This post will help you set up scheduled virus scan on your Ubuntu box using Gnome-schedule and ClamAV.

While it is true that the direct threat of Viruses on Linux is (at present) limited, many users dual boot with Windows, share networks with Windows and other such things, and here our ’safe’ Linux box can be a carrier. Of course, with the increasing popularity of Linux on the desktop, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before more and more virus start targeting our beloved Linux systems. As such, it is better to be safe than sorry…

To protect our Ubuntu box we shall be using the excellent ClamAv for our virus scanning and the equally excellent Gnome-schedule to automate the process.

Firstly open up a terminal and install our required software…

Okay, that everything installed. Let’s set everything up…

You should now have a new launcher under APPLICATIONS-SYSTEM TOOLS called Scheduled tasks.

Start Gnome Schedule and Click New and select the default option of ‘A task that launches recurrently’.

We are now going a task to scan our Home directory recursively every day at 12:00 AM and write a log file.

In the Description field type (or whatever you see fit):

Daily ClamAV Scan

Set the Time & Date option to Basic and select:

Every day

Set the Command Field to:

clamscan -r -i -l ClamAV-log.txt /home/harris/

(clamscan runs a ClamAV scan, -r sets the scan as recursive, -i only print infected files, -l ClamAV-log.txt creates a log file with that name, and /home/harris/ is the target of our scan.)

Your new task should look like this:

Gnome-Schedule set-up to run ClamAV

Click OK to accept the task and you should see your newly scheduled task in the schedulers list of tasks.

Now you can Quit the scheduler. This will not stop the system scheduling.

Things to be aware of!

You will need to keep your virus definitions up to date using the the following command:

ClamAV can only read files that the user running it can read. If you want to check all files on the system you must use sudo:

ClamAV is an excellent tool with many command parameters. To see what other options you can add have a look at the man pages:

Finally, if you wish to add a GUI to ClamAV take a look at
How to Install Clam AntiVirus with GTK frontend GUI

Using a simple graphical user interface, Furius iConverter, is a tool for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions to easily convert any video format to iPod / iPhone compatible format effortlessly.

Head on over to the Furius iConverter project page and grab yourself a copy.

This is still an early beta release, so if you would like to contribute, please post your comments, suggestions and bugs on the project page and help Furius iConverter get better and better.

We all know that Big Brother is watching, but he doesn’t need to know what websites you’ve been visiting! Using Privoxy, a web proxy program, Tor, a software project that helps you defend against traffic analysis, and a firefox plugin called TorButton, you can browse the web in anonymous safety. Here is some an explanation of the technology from the Tor website:

Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location.

Please note: Because your communications are bounced around a global network, your surfing will take a slight performance hit. Because of this we are using TorButton to enable us to quickly turn this feature on and off.

Installation

First let’s install Tor and Privoxy (Ensure the restricted repositories are enabled)

Next, we need to configure Privoxy. Open /etc/privoxy/config in your favourite text editor.

We need to find this line: listen-address localhost:8118
In my config file it was line number 741.

Beneath this we need to add the following text (including the period):

forward-socks4a / localhost:9050 .

Your config file should look like this…

/etc/privoxy/config

Save and exit.

Now we need to restart Tor and Privoxy

Now we need to start firefox and install the TorButton plugin.

Navigate firefox to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2275 and click ‘Add to Firefox’

Restart firefox.

In the bottom right hand corner of firefox you will now have a button titles ‘Tor Disabled’, this can be clicked to enable and disable Tor. You can test your new found anonymity by visiting http://ip-address.domaintools.com/ (see screenshots below).

Tor Disabled

Tor Disabled

Tor Enabled

Tor Enabled

Happy anonymous surfing!