The GUI can be used to configure standalone mode.
Alternatively, /usr/share/prey/config
can be edited to change post_method
to email
and edit the SMTP settings.
Note that in Standalone Mode, all modules in /usr/share/prey/modules
run by default. To disable them, remove executable permissions on the module's run
file (located within the module's core
subdirectory). For example, the following command disables the alarm
module:
# chmod -x /usr/share/prey/modules/alarm/core/run
Troubleshooting
To troubleshoot, run
# /usr/share/prey/prey.sh --check
Ensure you have enabled systemd service prey-tracker.service and prey-tracker.timer to start Prey at boot.
If you're not receiving webcam images in you reports, install xawtv from the official repositories.
Beeping
If scrot is installed, prey will use it to take a screenshot if the session
module is enabled. Unfortunately, scrot emits an annoying beep everytime it is run. To disable beeping, append xset -b
to the beginning of /usr/share/prey/modules/session/core/run
.
Bugs
There seems to be a bug in version 0.5.3 which gives an error if the SMTP password is set when using "email" post_method, which returns an error, but works fine when executed normally without the --check option.