Respondus Lockdown Browser required, can only use a Linux system

Question

For an upcoming dual-credit college course, I am going to be required to use Respondus Lockdown Browser along with a webcam. The only systems with webcams are my own laptop and my mom's.

My laptop is running Ubuntu 16.10 and does not have dual-boot capabilities. All I know is that I was given it as a gift from a friend who works in cybersecurity. He asked about installing Ubuntu on it. Me, preferring Linux over Windows any day, said, "Heck yeah." He went on to say that he remembered something with the hardware that made it extremely complicated and difficult to install another OS instead of what it came with. He did, in the end, get it to me with Ubuntu installed. I'm explaining all this to help you understand why I cannot dual boot. I haven't tried to dual boot yet, because I do not wish to take the risk of bricking my trusty machine. Well, technically, it's Yakkety. (Pun intended)

My mom's laptop, on the other hand, runs Windows 10, which should run Respondus just fine. However she does not let me use it, ever.

I need a solution for my Linux machine. I've heard that it detects virtual machine usage and will refuse to run. I've seen several links to http://themadhacker.net/lockdown, which supposedly gives a detailed guide on using this with WINE. Unfortunately, the website is offline.

If someone who has found success with WINE could provide a guide, that would help a lot. Or, if there is a workaround for using a VM to run it, that would also do. As a last resort, I should be able to use my mom's laptop, though I would love it if I could use my own.

Solution

The cached version of that page is mentioned here in the comments.

And here is another page which might be useful.

Perhaps it is a good idea to start a signature campaign asking the Respondus company to support Linux, as well as Virtual machine usage. Only supporting Windows and Mac and no Virtual machine by them, is basically locking countless of Linux using people out.

Comments

[Admin]

appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=19785 <- Doesn't look god, anything below Gold is probably not worth the time and effort to, at best, make it partially work.

[Computer Looker]

Thanks, but that was the appdb entry for the program named Respondus, not Lockdown Browser. appdb.winehq.org/… would be for Lockdown Browser, but the results are just as bad. However, they are old, and I still see many people with Wine success stories.

[JonasCz]

If you have an iOS device, Lockdown supports that. Out of curiosity, what model laptop do you have though ? It should not be so hard to dual-boot it...

[Computer Looker]

@JonasCz Some sort of Dell Inspiron a few years old. It was given to me by a friend. Intel Sandybridge Graphics, Intel Core i3 2370m processor.

[Computer Looker]

I'm interested in what you can come up with. All I know is that the friend who set it up for me said that I would have trouble doing it myself. I don't want a bricked machine so I haven't tried anything yet.

[JonasCz]

You won't "brick" your machine by installing another OS. If you want to try installing Windows, you could always take out the hard drive / SSD and replace it with a different one, if you're worried about potentially screwing up your setup. But your machine can definitely do dual boot (installing Windows after having already installed Ubuntu is a bit tricky, but there's a guide for it on this site, here)

[0x2b3bfa0]

Can you create a VirtualBox VM with Windows in your computer?

[Elder Geek]

Related: forum.winehq.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=18956

[JakeD]

@Helio No, this app figures out if it is run in a VM...

[0x2b3bfa0]

@JakeD the only solution with chances of being useful (as far as I know) is to use a VirtualBox VM with Windows along with this: github.com/nsmfoo/antivmdetection

[JakeD]

@Helio Have you successfully done that with Respondus? I'm going to go ahead and try it...

[0x2b3bfa0]

@JakeD No, sorry. I never used Respondus, but I think that this method may work.