0

I have just installed the avast antivirus for ubuntu and tried to update it but it was'nt successful.

Now it is not functioning properly and showing a bulk of errors.

Parto
  • 15,325
  • 24
  • 86
  • 117
agha rehan abbas
  • 2,420
  • Some questions that may be of interest to you: http://askubuntu.com/questions/10373/do-i-need-to-have-antivirus-software-installed and http://askubuntu.com/questions/79722/what-antivirus-programs-are-available – Parto Apr 24 '14 at 13:25
  • can u please update your answer and add error description. – Sukupa91 Apr 24 '14 at 13:26

1 Answers1

0

I believe your issue may be in the fact that the updates for Avast! come in big blocks of data, too large for Ubuntu's default shmmax.

ShmMax is the maximum amount of shared memory any given process can have, and while it's probably not big enough for pretty much everything, single big temporary downloads (like those for applying big updates) means avast! usually wants more, and exits with an Update Engine Error.

If this is the error you are getting, then you can fix it through editing some files. Here's what to do:

  1. Fire up terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and enter gksudo gedit /etc/init.d/rcS.

  2. Once gedit loads up with the file (You'll need to enter the sudo password) you need to add in sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000 right before the line exec /etc/init.d/rc S. Make sure you get these in the right order, new line first, then old - you might otherwise really screw your computer over.

  3. Now, because you've just edited Kernel settings you'll need to reboot, as these settings load pretty early on in the boot process and can't be re-loaded except on a reboot. Reboot and run the update again and you should have a working Avast! for Linux installation!

RPiAwesomeness
  • 9,783