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Ask Slashdot: Good Tracking Solutions For Linux Laptop?

Posted by samzenpus on from the ping-home dept.

First time accepted submitter WillHPower writes "So I have ordered a new Ubuntu-powered laptop. I spent some extra bucks on lots of RAM and a good sized solid state drive. After putting money into it, I'd like to find a way to track this laptop in case it's ever stolen. Are there any good tracking software/services the run on Linux laptops? Also, are there any other techniques besides tracking for dealing with a lost or stolen laptop that I should consider?"

5 of 253 comments (clear)

  1. No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, there's no good Linux HW tracking software. Why? Cause there's no good software for other platforms either. It's all "make-you-feel-good-software" which doesn't survive a simple OS reinstallation...

  2. Here is what you could do: by stewsters · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Get internal gps. Dual boot with a no-password windows xp account. The thief will have a much higher chance to log into that. Make it spam a home server with its coordinates every second its on and has access to the internet. Encrypt your linux partition. The key is you want the thief not to just wipe it and sell it, they need to power it on.

  3. Linux OS likely to be erased offline by advid.net · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The first thing the theft will do: an offline OS installation.

    I bet the stolen Linux laptop will have its OS erased to either to run MS Windows or an other Linux distro.

  4. Re:Disk encryption by greg1104 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you encrypt the boot drive properly, it won't boot to anywhere useful without a password. That means you can't use any of the OS-level tracking solutions, because the thief won't be able to boot into the regular OS. If you've let a criminal boot far enough to track them properly, you've really let them get too close to your data.

    It sucks in a way that a locked down system can't also phone home easily to find the thief, but realistically that's the trade-off here. I'm willing to write off the cost of a laptop if it's stolen, as long as the thief doesn't also get access to any personal data I have on the drive. Recovering from a case of identity theft costs a lot more than any single device.

  5. DDoS by DougOtto · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Configure it to launch a DDoS against the NSA and FBI if your password isn't entered within 30 seconds of booting.

    --
    Solving Unix problems since 1989...