I recently bought a laptop for my young son to cut his teeth on.
As I was showing him how to find things I types “big” into the search function … AND to my surprise the results showed multiple websites visited by the previous owner with “big” things that I do not want my son to see or know about at this stage!!
I can only guess that these results are in some cash memory somewhere.
I’m not an expert, but know my way around opensuse a little bit.
I tried clicking on the icon and then deleting it, bit it does not work.
Can anyone please help me to get rid of these nasties.
On Tue, 2009-08-18 at 19:56 +0000, ockron wrote:
> I recently bought a laptop for my young son to cut his teeth on.
>
> As I was showing him how to find things I types “big” into the search
> function … AND to my surprise the results showed multiple websites
> visited by the previous owner with “big” things that I do not want my
> son to see or know about at this stage!!
>
> I can only guess that these results are in some cash memory somewhere.
Use separate accounts. Force logins (no auto login).
And of course, the biggest fix… don’t go to websites that you
obviously do not trust. If you don’t want want your child to learn how
to murder from you, the easiest way is to not murder anyone… right?
Otherwise the risk is ALWAYS there (always!).
So… for example, if I don’t want my child to see that I’ve been
browsing terrorist training sites, the easiest way it to never browse to
them to begin with. Otherwise, I think it’s probably wise to just be
honest with your child and let them know you’re a terrorist (I’m just
using that as an example of something most wouldn’t want their child
looking at). I’m just telling you the right solution to the problem…
Obviously hiding one’s crime, is another “solution”, but it’s flawed
since lies can only go so far (since it’s not the truth).
It’s like breaking the law. You can break the law, hide it and MAYBE
you won’t get caught. But then, you’re always looking over your
shoulder and you shiver every time you see a law enforcement officer.
Perhaps a better approach is to strive to not break the law. Then at
least you won’t have fear and even if stopped by a law enforcement
officer, you won’t have to tell more lies… even if you did
inadvertently break the law (which is always possible).
It’s just another option… but certainly a path less traveled by
most… (sad but true, and we wonder why we can’t trust anyone?).
In addition to this I would also recommend clearing out whatever beagle might
have indexed. Just remove the .beagle directory in the user’s home directory.
But I seriously have to ask. Why not just reinstall? If it were me, I would have
wiped the disk clean and then reinstalled the OS before selling.
Even if I purchased a used computer that was already installed, I would
seriously wipe the disk and reinstall. There’s always the possibility that the
seller has planted something on the box to get my personal info, keylogger,
trojan, or whatever else mischief there is. Reinstall is my most sincere
recommendation.
–
Niclas Ekstedt, CNA/CNE/CNS/CLS
Systems Engineer
Atea Sverige AB
Yes I have deleted history and bookmarks. The other person used Opera and I even deleted that and installed Firefox - hoping it would help.
This could be index files saved on the HDD somewhere??
Hi Cj.
It’s a bit difficult explaining to a 7 year old what these ladies and gents are copulating as they are and doing these weird things. In fact I don’t even have a conclusive answer to that question.
or if your file manager supports it (Dolphin & Konqi do, dunno about Nautilus), enable view of hidden files and just right-click on the .beagle dir and delete it
lol dude you just made me snort my coffee through my nose !
Though to the OP as other have stated I would seriously reconsider doing an new install. You never know, there might be a rootkit or other nasties lying around especially with that kind of stuff that has obviously been on that box
Would I be right in saying that uninstalling beagle probably won’t have removed the .beagle directory, so if anyone ever reinstalls it, it’ll all come back again?
> Would I be right in saying that uninstalling beagle probably won’t have
> removed the .beagle directory, so if anyone ever reinstalls it, it’ll
> all come back again?
That’s right
–
Niclas Ekstedt, CNA/CNE/CNS/CLS
Systems Engineer
Atea Sverige AB
>
>I recently bought a laptop for my young son to cut his teeth on.
>
>As I was showing him how to find things I types “big” into the search
>function … AND to my surprise the results showed multiple websites
>visited by the previous owner with “big” things that I do not want my
>son to see or know about at this stage!!
>
>I can only guess that these results are in some cash memory somewhere.
>
>I’m not an expert, but know my way around opensuse a little bit.
>
>I tried clicking on the icon and then deleting it, bit it does not
>work.
>
>Can anyone please help me to get rid of these nasties.
>
>Thank you.
Did i read this correctly? You bought a used laptop for your son
and did not thoroughly reformat the hard disk? How did it get Linux
on it (presuming it has)?
Sorry to be so nasty, but MSwin parents know this.
