An error occured in avast! engine: Invalid argument

[StNabi]

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

[megranat1958]

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.

[ba123]

check if this is your problem
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=57764.0

[dumboldork]

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.

[zilog]

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

[zorganix]

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).

[Pure Blooded]

run this command
sudo sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000
kernel.shmmax = 128000000

[sickofmyself]

run this command
sudo sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000
kernel.shmmax = 128000000

" thank you.. saves me a lot of time and effort..

[liviococcia2009]

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

[liviococcia2009]

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
 

[Milos]

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?

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

[liviococcia2009]

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

[steez2002]

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^

[luzagodo]

There's a lot of information there. It might take a couple of read-throughs to absorb it all.

Yes! Very good idea

[HEP]

run this command
sudo sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000
kernel.shmmax = 128000000