Linux Mail Server Setup and Howto Guide

To install Clam AntiVirus (ClamAV), we are going to use the precompiled binaries from the EPEL repository.

Installing Clam AntiVirus

1. Install the EPEL repository package.

2. Type in the command below to install ClamAV.

yum install clamd

3. To test ClamAV AntiVirus, type in the command clamscan in a terminal window.

4. To update the virus database, type in the command freshclam in a terminal window.

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Posted on 4/23/2007 and last updated on 8/28/2011
Filed under Anti-spam/Anti-virus , CentOS 5 , CentOS 6 , Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 , Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

        

 

18 Responses to “Clam AntiVirus (ClamAV) Setup Howto for RHEL/CentOS 5/6”

1. Wolfgang:
   November 2nd, 2007 at 4:41 am

   Hello,

   i have the following error in my clamd.log (Unable to open file or directory).
   The clamd daemon dont’t start.

   [root@mx1 tmp]# /etc/init.d/clamd restart
   Stopping Clam AntiVirus Daemon: [FAILED]
   Starting Clam AntiVirus Daemon: [ OK ]

   [root@mx1 tmp]# /etc/init.d/clamd status
   clamd dead but subsys locked

   Kind regards

   Wolfgang

2. consultant:
   November 3rd, 2007 at 9:03 am

   Hi,

   You have a misconfiguration in /etc/clamd.conf. I was able to replicate your problem by changing the value of TemporaryDirectory to /var/tmpx. The log file should give you more clues as to what the exact problem might be. Otherwise, I suggest you start with the original clamd.conf and apply your settings one line at a time.

3. Neil Parks:
   January 23rd, 2008 at 4:46 pm

   My company is NOT using a GUI with out CentOS 5. No Firefox. And I don’t think I want to modify the yum configuration to go looking for things that aren’t officially approved by CentOS.

   But I would like to install ClamAV. How can I manually get the correct binary package?

4. Neil Parks:
   January 23rd, 2008 at 4:48 pm

   First sentence above should have said “… not using a GUI with _our_ CentOS 5.”

5. consultant:
   January 24th, 2008 at 1:32 am

   Goto http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/clamav/ and download the latest version of clamav, clamd and clamav-db for Red Hat EL 5. To install them type in “yum localinstall clamav-xxx.rpm clamd-xxx.rpm clamav-db-xxx.rpm” or the simpler “yum localinstall *.rpm” if the current directory only contains clamav rpms. Make sure the version number is the same for all three files, otherwise you’ll get dependency errors and it won’t install.

6. Kfmook:
   April 14th, 2008 at 8:36 am

   Wolfgang^
   i found answer here:
   http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=12315

   setsebool -P clamd_disable_trans=1

7. Kristo:
   April 17th, 2008 at 7:11 am

   i can’t install clamd, mising libcrypt*, how cant it be solved?

8. shyam:
   May 9th, 2008 at 5:41 am

   after installing rpmforge , i am unable to open my Add/remove software window. It is giving an error:”Cannot find a valid baseurl for repo: rpmforge”.
   Pls guide how to go forward.
   shyam

9. consultant:
   May 9th, 2008 at 1:27 pm

   You can fix it by changing the extension of the file /etc/yum.repos.d/rpmforge.repo to remove rpmforge. You can install ClamAV manually using the steps I described in one of the comment I made above.

10. james:
    December 30th, 2008 at 9:51 am

    How do you update the virus database?

11. consultant:
    December 30th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

    Hi james,

    Use the freshclam command in a terminal window to update the virus database.

12. James:
    December 31st, 2008 at 11:49 am

    Roger that. Thank you.

13. Mohan:
    February 4th, 2009 at 6:40 am

    Hi,

    I’m using Fedora 8…I couldn’t find any link to download Clamav antivirus ..can u send any link to install tat Clamav..

14. consultant:
    February 6th, 2009 at 11:59 am

    Hi Mohan,

    There’s no ready made package for Fedora 8 so you’ll have to install from source

    http://www.clamav.net/download/sources

15. jdharm:
    February 19th, 2009 at 6:55 pm

    #5 by consultant did the trick. Thanks for that.

16. Ram:
    March 18th, 2009 at 7:56 pm

    Good one! thanks for sharing!

17. Jourdan:
    May 15th, 2009 at 5:18 am

    Hi, I have problem to update the virus pattern files. The error is as below.

    ClamAV update process started at Fri May 15 13:08:21 2009
    WARNING: Can’t query current.cvd.clamav.net
    WARNING: Invalid DNS reply. Falling back to HTTP mode.
    Reading CVD header (main.cvd): WARNING: Can’t get information about db.local.clamav.net: Name or service not known
    WARNING: Can’t read main.cvd header from db.local.clamav.net (IP: )
    Trying again in 5 secs…

    Any solution for this? Thanks a lot!

18. micheal:
    August 22nd, 2009 at 1:06 am

    Very helpful Website! Thanks for sharing