Use Knoppix for Windows anti-virus?

**Loper** · 02-10-2003, 06:18 AM

I just got an idea. I don't know if it's a GOOD idea, but it could very well be -- and get some good press for Knoppix in the bargain.

Have you ever encountered a Windows machine so crudded-up with viruses that it wouldn't boot (or you were afraid to, for fear of further damage)? I have! I envision a version of the Knoppix disc that has Linux-based anti-virus software capable of detecting and dealing with Windows viruses on a user's machine.

The obvious question is: does such Linux software exist? I Googled the phrase "linux based windows antivirus" and the only hits I got were Linux server-side software that could deal with Windows client-side viruses. I think that, in order to run on a Knoppix disc, it would either have to be more local-oriented or able to "trick" the software into a client-server simulation. I think this idea has potential. Any further ideas or suggestions would be appreciated. I'm not a programmer, or I would take this on myself...

**yohanman** · 02-10-2003, 07:51 PM

You could try F-prot.

This is a very good scanner and is free for personal use !
It is availeble for the win/dos and linux/bsd platform.

**roberto** · 02-25-2003, 07:28 AM

I HAVE DONE THIS FOR 3 Months now! Using the f-prot linux commandline scanner... IT WORKS AWESOME even can scan the ENTIRE XP/2000 volume.. i am a tech at a tech bench and this is one of the biggest breakthroughs yet for me with knoppix (M$ does not provide ANY way to scan NTFS volumes for viri without having windows loaded) so i use linux

if you want to know how to set it up let me know... just send e-mail to the link under this post!

**yohanman** · 02-28-2003, 10:58 PM

Hey Roberto,

I read in a different post on the forum that you use more utils with knoppix.

I'm curious to know and do you have any experience in recovering damaged harddrives ?
What are good proggy's for data recovery ?

**roberto** · 03-03-2003, 07:27 AM

ok i have now (so far) added 3 utilities to my Knoppix tool belt for my day to day use... those are

memtest86 -Awesome memory tester, really fast, also simple to use

smartctl - Does a really fantastic job of telling you issues with your Hard Drives. It reads the content of the S.M.A.R.T. logs out in mostly readable format so you can see if a drive is failing, has failed, or is about to fail. (newer (last 8 years) IDE drives, Some SCSI drives)

f-prot - The only (free) anti-virus scanner for linux i could find that i trust and does what i want to. works pretty damn well... and hey. ITS THE ONLY THING I CAN DO TO SCAN ALL OF THE FILES ON THE NEW WINDOWS XP PARTITIONS. stupid M$.

things to be added:

Intensive CPU tester - something to work the CRAP out of my comp. have considered hotcpu program.

memtest86 - this i already use but i want to find out how to add it to the cheatcodes section of KNOPPIX

F-Prot - some way is needed to make the dat files updateable without having to re-master the cd. what a pain

scripts - to make everything run automated from the KDE desktop. What a wonderful world.

As far as a data recovery program goes... Knoppix... lol well anyways... a company who does this for a living called OnTrack makes some REALLY nice software but its not open source. visit www.OnTrack.com it should be there somewhere. They do make a program called Data Advisor though that lets you know if your hard drive is failing and does an excellent surface scan to be sure. And the data advisor software is free, (demo disc(which never expires :-p )) well any ways.. im going to post instructions on how to remaster the cd with f-prot included on my sourceforge web site sometime in the next few days... if you need immediate help e-mail me and i will see about responding as quickly as possible.

the sourceforge page is:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/knoppix-doc

the docs are at:
http://sourceforge.net/docman/?group_id=70773

toast :-p

**sireasoning** · 03-04-2003, 12:46 AM

[quote=
memtest86 - this i already use but i want to find out how to add it to the cheatcodes section of KNOPPIX

F-Prot - some way is needed to make the dat files updateable without having to re-master the cd. what a pain

[/quote]

eadz kde3.1 version already has memtest86 in the cheatcodes

If you use persistent home then you can install fpot and do updates in your /home/knoppix directory. You then will have access to the latest without remastering.

**aay** · 03-04-2003, 04:10 AM

Originally Posted by sireasoning

If you use persistent home then you can install fpot and do updates in your /home/knoppix directory. You then will have access to the latest without remastering.

I need to play around with persistent home more. As I understand it, it will be part of the next release. If one uses fprot in the way you suggest, then it should be a trivial matter to put the virus deffs on something like a usb drive. Sounds like a good idea to me anyway.

**roberto** · 03-04-2003, 07:45 PM

ok i found one down side to the Knoppix - f-prot combination... it doesnt scan the MBR (Master Boot Record) of the Hard Drives. On their site for f-prot it is said that they will be including this in a future release. I HOPE IT IS SOON... argh well alright gtg

toast

**aay** · 03-05-2003, 06:22 AM

Originally Posted by roberto

ok i found one down side to the Knoppix - f-prot combination... it doesnt scan the MBR (Master Boot Record) of the Hard Drives. On their site for f-prot it is said that they will be including this in a future release. I HOPE IT IS SOON... argh well alright gtg

toast

Toast,

If you keep up with this, please make a post somewhere on the site when f-prot gets this ability.

Thanks.