Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[rcrsn51]

As a general rule, the best time to eradicate a Windows virus is before it becomes active. In the past, you could do this by putting the antivirus program on a DOS boot diskette and launching the infected computer off it. Unfortunately, today's antivirus software is now far too big for diskettes. One alternative is to boot your machine off a Linux Live CD and run an antivirus scanner on your Windows partition. Several vendors supply a Linux version of their software, but they can be difficult to install in Puppy. The following procedure describes how to do this with AntiVir.

1. Create a folder anywhere on your system and name it "antivir"

2. Inside the folder, create a script named "update". You can do this in ROX by right-clicking and choosing New > Script.

3. Add these two lines to the script:

wget http://dl.antivir.de/down/vdf/rescue_update.zip
unzip -o rescue_update

4. Run the script with the command: ./update
This will download and extract the antivir binary and four virus definition files.

5. You may also want to get a license key. Use this command:

wget http://dl1.avgate.net/down/windows/hbedv.key

(The above step is perfectly legal. It comes from AntiVir's own user forum.)

6. To scan Windows, mount its partition and use a command like:

./antivir -s /mnt/hda1
or
./antivir -s /mnt/hda1/WINDOWS
or
./antivir -s "/mnt/hda1/Program Files"

These commands will just identify suspicious files. You could then manually delete them. Or you could run AntiVir with one of its auto-disinfect options. To see the complete list of options, type:

./antivir -h

Once you have this system in place, you can easily transfer it to a flash drive and use it with your favourite Linux rescue CD.

[gary101]

Thanks rcrsn51

I have been wondering about antivirus on a live CD. Many a time I have to go out to an infected windows box.

Cheers
Gary

[rcrsn51]

Glad to help.