9

I have ubuntu 16.04.6 version and I'm trying to install & run the clamdscan on it to check for antiviruses.

I've used the installation instructions as given in their website. ie.

sudo apt-get install clamav
sudo apt-get install clamav-daemon

The above 2 commands works fine. But when I try to download the definitions (which I'm assuming is mandatory after the above) by running the command

sudo freshclam

it fails throwing the following error:

^Clamd was NOT notified: Can't connect to clamd through /var/run/clamav/clamd.ctl: No such file or directory

According to this accepted answer, the file should get created after installing clamav-daemon but obviously that does not happen.

Kalle Richter
  • 6,180
  • 21
  • 70
  • 103
Nikhil Nanjappa
  • 191

5 Answers5

17

I faced this issue on my Ubuntu 20.04 LTS machine,

What I did was:

  1. run sudo systemctl stop clamav-daemon.service
  2. then run sudo rm /var/log/clamav/freshclam.log (sometimes it gets locked)
  3. start the service sudo systemctl start clamav-daemon.service

to ensure everything is OK run sudo systemctl status clamav-daemon.service and the output should look something like this:

➜  ~ sudo systemctl status clamav-daemon.service
● clamav-daemon.service - Clam AntiVirus userspace daemon
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/clamav-daemon.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
    Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/clamav-daemon.service.d
             └─extend.conf
     Active: active (running) since Sun 2020-05-03 05:03:51 EEST; 4s ago
       Docs: man:clamd(8)
             man:clamd.conf(5)
             https://www.clamav.net/documents/
    Process: 6122 ExecStartPre=/bin/mkdir -p /run/clamav (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 6124 ExecStartPre=/bin/chown clamav /run/clamav (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 6138 (clamd)
      Tasks: 1 (limit: 14203)
     Memory: 367.3M
     CGroup: /system.slice/clamav-daemon.service
             └─6138 /usr/sbin/clamd --foreground=true

May 03 05:03:51 user systemd[1]: Starting Clam AntiVirus userspace daemon...
May 03 05:03:51 user systemd[1]: Started Clam AntiVirus userspace daemon.

Now run sudo freshclam and check the log file (or console output)

Sun May  3 05:04:02 2020 -> --------------------------------------
Sun May  3 05:04:02 2020 -> ClamAV update process started at Sun May  3 05:04:02 2020
Sun May  3 05:04:02 2020 -> daily.cvd database is up to date (version: 25800, sigs: 2331970, f-level: 63, builder: raynman)
Sun May  3 05:04:02 2020 -> main.cvd database is up to date (version: 59, sigs: 4564902, f-level: 60, builder: sigmgr)
Sun May  3 05:04:02 2020 -> bytecode.cvd database is up to date (version: 331, sigs: 94, f-level: 63, builder: anvilleg)

Enjoy!

SaleemKhair
  • 281
4

I found that after you run the: 

freshclam

And get this error:

Clamd was NOT notified: Can't connect to clamd through /var/run/clamav/clamd.ctl: No such file or directory

You just need to run restart for the demon:

service clamav-daemon restart

And then freshclam again and all works.

gsr
  • 41
2

Add a sock file for ClamAV:

sudo touch /var/lib/clamav/clamd.sock
sudo chown clamav:clamav /var/lib/clamav/clamd.sock

Then, edit /etc/clamav/clamd.conf - uncomment this line:

LocalSocket /var/lib/clamav/clamd.sock

Save the file and restart clamav-daemon.service

Another error:

sudo freshclam

Downloading daily-25578.cdiff [100%]
Downloading daily-25579.cdiff [100%]
Downloading daily-25580.cdiff [100%]
Downloading daily-25581.cdiff [100%]
Downloading daily-25582.cdiff [100%]
Downloading daily-25583.cdiff [100%]
daily.cld updated (version: 25583, sigs: 1778105, f-level: 63, builder: raynman)
Downloading bytecode-331.cdiff [100%]
bytecode.cld updated (version: 331, sigs: 94, f-level: 63, builder: anvilleg)
Database updated (6344448 signatures) from database.clamav.net (IP: 104.16.219.84)
WARNING: Clamd was NOT notified: Can't connect to clamd through /run/clamav/clamd.ctl: No such file or directory

clam

Add a sock file for ClamAV:

sudo touch /run/clamav/clamd.sock
sudo chown clamav:clamav /run/clamav/clamd.sock

sudo systemctl restart clamav-daemon.service
sudo freshclam

ClamAV update process started at Thu Sep 26 11:47:12 2019
main.cvd is up to date (version: 58, sigs: 4566249, f-level: 60, builder: sigmgr)
daily.cld is up to date (version: 25583, sigs: 1778105, f-level: 63, builder: raynman)
bytecode.cld is up to date (version: 331, sigs: 94, f-level: 63, builder: anvilleg)

That's it.

JoKeR
  • 6,972
  • 9
  • 43
  • 65
  • Is there no better way to do this while running provision script on a server ? I mean, locally it could work. But i'm trying to run provision scripts to execute commands on AWS EC2 instance and opening and uncommenting a file on the fly in the server seems weird. – Nikhil Nanjappa Sep 24 '19 at 11:08
  • just type nano /etc/clamav/clamd.conf uncomment and save. This tutorial fixed an issue on my system. – JoKeR Sep 26 '19 at 08:17
  • if you still get another error /var/run/clamav/clamd.ctl no such file or directory create and give ownership to a sock file in that directory as well as specified in my answer. – JoKeR Sep 26 '19 at 08:49
2

To reconfigure clamav run

dpkg-reconfigure clamav-daemon

Please read /usr/share/doc/clamav-daemon/README.Debian.gz for details

lasantha dharmasiri
  • 21
0

If you're running into this issue, it's likely that the clam daemon just hasn't fully started yet. You can run "clamd" to start the daemon synchronously and you should be able to scan files after it fully starts.

swinters
  • 1