So have you heard about the swine flu?

Old, right? By now you’ve probably learned to sense a Rick Roll coming (if you don’t know what a Rick Roll is, click here). Unfortunately, this is probably true of all your friends, too. Unless, of course, you force them see the entire Rick Roll when they login to their account. On Linux, it’s quite easy to set up.

First, install VLC. This prank could probably be pulled off with any media player, but VLC is great and very easy to use for this.

You will need to get a video file of the Rick Roll. Audio works too, but then you can’t do the full screen thing.

If you use GNOME (If you don’t use GNOME, I am sure there is a KDE equivalent.), go to System > Preferences > Sessions. Click “Add” and enter any title you want. For example: “RickRoll’d!!!!” Then enter this command:

vlc filename.mp4 –volume 500 –fullscreen

Click OK. Log out and log back in. When you login, before you even see the desktop, you will be presented with a fullscreen RickRoll. With the version of VLC in Ubuntu 8.04’s repositories, the video is very hard to get rid of. You can pretty much assume your friends will not know how to get rid of it. The best way to get rid of it is to press Ctrl + Alt + Left Arrow to switch to the next virtual desktop. Then kill VLC from the System Monitor.

I don’t think your friends will see that one coming. Even the best Rick Roll avoider would be hard pressed to escape this trick. Enjoy.

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