A fast guide for beginners to install ClamAV on Ubuntu


This week, in our Linux Page (in Spanish) we have posted a quick guide to rapidly install ClamAV: one of my favourite and open source antivirus for Linux. We have already written some notes in our previous post “Security package (Rev. 1.2) for Ubuntu: antivirus, firewall and P2P stealth” and in that occasion we decide to suggest an external link. This time we reinstalled a fresh new Ubuntu 8.10 and decided to directly add ClamAV. First of all, it is necessary to run Synaptic Package Manager (in System – Administration) and to search Clam and select clamav and all the extra packages you prefer to install. Read very carefully the description that is visualized each time you click on one of them and select the extra feature you need. Then, with the right button of the mouse, select “mark for installation” and click on Apply in the upper menu bar. After few seconds ClamAV will be correctly installed. Now, if you check on Applications – System Tool you will find a new ClamAV icon whose name is Virus Scanner. Now, if you launch ClamAV you will discover that, unfortunately, it is not possible to upgrade the program without administrative privileges. I solved this “problem” dragging and dropping the ClamAV icon to the upper panel. Then I clicked on the icon using the right button of the mouse and selected the Properties panel. Then, in the “command” space I added sudo before the text clamtk %F that I found already written there (sudo clamtk %F). Now, when you click on the upper panel ClamAV icon, you are able to upgrade your new antivirus in a breeze. Recommended! AddThis mp3 link

4 thoughts on “A fast guide for beginners to install ClamAV on Ubuntu

  1. quaigon

    Virus, worm, etc. are ms windows things. On Unix and unix-like
    OSs thay _can_not_exsist_. An av on ubuntu, solaris, freebsd
    serve only to check a suspect file you whant to send to an
    window os…

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    1. Saverio M.

      This is not true.
      It’s been mathematically proven that virus can exist for any O/S.
      You should find the reference to this I think in a B.Schneier’s post.

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