Something strange happened last night with laptop...?

[Nao57]

So something strange happened last night with my laptop.

It turned turned itself on at 3 AM and started bleeping and doing stuff. I had it shut. Then it did the same at 5 AM. The time at 5 AM it was trying to do stuff.

Why would it do that? Is that getting hacked?

I was displeased that it had turned itself on so I didn't think to try to do screenshots, and just shut it off. But it bothered me that it was doing that.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

there may be some info about what was going on in your system logs. lots of distros keep those in /var/log. if your distro uses systemd, you would have access to journalctl: https://www.thegeekdiary.com/beginn...urnalctl-to-view-and-manipulate-systemd-logs/

some distros or desktop environments (DE's) come with a graphical log viewer.

 

[KGIII]

Why would it do that? Is that getting hacked?

Almost certainly not. You can do all sorts of things via remote, including WOL (Wake On LAN), but that'd have to be intentionally configured.

What exactly was it doing?

Depending on your configuration, when you close the lid it doesn't turn off the device - it merely turns off the monitor.

Was it asleep, perhaps? Was hibernation enabled and activated?

Following @z7vl7abxc's suggestion, you can also do this in a handy GUI:

How To: Graphically Check Your Logs For Errors With 'KSystemLog' • Linux Tips

Today's article is going to be about one of my favorite tools for checking the various system logs, KSystemLog. Easily check your error logs.

linux-tips.us

 

[BigBadBeef]

So something strange happened last night with my laptop.

It turned turned itself on at 3 AM and started bleeping and doing stuff. I had it shut. Then it did the same at 5 AM. The time at 5 AM it was trying to do stuff.

Why would it do that? Is that getting hacked?

I was displeased that it had turned itself on so I didn't think to try to do screenshots, and just shut it off. But it bothered me that it was doing that.

In my long years of doing computer maintenance, I've had a lot of springs fail on power buttons, thus they were just depressed enough for the slightest vibration to trigger them. I've also had people bring me computer which set their CMOS to be able to boot the system by clicking the mouse, and and had their left mouse button so worn is just triggered at random intervals. Or maybe you have a short circuit on the power controller. Laptops are crocks to do maintenance on and I try to generally stay away from them.

Unless it booted EXACTLY at 3AM or 5AM, I'd say hardware issue. Else you got pranked, maybe a script that, instead of powering down your pc, it sends it to sleep and sets it to wake up on a timer to spook you. As for it doing "something", Linux isn't always idle when prompted, it does seems to do regular check-ups for updates, maybe obtaining the most recent SMART data from your drives, those kinds of things. However its a lot less intense than what windows does at night, which is all kind of shady shit going on in the background the moment you walk away from your pc for an extended period of time.

 

[Nao57]

Almost certainly not. You can do all sorts of things via remote, including WOL (Wake On LAN), but that'd have to be intentionally configured.

What exactly was it doing?

Depending on your configuration, when you close the lid it doesn't turn off the device - it merely turns off the monitor.

Was it asleep, perhaps? Was hibernation enabled and activated?

Following @z7vl7abxc's suggestion, you can also do this in a handy GUI:

How To: Graphically Check Your Logs For Errors With 'KSystemLog' • Linux Tips

Today's article is going to be about one of my favorite tools for checking the various system logs, KSystemLog. Easily check your error logs.

linux-tips.us

So could you use that ksystem log to check for activity around that time?

 

[Nao57]

Almost certainly not. You can do all sorts of things via remote, including WOL (Wake On LAN), but that'd have to be intentionally configured.

What exactly was it doing?

Depending on your configuration, when you close the lid it doesn't turn off the device - it merely turns off the monitor.

Was it asleep, perhaps? Was hibernation enabled and activated?

Following @z7vl7abxc's suggestion, you can also do this in a handy GUI:

How To: Graphically Check Your Logs For Errors With 'KSystemLog' • Linux Tips

Today's article is going to be about one of my favorite tools for checking the various system logs, KSystemLog. Easily check your error logs.

linux-tips.us

I'm not sure on the hibernation thing. I'll have to check. I don't normally pay attention to something like sleep seetings, hibernation settings.

 

[Nao57]

In my long years of doing computer maintenance, I've had a lot of springs fail on power buttons, thus they were just depressed enough for the slightest vibration to trigger them. I've also had people bring me computer which set their CMOS to be able to boot the system by clicking the mouse, and and had their left mouse button so worn is just triggered at random intervals. Or maybe you have a short circuit on the power controller. Laptops are crocks to do maintenance on and I try to generally stay away from them.

Unless it booted EXACTLY at 3AM or 5AM, I'd say hardware issue. Else you got pranked, maybe a script that, instead of powering down your pc, it sends it to sleep and sets it to wake up on a timer to spook you. As for it doing "something", Linux isn't always idle when prompted, it does seems to do regular check-ups for updates, maybe obtaining the most recent SMART data from your drives, those kinds of things. However its a lot less intense than what windows does at night, which is all kind of shady shit going on in the background the moment you walk away from your pc for an extended period of time.

Is it generally a concensus that windows has more spyware than anything else on the market?

 

[f33dm3bits]

What is actually installed on the system your are talking about, Windows or a Linux distribution?

 

[KGIII]

So could you use that ksystem log to check for activity around that time?

The next time it happens, check it then and they'll be the most recent. It's possible to read older logs I'm pretty sure, but I'd just take the easy road and check when it happens again.

 

[BigBadBeef]

Is it generally a concensus that windows has more spyware than anything else on the market?

Science exists irrespective of consensus. Microsoft's reviled practices can now be confirmed by even a kid with the most basic knowledge of monitoring his/her own network traffic.