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Consumer Products => Avast Mac Security => Topic started by: StNabi on March 30, 2010, 01:21:44 AM

Title: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: StNabi on March 30, 2010, 01:21:44 AM
Hi there all,

I just installed Avast on my Ubuntu 9.10 OS 32 bit when I try to open Avast, I get the message as given above in the subject,
"An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument"

Firstly what does this mean and how do I access Avast?

Looking forward to your replies.

Thanks & Regards

St Nabi
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: megranat1958 on March 30, 2010, 05:45:21 AM
Well, quite apart from "occurred" being misspelled, this is a real pest as Avast will not run under Ubuntu (Debian) Linux 9.10.

Not that it is really necessary in such a naturally virus protected OS but it is a pest. Uninstalling using the Ubuntu Computer Janitor tool then reinstalling (using the correct license key) used to work on another PC but not now on this one, perhaps since some Ubuntu security updates were installed.

There is an obvious conflict with the system that now makes Avast home for Linux unusable. Please help if you can.
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: ba123 on March 30, 2010, 08:37:48 AM
check if this is your problem
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=57764.0
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: dumboldork on April 01, 2010, 07:39:54 AM
hey guys, i'm new here. got the same prob yesterday. so far i was able to re-installed it sucessfully. i just completely remove avastworkstation then deleted the .avast folder under my home directory then re-installed avast. hope this might help solve your probs. enjoy.:)
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: zilog on April 01, 2010, 01:47:40 PM
hey guys, i'm new here. got the same prob yesterday. so far i was able to re-installed it sucessfully. i just completely remove avastworkstation then deleted the .avast folder under my home directory then re-installed avast. hope this might help solve your probs. enjoy.:)

Hallo, won't help.
400.vps has grown so big that the default SHM limit in your Ubuntu is not sufficient anymore. Solution? Just make it buigger, it's just an artificial limitation.
How? Have a look here: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=57775.0

Any Q?

PS: reinstallation just places old vps to the /var/lib/avast4/ - tbhis might help people, who used global vps update and this was the location of the most recent (=big, not working with the default SHm limit) 400.vps. otherwise, this trick is completely useless.

regards,
pc
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: zorganix on April 21, 2010, 03:13:13 PM

Well, here's the way to make kernel.shmmax value bigger:

do as root:  sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=100000000

reason? older kernels have an artificial limitations which dictates the maximum size of one SHM block in bytes. And, one block of our database exceeded this limit. so just, relax them to more reasonable values. that's it.

sinclair:/mnt/storage/t/feb2010build# sysctl -a | grep shm
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmax = 33554432


just issue those upon system startup in /etc/init.d/rcS or similar system-wide initscript on your distribution (see /etc/inittab, the si:: line).

Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: Pure Blooded on April 26, 2010, 01:45:16 PM
run this command
sudo sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000
kernel.shmmax = 128000000
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: sickofmyself on April 29, 2010, 04:37:19 PM
run this command
sudo sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000
kernel.shmmax = 128000000

" thank you.. saves me a lot of time and effort..
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: liviococcia2009 on May 01, 2010, 07:01:08 PM
Thanks Pure Blooded, i'm a total newbie with Ubuntu but i really like it a lot.

I have no terminal experience at all though, and by doing as you instructed Avast came back to life, but i made a mistake the first time i did it, and had to repeat the instruction again correctly, but by doing it incorrectly the first time have i caused any further problems?, or by repeating the process correctly the second time, did i then rectify any problems i may have caused?.

What i did was to open a 'terminal window' and typed (it was one zero short at the end, but i hadn't realized yet).....

sudo sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=12800000

....it then asked for my password which i typed in, and then this line appeared....

kernel.shmmax = 12800000

.....it's then i notice the figure was short by a zero , i then closed the 'Terminal window' and gave Avast a go again with no luck, the same window opened " An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument", i clicked 'Ok' to closed it

I again opened a Terminal window and repeated above, this time to the correct 128000000 value, it did not request my password this time and just displayed below...

kernel.shmmax = 128000000

...i then closed the Terminal window and tried to open Avast again, this time it opened and so i'm assuming it has been changed correctly, and that this change is permanent.

I would be very grateful if you, or any forum member could confirm if i've left everything ok on the system, thanks for any help.

Kind regards
Livio
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: liviococcia2009 on May 02, 2010, 03:12:14 PM
Hello Members, hope someone out there can help.

After doing what i did in my last post above, i turned on the computer today and found the 'Invalid argument' error appeared again, i followed the same instructions and Avast opens again normally, will i need to always follow this procedure every time i turn the computer on?

Or, Am i missing something? how do i get it to remember what I've instructed it to do permanently.

Any help would again be really grateful in resolving this problem.

Kind regards
 
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: Milos on May 03, 2010, 10:28:19 AM
Hello Members, hope someone out there can help.

After doing what i did in my last post above, i turned on the computer today and found the 'Invalid argument' error appeared again, i followed the same instructions and Avast opens again normally, will i need to always follow this procedure every time i turn the computer on?

Or, Am i missing something? how do i get it to remember what I've instructed it to do permanently.

Any help would again be really grateful in resolving this problem.

Kind regards
 

Hello,
did you add it to init scripts?

Quote
just issue those upon system startup in /etc/init.d/rcS or similar system-wide initscript on your distribution (see /etc/inittab, the si:: line).

Milos
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: liviococcia2009 on May 03, 2010, 12:50:10 PM
Hello Milos, after doing more searching on the web, i found some more info regarding the 'sysctl.conf' file, and altering the 'shmmax' page file type memory.

I found out that if i added the line...   kernel.shmmax = 128000000  ..to the bottom of the sysctl.conf text file this seemed to do the trick, as far as i can tell anyway so far.

Using the 'File browser' i found out that the sysctl.conf is in the 'etc' folder, i found the file was a 'read only' text file, so i used Alt +F2 to open the 'Run application'  box and typed...   gksu gedit   ... this opened the text editor application Gedit as an administrator user , and opened the sysctl.conf text file by going through the application itself, now it was a writeable file so any changes could now be saved.

The reason i'm being as detailed as i can, is that finding out basic newbie information like accessing, and changing something in Ubuntu as an administrator was not as widespread information as it could have been.

Do you think that the addition i've made to the sysctl.conf file above will be ok as it stands? it seems to have worked out so far.

Thanks for the help.
Regards
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: steez2002 on July 11, 2010, 05:02:22 AM
run this command
sudo sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000
kernel.shmmax = 128000000

Thanks bro, that worked perfect and easy enough for a noob like me. You have been ever so helpful in my quest to be a better Linux user hopefully I can help people in the future... twinthumbs^
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: luzagodo on July 20, 2010, 05:53:36 AM
There's a lot of information there. It might take a couple of read-throughs to absorb it all.

Yes! Very good idea
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: HEP on August 15, 2010, 09:41:15 PM
run this command
sudo sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000
kernel.shmmax = 128000000
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: HEP on August 17, 2010, 08:53:17 PM
Thanks guys this has fixed the problem but on reading through forums I found out the comand needs to be added to init scripts
as a complete newbe I have no idea how to do this but I will give it a go thanks for help
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: kostufan on December 01, 2010, 06:05:05 AM
run this command
sudo sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000
kernel.shmmax = 128000000

thanks a lot, it saved me!

On the second prompt the the system kicks in:
kernel.shmmax: command not found

but it still works, perfect job.

Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: zilog on December 06, 2010, 09:40:07 AM
run this command
sudo sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000
kernel.shmmax = 128000000

thanks a lot, it saved me!

On the second prompt the the system kicks in:
kernel.shmmax: command not found

but it still works, perfect job.



kernel.shmax is not command, it's the name of variable, which should be set using sysctl command:

sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000

as written in the very first posts in this thread.

regards,
pc
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: Sn00pY on March 16, 2011, 12:17:35 AM
run this command
sudo sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000
kernel.shmmax = 128000000

worked. brilliantly :) thanks :)
*running mandriva 2010.2*
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: User_1971 on May 25, 2011, 02:28:25 PM
I found out that if i added the line...   kernel.shmmax = 128000000  ..to the bottom of the sysctl.conf text file this seemed to do the trick, as far as i can tell anyway so far.

Using the 'File browser' i found out that the sysctl.conf is in the 'etc' folder, i found the file was a 'read only' text file, so i used Alt +F2 to open the 'Run application'  box and typed...   gksu gedit   ... this opened the text editor application Gedit as an administrator user , and opened the sysctl.conf text file by going through the application itself, now it was a writeable file so any changes could now be saved.

The reason i'm being as detailed as i can, is that finding out basic newbie information like accessing, and changing something in Ubuntu as an administrator was not as widespread information as it could have been.

Thanks for being so detailed ;D It's hard when you change to a new OS and have to learn everything new.


Ubuntu 10.10
eMachines e528
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: markoboy on June 04, 2011, 04:35:43 PM
I have a temp solution for you. using any text edit you like.

put this code into it

#!/bin/bash
sudo sysctl kernel.shmmax=10000000000
avastgui

save the file as avastfix.sh (or whatever you like as long as you know its for avast).

Make the file executable via permissions.

Double click it, when given the option select Run in terminal.

Avast will load without the error even after lastest update.
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: vonkrieg on August 14, 2012, 01:44:22 AM
run this command
sudo sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000
kernel.shmmax = 128000000

Tks a lot ! Now, workin' fine !
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: vonkrieg on August 14, 2012, 01:48:53 AM
To Pure Blooded:
Tks a lot brow ! Now, it's workin' fine !
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: AndrzejL on May 05, 2014, 01:52:25 PM
Guys I appologize for the necroposting but for a several weeks now (cannot specify exactly when it started) the method mentioned above is not working anymore.

Code: [Select]
[root@wishmasus andrzejl]# grep shmmax /etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf
kernel.shmmax = 128000000

I am on Arch Linux with the kernel Linux wishmasus.loc 3.14.2-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Apr 27 11:28:45 CEST 2014 i686 GNU/Linux

Not sure what has changed but I get error message:

Quote
An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument

if I would run:

Code: [Select]
avastgui --verbose
it shows messages about missing folders "wxstd" and "avast".

It used to work just fine before the upgrade. Nothing has really changed here.

Quote
Name           : avast
Version        : 1.3.0-5
Description    : Avast4workstation antivirus (Home/Non-Commercial Only)
Architecture   : i686

Was there an upgrade that I am unaware of? Possibly the virus database has changed to the point where its incompatible with the old engine?

Cheers.

Andrzej

Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: muellen on May 05, 2014, 06:28:13 PM
Hi, you can use same method , but add bigger size. Probably because database of viruses is still bigger, after viruses database update Avast not working with old value. Now is in my puppylinux working this value: 155000000. Previous 128.. is too low now. In a future, this problem probably can be solved with same method, by increasing requested memory. Sorry for my bad english
Title: Re: An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument
Post by: AndrzejL on May 09, 2014, 01:53:30 AM
Hi, you can use same method , but add bigger size. Probably because database of viruses is still bigger, after viruses database update Avast not working with old value. Now is in my puppylinux working this value: 155000000. Previous 128.. is too low now. In a future, this problem probably can be solved with same method, by increasing requested memory. Sorry for my bad english

Your English is just fine and so is Your advice. It worked.

I feel stupid for not trying to increase the number... Oh well...

Thank You.

Andrzej