Hello,
I just installed .99.4 on an ancient 450 MHz Win98SE machine that I use offline very occasionally.
I had problems downloading the daily.cvd through the installation executable, so I completed a manual
download and placed main.cvd and daily.cvd in the proper folder. The about menu selection showed
the databases as current (8/6/19).
I picked a couple of folders for a first scan and started a scan. For about 75 minutes the scan indicated
that the database was loading. At that point the program output "ERROR:Malformed database".I let the scan
continue to run for another two hours but no further output was generated.
What is my problem? Do the database files still support Win98SE? Is 75 minutes a normal loading time
for the database? Has anyone else recently installed to Win98SE?
Thanks

As far as I know, all Win 98 versions are still supported. Alch tests each version of ClamWin in a virtual machine that has the Win 98 OS. I personally think that Win 98 support is one of the reasons why he is still developing ClamWin. Make sure that you are using ClamWin version .99.4--the latest available version.

My ClamWin signature database loads very slow also. I suggest you try this: delete all files in the ClamWin database folder and then do a manual update via ClamWin. Don't go outside ClamWin and do it yourself. If this still doesn't work for you, then go outside ClamWin and get the database(s) from where you got them before and see if you get a good database now.

Depending upon your equipment and the other software on it, I guess there could be something preventing a database update. I suggest that you become a Win 98 beta tester yourself (send email to Alch). It's hard to beta test every configuration.

Regards,

Hello again,

I tried both methods again and both ended with Malformed Database.
Using Clamwin the update proceeded through downloading main.cvd,
paused several minutes and finally output:

ClamAV update process started at Thu Aug 08 08:57:02 2019
WARNING: [LibClamAV] mpool_malloc(): Can't allocate memory (262144 bytes).
WARNING: [LibClamAV] hm_addhash_bin: failed to grow virusname array to 8192 entries
WARNING: [LibClamAV] cli_loadhash: Malformed hash string at line 567114
WARNING: [LibClamAV] cli_loadhash: Problem parsing database at line 567114
WARNING: [LibClamAV] Can't load main.mdb: Can't allocate memory
WARNING: [LibClamAV] cli_tgzload: Can't load main.mdb
WARNING: [LibClamAV] Can't load C:\WINDOWS\Profiles\All Users\.clamwin\db\
clamav-fea3089809e29b5d43a84780a68beacf.fffca91f.clamtmp\
clamav-99ff936da1810f7489728ec8a20109b9.fffca91f.cla.cvd: Malformed database

ERROR: Failed to load new database: Malformed database

The manual download method did not output anything useful during an attempted scan
other than Malformed database.


Any thoughts?

Yes, it appears that your Win 98 hardware may not be up to running ClamWin. You may need more memory. I don't know exactly how much memory you need to run it, but I would say it is 750K to 1MB--probably closer to 1MB. Programs do so much more than they could do back in 1998.

Regards,

It's a Pentium II with 128MB of memory. I assume you meant 750MB to 1GB.
I had no problem with an earlier version (.98 or .99?) Has there been a steep
increase in memory required?

Yes-that's 750 kilobytes to 1 megybate of RAM.

If you haven't used ClamWin in a few years, there has probably been some increase in RAM required via the Clam AV code. It is doing a lot more than it used to. In addiition, ClamAV, being designed for Linux email servers, has never been required to support Win 98, so there could be something in the Clam AV code ported over to Windows by the ClamWin developers that prevents some operation on Win 98.

It's becoming tough to support Win 98--especially when practically no Win 98 users bother to participate in beta testing new ClamWin versions. To my knowledge, there are only the two ClamWin developers and a couple of us other users that bother to beta test.

Regards,

Here's the latest,

I tried a scan in Safe Mode and it failed with Malformed database.

Next, I uninstalled .99.4 and replaced it with an old download of .99.1.
It was dated 2016 which is the year I last played with Clamwin.
I installed but did not update the database. Again, I tried a scan in
Safe Mode and it completed successfully. So I have a functional scanner.
However, I manually replaced the database files with the current manually downloaded
database files and attempted a scan which failed with Malformed database.

Should .99.1 work with a current database?
Does the memory requirement depend on the size of the database?
Has the structure of the database changed since .99.1?

Version .99.1 should work with a current database if the current database is the same as the database which version .99.1 used. The database can be changed with a new version if/when Clam AV incorporates some new functionality.

With each new scan, ClamWin has to load the database into memory. So the memory requirement does depend upon the size of the database. I'm sure there are more items in the database now than there were a couple of years ago.

I don't know if the structure of the database has changed since version .99.1. I think you could probably assume it has. Sometimes ClamWin is unable to process a signature properly until it is updated to the same version as Clam AV. We can get some false positives then that Clam AV can not correct because it is due to the ClamWin code. I have seen this a few times but not often.

Regards,

I see that my .99.1 version came with main.cvd v57 unlike
99.4 which comes with main.cvd v58. Are there any archives
of old databases online? Otherwise, I don't see a solution to get
an updated database past 2016.

You can get old versions of ClamWin at https://sourceforge.net/projects/clamwin/files/clamwin/ on the web, but I don't know of any place where you can get copies of old signature databases. There may be something available from Clam AV, but the old databases do not provide protection for current viruses, even if you could get the old copies.

Regards,

I guess I'm out of luck. Do you know of any other virus scanners for 98?

I don't know of any scanners for Win 98. There is an old version of Avast that was being used for a while, but I don't remember what it was. It was from around 2006-2008, I believe.

Here are the results from a web search I just did for Windows 98 virus scanners: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Virus+Scanners+For+Windows+98&t=h_&ia=web It has information about the Avast scanner, but I didn't check anything out.

Good luck!

Regards,

hello! I am facing a problem with my avast antivirus. I installed it a few days ago. It is an original version. When I try to use it https://supportantivirus.co/fix-avast-web-shield-wont-turn-on/. I have to work now without any protection. I uninstalled it then again installed it. But the problem does not resolve. I don't know what to do now. Can't understand if it is the problem of my system or not. Please help me with the solution.

These forums are for the free, open source ClamWin antivirus for Windows computers which uses the scanning engine and virus database provided by the Clam AV project for Linux email servers.

We can not provide any information/assistance with any other antivirus. I suggest that you contact your antivirus company for assistance.

Regards,