Avast AV, AVG, Avira AV, Clam AV, F-Prot, Moon AV, Panda AV

[yorkiesnorkie]

Hi,

Here's a little feedback:

XFPROT - Part 1

Ok, I admit I got distracted and took another look at f-prot/xfprot as accessed and installed via the menu in Puppy 4.1.2. (I'm using 4.1.2 because I ran into difficulties with 4.3 on my PC. That should take care of the inevitable question.) Anyway, I didn't have much luck with xfprot as implemented by the menu. I'm not sure why. Basically, after the install and update of f-prots antivir.def file everything is in place (so far as I know) but when I run xfprot (the gui) from the menu I get an error message in a GUI box regarding that it can't detect the version. At that point I have to exit the dialog box.

This install from the menu is more suited to those with highspeed internet access. On dialup its a bit painful, particularly if you have to ry it more than once. It takes a while to download the 14mb f-prot application, and the antivir.def file. I suppose it really needs to be done that way due to the install of f-prot downloading the latest antivir.def file as a part of its installation.

Nevertheless after the install via the menu I decided to try running f-prot from an rxvt window, "fpscan /directory/path/whatever" and it pops up with the response "illegal command".

XFPROT - Part 2

I tried deleting all the f-prot and xfprot files, and then manually downloading the tar.gz file f-prot from the FRISK. I copied it to the lowest level and installed it to /opt as it wanted and ran the installer from the command line which worked ok, that downloads the antivir.def file by the way if you plan on having a nap during dialup. However I had no issues with the download and after it was done it informed me the install/dowload was ok. I again ran f-prot from the command line "fpscan /directory/path/whatever" and it popped up again with the illegal command response.

I took a run at compiling the latest version of xfprot 2.2 but the attempt to compile the make file informed me it was missing the proper environment for compiling, missing C... Hmmm, well I guess I need the devx stuff and the proper GTK libraries for this one. It would have been smart to download them first eh? Thats a little project for later!

So, to be practical and in the interest of speed, I ended up downloading both the pets of xfprot from the repository for 4, partly because the first wouldn't complete the install from file using the petget manager, however the "420" version did. On running xfprot it popped up with the same error message in a GUI box regarding that it couldn't detect the version. That wasn't too surprising considering that it was essentially what I already had with the default install.

XFPROT - Part 3

I backed up the antivir.def file to avoid having to download it later. I deleted all xfprot and f-prot files from the install.

I changed my pup version to 400 and did an upgrade from the live cd to bring the default install of xfprot back. I copied the tar.gz file to the level below root and ran xfprot from the menu, it seemed to recognize that the file was there but errored out. So it can't use the downloaded tar.gz file which is a bit of a shame. Its more practical if your on dialup to download a file once and re-use it than to download it multiple times.

XFPROT - Part 4

Observations - So I'm not sure what to do with f-prot/xfprot now. Well, I can't run xfprot without further advice. While other people seem to have no issue with it the darn thing is giving me grief. I can't figure out why (scratches head).

CLAM AV

Unlike F-Prot, Clam AV seems to be working quite nicely from the command line but it warns me the definitions are out of date. I had downloaded and installed the pet. I have yet to update the virus definitions via freshclam. I might just download the definitions manually, if that is possible.

The advantage of doing this on dialup would be that I would have the definitions to install to our other PC which also has a windows partition, so I don't have to download the definitions twice.

Other Observations - It's worth downloading the Clam PDF manual since it has the information you need to use Clam AV in it. It's fairly straight forward to run Clam AV from the rxvt terminal, easy for beginners. It would have been nice though if them manual had more examples of searches with the various variations combinations of the possible commands. A search of the net though should turn up some examples.

The only catch is that you have to manually edit the conf files before you can manually run a clamscan. You have to comment out "example" with "#example" at the beginning of each conf file, and then edit the rest of the conf settings. If you try and run a clamscan without editing the conf files it'll pop up and tell you exactly which three need to be edited, so it's dead simple even for a gearhead like me, wrench please! It's a good way to learn some basic commands to use in rxvt and how to navigate the file structure of linux as well.

Clam AV requires no license to run it, also nice.

AVAST AV

I have the deb file and downloaded a license, but I have not tried it yet. I peeked in the archive and it looks like it will install the files to various directories. There's some documentation to read as well regarding the install.

Yorkiesnorkie

[Sylvander]

I use the Avast installed using the pet file linked here.
i.e. avast4workstation-1.0.8.pet
Username = puppy
Password = linux

I've installed a number of times on different Puppies.
Pretty routine to install and get a licence key and copy it from the email sent by Avast and paste it into the window at 1st run, then complete a scan.

Did it on a neighbours PC with his new Puppy 4.2.1-rc3 I introduced.
No problem at all.

He likes his new Puppy.
Also runs Xp-SP3.
Scanned that NTFS partition with his new Avast, and came up clean.

[yorkiesnorkie]

Hi Sylvander,

Thanks for the link to the pet file of Avast AV. I'll get that and give it a try. I checked out the site and read the message about the missing dependencies.

CLAM AV

I'm still enjoying Clam AV. I'm still largely a linux noob but if your still in the same boat as I am basically all you have to do is open rxvt and navigate to the directory you want like this, enter the following in the rxvt window:

"cd /mnt/hda1/WINDOWS" press enter

Hints: I use ROX to figure out what directory path I want. If you want to see what is in the directory type "ls" and press enter

Anyway, to run the clam scan in "cd /mnt/hda1/WINDOWS" enter the following in the rxvt window:

"clamscan" press enter

Clam AV will then run a check on the active directory which in this case is "WINDOWS" and respond with a list of the files its checked in the rxvt window. Clam does not "clean" the files it merely tells you which ones are infected. The Clam AV philosophy is that once a file is infected typically it has nothing of value in it and even if you cleaned it would you trust it? I believe that they expect you to remove the infected file and replace it.

There are a lot more options, you can simply type the path to the directory you want checked etc., and I found this link quite useful. http://linuxreviews.org/man/clamscan/index.html.en because it gives you the full list of clamscan commands and examples.

There is also a tutorial for beginners who want to learn something about the command line, i.e. how to use rxvt: http://linuxreviews.org/beginner/

I thought the check was fairly quick and the biggest slowdown was when it got to the Windows 98SE swap file. You can scroll up and down in rxvt if you want to see the result of the scan. You can also create more complex commands and use the options (http://linuxreviews.org/man/clamscan/index.html.en) to create a log file in txt format.

Yorkiesnorkie

[stephenmorphey]

Hi All,

I have been working with AVG anti virus from 3+ years. I am satisfied with it. It is quicker and does not have the system clogged.

[Anniekin]

I caught on the Ubuntu forums that Avast will only detect windows viruses.

This would essentially defeat the purpose.

Any information on this would be greatly appreciated.

[yorkiesnorkie]

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=51769 -XF Prot Bugfix!

[yorkiesnorkie]

I caught on the Ubuntu forums that Avast will only detect windows viruses.

This would essentially defeat the purpose.

Any information on this would be greatly appreciated.

I suggest you give Clam AV a try instead. I don't know a lot about Avast. More reading is required. Most people want to use it to find what is on their friends Windows PC's anyway.

yorkiesnorkie

[yorkiesnorkie]

Hi All,

I have been working with AVG anti virus from 3+ years. I am satisfied with it. It is quicker and does not have the system clogged.

I did find Clam AV rather slow. I have to give the alternatives a try. Thanks for your input!

Yorkiesnorkie

[yorkiesnorkie]

Use Shardana:

Multi ISO scanner complete with Puppy.
Can update.

Chris

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=52027

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.p ... topic=9930

[amsk98]

can anyone chk eset nod32

[BAJ]

I use http://www.trustdownload.com/Antivirus- ... ition.html works very well.
Normally use it for scanning the Windows partition.

[Dragynn]

Just chiming in a FWIW link, found a short but helpful review/test of several AV progs for Linux here: http://www.tuxradar.com/content/get-bes ... nner-linux

I haven't tried an install on Puppy yet, but for my Ubuntu 10.04 machine, I installed the Avast tar.gz from the command line, had to only add the one command to sysctl to fix the update bug, did NOT have to delete 400.vps, works just fine, and according to the review link I posted, found all their pre-planted fake "viruses", even the ones in a zip file embedded in an ISO.

Happy Labor day all!
~D

[otropogo]

After skimming through page three of this thread, it's still not clear to me whether any AV program other that x-fprot is available to run under Puppy 4.3.1.

I looked at the AVG link, and saw compatibility with Windows 7 and XP mentioned. Clamscan's link seems to be targeted at Linux users, but I didn't see any link for downloading a pet.

[gcmartin]

It appears from reading this thread, that Anti-virus packages on Puppy(s) is misleading. Why??? Well, it appears that what I see, here, is that there are 2 classifications of Anti-virus software available of Linux users:

1. software for anti-virus detection ONLY
2. software that will clean/clear/quarantine anti-virus files

From what I see here, it appears that (maybe) there is collusion among the Anti-virus providers that
NO LINUX SYSTEM WILL BE ALLOWED TO "TOUCH" ANY NTFS!

Am I correct in this observation?

• What AV programs has anyone used that quarantines or repairs infected files on NTFS partitions?
• Any AVs running under current version 5+ Puppies?

[pemasu]

F-prot 6 has this feature. fpscan --disinfect /mnt/sd** try to disinfect file. If you want to delete infected files > fpscan --disinfect --deleteall /mnt/sd** deletes all files it thinks are infected. fpscan -h shows you other options and description. F-prot 6 pet is now in Lucid Puppy official repo. It works much better from commandline because you can give options you want.

I tried also Bitdefender rescue cd based on Knoppix but I dont remember if there were disinfect possibility. I just deleted all infected files. It has nice GUI and it makes internet connection automatically, downloads latest virus definition database file and starts scanning automatically.

Hiren`s boot cd 10.6 has minilinux which has f-prot 6 option to download it from button and it executes install scripts automatically and then launches XF-Prot GUI. I used it from commandline though. It has also gparted, partimage and G4L aka Ghost for Linux but that doesnt handle big files in partition like partimage does. This minilinux is nice rescue linux distro inside Hiren`s boot cd.

There is somewhere in murga-linux thread to other preconfigured antivirus linux distros, mostly done by antivirus software companies. I think they work fine.

Thats about all I know about Linux virus apps for scanning windows files. Clam av has been discussed already in this thread.

[yorkiesnorkie]

After skimming through page three of this thread, it's still not clear to me whether any AV program other that x-fprot is available to run under Puppy 4.3.1.

I looked at the AVG link, and saw compatibility with Windows 7 and XP mentioned. Clamscan's link seems to be targeted at Linux users, but I didn't see any link for downloading a pet.

You can get a ClamAV pet for puppy linux 4.3.1 here: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=57630. I compiled it myself and it works.

Y.

[yorkiesnorkie]

It appears from reading this thread, that Anti-virus packages on Puppy(s) is misleading. Why??? Well, it appears that what I see, here, is that there are 2 classifications of Anti-virus software available of Linux users:

1. software for anti-virus detection ONLY
2. software that will clean/clear/quarantine anti-virus files

From what I see here, it appears that (maybe) there is collusion among the Anti-virus providers that
NO LINUX SYSTEM WILL BE ALLOWED TO "TOUCH" ANY NTFS!

Am I correct in this observation?

• What AV programs has anyone used that quarantines or repairs infected files on NTFS partitions?
• Any AVs running under current version 5+ Puppies?

The purpose of the post, when I began it, was simply to figure out what anti-virus software I could run from puppy Linux on my old PC to detect any potential virus threat on Win98SE partitions. My problem was that I have Win98SE on a couple of PCs and the vendors had stopped supporting Win98SE so I couldn't update my antivirus def files to catch newer threats.

After trying a couple of things, and simply making note of what was available, I settled on ClamAV which can check other partitions. Others like to use Fprot. Both are good. I've never found anything to bother Puppy Linux, but I've caught a few problems on my old Win98SE platforms using ClamAV. Needless to say, Puppy is now my OS of choice and I rarely ever use Windows.

I don't think there's any particular "conspiracy" AVG has a linux based CD which is a tool to run their detection tool if you would like to give that a try. I mentioned that in another post in the Security/Privacy forum but I haven't tried it myself since I use ClamAV. NTFS is, I understand, a proprietary file system whose full secrets rest with MS. However, I don't think you'll find any problem checking NTFS with ClamAV or Fprot. If you can mount the file system, you should be able to open a command line window in the directory you want to check, and check the files within those directories with the Linux tools.

Good luck,

Y.

[gcmartin]

I have LightHouse 5.00D, Puppy 5..1.1 and FATDOG. All seemingly are missing both clamscan and fpscan at the Terminal window. (also none appear in the Menu).

What would anyone recommend to add one/both of these to a running Puppy?
Are there PETs available?
Are thre SFSs available?
should I just go to their websites?

Thanks in advance...

[yorkiesnorkie]

I have LightHouse 5.00D, Puppy 5..1.1 and FATDOG. All seemingly are missing both clamscan and fpscan at the Terminal window. (also none appear in the Menu).

What would anyone recommend to add one/both of these to a running Puppy?
Are there PETs available?
Are thre SFSs available?
should I just go to their websites?

Thanks in advance...

Wow, ok, well I'm using 4.3.1. myself. FPscan is in 4.3.1, I compiled ClamAV for puppy 4.3.1, version 0.96.1 because I had issues with the XFprot interface. There's nothing saying you can't give the package I made a try with 5.1.1 but I doubt it'll work with Lighthouse lets say because that one is based on Puppy 2.1.5... Fatdog is 64 bit and the regular 32bit pet packages aren't supposed to work with it unless you install something extra...

If there isn't a PET package already available for the distros you are using someone will have to compile ClamAV for you, unless you'd like to try it yourself. Matters are complicated here by your using different distros. You'd have to dig deep and see if anyone has compiled current versions of the software your looking for. It's always possible.

Another strategy in the interim might be to simply run a frugal install of 4.3.1 while your looking; which is pretty easy to do since you seem familiar with the distros already. If you have an urgent requirement.

In any event you can get the ClamAV 0.96.1 pet for 4.3.1 in the following post if you want to try it with 5.1.1: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=57630 Let me know if it works!

Y.

[pemasu]

As I stated earlier, for Lucid Puppy 5.1 and 5.1.1 there is F-prot 6 pet in the official lucid repo. It probably needs updating repo packages file before you can see it in PPM.

But here is direct link and advice howto install and use fpscan: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 530#448530