KeePass On Ubuntu

Overview

I use KeePass as my password manager which works very well on Windows. Running it on Linux is not as easy but it has gotten better over the years for example in 14.04. Integrating it into browsers on the other hand is the missing link. The post was based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Install

KeePass is still a Windows application running on .Net but now KeePass is part of the Ubuntu respository so to install it is like any other software:
sudo apt-get install keepass mono-complete

Firefox Plugin

Set the KeePass options so that it can locate KeePass by going to Tools > KeePass options… A dialogue box will pop up with all the settings.

Go to KeePass tab and make sure the following at set:

• KeePassRPC plugin installation location – /home/user/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxx.default/extensions/keefox@chris.tomlinson/deps/
• KeePass installation location – /usr/lib/keepass2
• Mono executable location – /usr/bin/mono

Replace user with the username and xxxxxxx is made up of random letters and numbers and the .default means its the default password.

The plugin requires KeePassRPC.plgx file copied to the KeePass directory.

The instructions post KeeFox install can be found here. By default the file can be found in:
/home/user/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxx.default/extensions/keefox@chris.tomlinson/deps/KeePassRPC.plgx
or what was set in KeePass options above for KeePassRPC plugin installation location.

Create a plugin folder and copy the file to the KeePass install directory:
sudo mkdir /usr/lib/keepass2/plugins
sudo cp /home/user/.mozilla/firefox/x0i0pxul.default/extensions/keefox@chris.tomlinson/deps/KeePassRPC.plgx /usr/lib/keepass2/plugins/

where user is the name of the user.

After completing the above, restart Firefox and it will prompt for a one time password in Firefox and in turn launch KeePass to generate one.

Upgrade

If either has been upgraded it may require going through the above steps again. The difference is all the software is installed so it should just be the settings.

When upgrading make sure you close KeePass and restart Firefox. Check Keefox settings. Once done, go onto a site so that the Load KeePass database bar appears. Click on the button to open KeePass. When it loads, it should have a progress bar (albeit very quick). Enter you password / key file and the upgrade is done.

Summary

Ubuntu KeePass installation is not as straight forward as Windows but in the it works.

About Danny

I.T software professional always studying and applying the knowledge gained and one way of doing this is to blog. Danny also has participates in a part time project called Energy@Home [http://code.google.com/p/energyathome/] for monitoring energy usage on a premise. Dedicated to I.T since studying pure Information Technology since the age of 16, Danny Tsang working in the field that he has aimed for since leaving school. View all posts by Danny → This entry was posted in Linux, Software and tagged Firefox, KeePass, Mono, password, Ubuntu. Bookmark the permalink.

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