Prey
Prey is a set of scripts that helps you track your computer when it is stolen.
This guide shows you how to install Prey.
Contents
Installation
Install prey-node-clientAUR from the AUR.
Configuration
Edit /etc/prey/prey.conf
and add your device key and API key, both of which are listed in Prey's control panel. Or use the the GUI to ste your account.
Run prey config activate
as prey user to ensure that the configuration is correct.
The installer should enable automatically the systemd service prey-agent to start Prey at boot. You can check if it's loaded and running with # systemctl | grep prey-agent
Plugins
To enable/disable plugins, you must run prey config plugins
and read the usage to enable/disable and list the available plugins.
GUI config
You can use a GUI to configure prey using the prey config gui
command:
# prey config gui
Standalone Mode
By enabling url-trigger and report-to-inbox plugins you can set a standalone prey client, triggering emailed reports whenever a URL returns a specific status code.
Troubleshooting
To troubleshoot, run
$ prey config check
Ensure you have enabled systemd service prey-agent.service 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.