Laptop Guard

A laptop alarm system that locks your computer and sounds an alarm if triggered.

This project is at an early stage, so expect bugs. That being said, it should work on most Debian/Ubuntu systems

Introduction

What triggers the alarm?

• Unplugging the computer from ac power
• Pressing the power button (at least on my computer)
• Pressing ctrl & alt keys at the same time
• Shutting the lid of the computer

What happens when the alarm is triggered?

• An alarm sound is played.
• A picture is taken with the computer's webcam.
• The picture is sent to an email or phone.

Current Dependencies (will probably change)

• python2.6
• python-dbus
• python-gtk2
• pulseaudio-utils
• python-gst0.10
• streamer

Installation Instructions (Ubuntu)

Automatic

Use the PPA for Laptop Guard:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jfadney/laptop-guard
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install laptop-guard

Or download and install the Debian package manually. You can find the most recent package on the PPA's builds page.

Manual

1. Extract the downloaded package
2. Open the folder you extracted
3. Open ubuntu-install and select the "run" option
4. Enter your user account password

Do everything separately

1. Install dependencies:

   sudo apt-get install streamer python-gst0.10 python-dbus python-gtk2 pulseaudio-utils
   

2. Extract tar.gz file

3. Move into directory and run install script as root:

   cd <folder-you-extracted-into>
   sudo python setup.py install
   

Usage

Run this command to start the application:

laptop-guard

You should configure the alarm settings (by clicking the button in the bottom- left corner of the main window) the first time you run the program.

Configuration

General

Setting	Description
Alarm Volume	If the alarm is activated, this will be the volume of the alarm sound. You should leave this high except when testing the alarm.
Pictures Directory	On activation, the program takes pictures and stores them in this directory. These are overwritten each time the alarm is activated.
Lock Screen Password	This is the password you will need to give in order to unlock your computer after setting your alarm.

Text Messaging

Setting	Description
To Email Address	This is the email address that will receive the picture and alert which is sent when the alarm is activated. You can ideally use your cell phone to receive this message depending on your service provider. For example: if your provider is verizon you would put this email here <your-phone-#>@vzwpix.com
From Email Address	This is the email address that you want the message to come from. To be safe, use an email address that corresponds with the domain of your outgoing mail server. Mail server configuration has not yet been implemented

Email Account

Setting	Description
Username	The username for your mail account. Only gmail is supported as of now
Password	The password corresponding with your email account. This is stored in a non-human-readable form, however it is not encrypted. Soon it will be saved using gnome keyring.