Ubuntu – CLAMAV not working

antivirusclamavcommand line

After installation of CLAMAV and try to scan I see this error. How do I solve this?

$ clamscan scan
LibClamAV Error: cli_loaddbdir(): No supported database files found in /var/lib/clamav
ERROR: Can't open file or directory

----------- SCAN SUMMARY -----------
Known viruses: 0
Engine version: 0.98.7
Scanned directories: 0
Scanned files: 0
Infected files: 0
Data scanned: 0.00 MB
Data read: 0.00 MB (ratio 0.00:1)
Time: 0.003 sec (0 m 0 s)

Best Answer

Steps 1-3 below include commands run in a terminal. Please read carefully so that you understand what you are doing.

  1. Remove potentially bad AV installations:

    sudo apt-get remove clamav 
sudo apt-get remove clamtk 
sudo apt-get remove freshclam
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get autoremove

  2. Reinstall AV:

    sudo apt-get install clamav        #Terminal Version
sudo apt-get install clamtk         #GUI version

  3. Update AV Database:

    sudo freshclam               #takes ~30 minutes to download definitions

  4. Configure AV & Scan:
    This example uses clamtk only

    clamtk                      #Opens GUI

    toggle all options under Settings tab:

    Network

    • toggle proxy and type http://127.0.0.1
    • toggle / reselect **No Proxy **(to gray out what you entered above)

    Update Assistant

    • toggle manual update option and click apply and back
    • toggle automatic update option and click apply and back

    You should now see updated definition count

    Scan a Directory

    • select directory you want scanned. For system scan I toggled the entire system (not just /root or /usr)
    • Click scan and a progress box will appear.

Final Note: typing the phrase --help (without quotations) following command gives some hints. With APT commands you can pass the option -y to say yes to installing all dependencies for the requested package.

This is what I had to do to get clam working, perhaps a glitch for both clamtk and clamav (problem with both). Hope this helps someone else!!!

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