New Linux User

19 opinions for The Free World: AVG Anti-Virus for GNU/Linux.

• daveb
  Jan 11, 2006 at 5:49 am

  Aegis is another free virus scanner for Linux/Unix.
  Package description:
  “Aegis supports scanning of subdirectories, hidden files and .zip and .tar archive files, and drag-and-drop of files from the Nautilus file browser, or your Gnome desktop. When a virus is detected you can choose to delete,quarantine or rename the file.”

  Repository name is aegis-virus-scanner. I use it on Ubuntu to scan my Win partition and storage drives.

• Jon
  Jan 11, 2006 at 6:32 am

  Ah! Very cool - I hadn’t heard of Aegis before. I wonder how I missed that. Thanks! I’m going to give it a whirl.

  J

• Christopher
  Jan 11, 2006 at 7:31 am

  I’ve recently start interning at an open-source company and while I know not even close to enough to do any actual development, My boss says that he at least prefers rpms from a development stand-point.

• Jon
  Jan 11, 2006 at 7:49 am

  I wonder why…does he say why he prefers RPMs?

  I don’t think I really have a prefrence either way, it just seems odd to go to the trouble to make three RPMs and not a single Deb.

• Ramnath R Iyer
  Jan 11, 2006 at 11:24 am

  Speaking of AV apps, why do you need one anyway? Most applications can be run as ordinary users, with little or no risk to the system. I once installed F-Prot anti-virus, but removed it because I never used it.

  RPMs are convenient in many ways - no compilation, single-line install/uninstall etc. Don’t know about deb, but I never had problems with RPMs.

• Jon
  Jan 11, 2006 at 12:46 pm

  Hey Ramnath,

  I hear what you’re saying. I don’t run any AV personally on my system, but I can see one instance where it might be wise. On a mixed network of Windows and Linux (and Mac for that matter) it might be wise to run AV on the Linux box to prevent that box from being used as a transport to the Windows box.

  That’s about the only reason I can think of right now. I think we’ll see more GNU/Linux virii in the future, but I doubt they’ll ever be as deadly or prolific as the Windows ones.

• LB
  Jan 17, 2006 at 8:15 am

  I’m also a (very) “newbie” to Linux, running Suse Linux 10.

  I’ve just insatlled AVG, and get exactly the same error message as you’re reporting.

  I’d also be very grateful for any help.

  Thanks in advance

  LB

• Jon
  Jan 17, 2006 at 8:27 am

  Hey LB,

  I assume you downloaded the Suse RPM from AVG? I assumed that the problems I was having had to do with me converting it to a Deb and then installing it. If you’re attempting to run the Suse version on a Suse box, then it sounds to me like AVG really boffo’d their package.

  Grisoft’s help page for the Suse distro says to use the following commands:

  $su
  #rpm -i avglinux-7.1-22_free_suse_avi0649.i386.rpm
  #/opt/grisoft/avggui/bin/avggui_update_licinfo.sh
  #exit
  $avggui &

  Any chance you did something different?

  Question: Do you run a network with Windows boxes on it? If not, then I don’t see any real reason to run anti-virus. I’m not advocating against it, specifically, but you’re pretty safe without it right now.

  Other than that, all I can suggest is doing some Googling. Anyone else have any bright ideas?

• LB
  Jan 17, 2006 at 9:18 am

  Hey Jon,

  Very many thanks.

  I’m ashamed to admit that I do have a Windows box on my network! I’m doing this migration one step at a time, but that’s another story.

  I did run these commands, but I closed the terminal window once the AVG GUI appeared. I re-ran them after you replyed, and got more information on the error. It said that I had to be a member of a group with the necessary update permissions. A few experiments with Group Management, and SUCCESS!!

  I wonder whether this throws any light on the problems you’ve been having?

  Once again, many thanks for your help.

  LB

• Jon
  Jan 17, 2006 at 10:39 am

  Hey - I have a Windows box as well. Gotta keep the student in the family happy. Granted it’s dual-booted so I really only consider it a half-a-Windows box, but still…it’s there.

  Excellent tip. I didn’t see anything about update permissions. I may have to take another look and see what there is to see.

  Thanks for the info!

• LB
  Jan 17, 2006 at 10:54 am

  Jon,

  Just discovered a bit more. It would seems that I can only do the updates if I am logged in as root.

  Also, I’m beginning to wonder just how much use this software is……

  Unlike the excellent Windows version, it doesn’t seem to protect the machine, or scan incoming e-mails, etc automatically. Am I missing something? This seems to me to be a pre-requisite of any anti-virus software, ‘cos that’s where the little blighters come from!!!

• Jon
  Jan 17, 2006 at 11:07 am

  Hey LB,

  You’re certainly learning more about it that I did when I played with it.

  I honestly don’t know if those features are supposed to be there or not. Philosophically, if the purpose of Linux AV is to stop virii from travelling through the Linux box, then I guess there is an argument for scanning incoming emails and monitoring the machine.

  You’re way ahead of me on this one, I can’t really help you out with the ‘whys’. Just there ‘wheres’ :)

• clockmendergb
  Feb 28, 2006 at 7:31 am

  I have suffered all of the same .
  I finally figured out how to use root and was able to update Avg but I have yet to figure out how to get it to scan properly as it just says “cannot open unchecked”
  Now it is scanning but what good is it if it is it is unable to get into files to check them.
  If you have any idea about how AVG can check these files I would be grateful
  As you can tell
  I am also a very newbie at this and am struggling to find my feet.
  I am running SuSE 9.2 with no duel boot.
  I was trying for a dual boot but somehow missed selecting the right choice somewhere on installation.

  I found installation of the OS quiet easy and was very happy that I had a Zoom external modem that was recognised from the get go.
  I know that dial up can be a problem with the vast majority of modems so I count myself lucky.
  I did download firefox but have not figured out where it has gone but That is a battle I wll win with some patients.
  Thanks to all you experianced Linux users for making places like this for us less knowledgable to find answers.
  Clockmendergb

• Jon
  Feb 28, 2006 at 12:18 pm

  Hi clockmendergb. I’m glad you found some help on here. It’s nice to know that there’s *something* useful around here :)

  Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than I can answer your question…

• clockmendergb
  Feb 28, 2006 at 8:43 pm

  Jon,
  Thanks for the reply.
  I mean what I say.
  I have learned a lot on pages like this over the last few years.
  First on Windows and now I am sure with Linux
  Using forums has saved me a bundle of money over time and I am quick to applaude the people out there that are willing to give a little time and expertice to help others like myself.
  Maybe one day I will be in a position to help some other person
  I will look in from time to time
  Clockmendergb

• Ramnath R Iyer
  Feb 28, 2006 at 11:05 pm

  Hi clockmendergb,

  If you want to install and uninstall programs on Linux, you should really try to understand the filesystem hierarchy and the places where files are installed.

  (You might be aware of some of this, but I’ll say it anyway.)
  Generally, when a program is installed in Windows, its files go into a directory in “Program Files”. In Linux, the files are somewhat scattered. The executable files go into a ‘bin’ directory, the libraries used by the app go into ‘lib’, and some others go into ’share’. You’ll probably find confinguration files in the /etc directory. Also, when you intall a new program, it is customary to use /usr/local as the prefix (i.e /usr/local/bin etc.) Applications that ship with the OS normally reside in the /usr directory (i.e /usr/bin etc) while system applications are kept in / (i.e /bin etc.)

  The paths /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/local/bin etc. are normally in the PATH variable (set in /etc/profile), which means that if you type “cal” at the console, it’ll look for and locate the “cal” executable in “/usr/bin/”.

  Typically, if you install xyz-1.0.3-4.tar.gz, the executable name will be “xyz”, so you can type “xyz” in the console to start the application. The same goes for RPMs. If you install it as an RPM, you can also query the installed RPM and list all the installed files by typing “rpm -ql xyz”

  To dual boot Windows and Linux using Grub, you need to edit this file: /boot/grub/grub.conf
  I use Fedora, not Suse so the location/name might be different. I think it’ll either be “grub.conf” or “menu.lst” somewhere in the /boot folder.
  The entry to be uncommented/added for booting Windows is:
  ————————————-
  title “Windows”
  rootnoverify (hd0,0)
  chainloader +1

  #Timeout for booting the default OS
  timeout=10
  ————————————-
  Note that there is a space after “rootnoverify” and “chainloader” but no space in (hd0,0) and +1. And hd0,0 will vary according to your disk config. hd0 is the first hard-disk, hd1 is the second and so on. The second number is the number of the partition where Windows stores its boot files (ntldr, boot.ini etc). You can always experiment with the disk and partition numbers by pressing ‘e’ in the Grub OS list and changing the options.

  I hope that was not too confusing. :-)

• Jon
  Mar 1, 2006 at 6:19 am

  THanks, Ramnath. Lots of good information in here. I’ll try to remember to link your comments to my existing posts on the file system, dual booting, and program installtion.

• JOEP
  Apr 29, 2006 at 1:24 pm

  Hey I’m running Enterprise 4 and the installation didn’t finish in lieu of the program not correctly reading files from install discs. Regardless, I know have a partially installed version of AVG 7 that I can’t reinstall or unistall via the rpm file. Unfortunately, I’m very new to Linux and can’t get the damn thing off of here! Any help would be appreciated.

• clockmendergb
  Apr 30, 2006 at 9:48 pm

  Firstly Thanks to Ramath R Lyer for jumpstarting my learning curve.
  I have copied your reply and have it taped to the monitor.
  It is a little mind boggling at the moment but I realise my need to get in the groove and will play with some stuff using your information.
  I just wanted to update my experiance with AVG on suse 9.2.
  I had said that it would not scan all files
  (cannot open unchecked)
  I was a bit fast to end the scan .
  When I start a scan a lot of the “cannot open unchecked”lines go by but it finally did scan a load of files.
  so it was my fault for not waiting for the whole scan to go through.
  I still do not understand why it would not scan unchecked files but it did actually scan something.
  I was able to update with no problem.
  I also noticed that AVG was no where near as polished on the Linux version but at least they have made the effort to supply anti virus for it which has to be good for all.
  I was also able to get Firefox installed from the disk but that was an older version
  I have in the last week clean installed Suse 10.0
  and have not reinstalled the AVG yet.
  I note that as my machine is a stand alone desktop that my need for antivirus is not as critical as it would be on a network but I think I might reinstall it due to my Windows paranoia and also to practice unstallations.
  Suse 10.0 installed Firefox on intallation which was a nice suprise but still will not let me play dvd films.
  I am in the process of figuring out what to install in able to get these films to play
  I also had no sound from music cd,s but finally got that working .
  I had to right click the loudspeaker symbol in the right lower corner and choose the equaliser which allowed me to open the input for sound from the cd.
  To get mine to work I had to open a microphone input not the cd input shown.
  I do not know why that should be the case but it worked
  I hope my experiance will help somebody especially about the no sound from the CD
  Have a good spring.
  Clockmendergb

Have an opinion? Leave a comment:

• Use this area to discover new blogs and content in the b5media network.
• Beauty & Style
• Business
• Celebrities
• Entertainment
• Health & Wellness
• Lifestyles
• Music
• Sports
• Team Blogs
• Technology
• Travel & Culture
• Video Games