(all varients) FIX the AVAST error engine failure after update.

**linuxgeek77** · April 7th, 2010

Originally Posted by bradshawd

The reboot did it..

Happy bunny once again..

Many Thanks for this fix.

D

your welcomed

**Pesmontis** · April 10th, 2010

It worked nicely (Ubuntu 9.10, avast! antivirus 4 v1.3.0-2_i386),
very good of you to post this fix

**slumbergod** · April 14th, 2010

Thanks, the fix worked for me (Xubuntu 9.10)

**P4man** · April 22nd, 2010

Can you please update your post and change

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/init.d/rcS

into

Code:

gksudo gedit /etc/init.d/rcS

?

Sudo is for console commands, gksudo for graphical ones. Doing it the wrong way may cause havoc on your file permissions. More info here:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/graphicalsudo

(coming to post here after someone rendered his machine unbootable after following your how to, and I think this might be related).

**linuxgeek77** · April 25th, 2010

Originally Posted by P4man

Can you please update your post and change

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/init.d/rcS

into

Code:

gksudo gedit /etc/init.d/rcS

?

Sudo is for console commands, gksudo for graphical ones. Doing it the wrong way may cause havoc on your file permissions. More info here:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/graphicalsudo

(coming to post here after someone rendered his machine unbootable after following your how to, and I think this might be related).

I have always used sudo. why would i need a gui front end to enter my password? i never used gksudo. i never understood why people would need a gui front end. just eneter pass in the terminal and keep going!!! but if anyone is confortable to use gksudo then they can be my guest.

**P4man** · April 25th, 2010

Its not just that you get a gui front end to enter the password. If you use sudo for graphical apps, you can end up with configuration files in your home folder like .Xauthority being owned by root, giving all sort of problems, including being unable to log in. Im not making this up:

Graphical sudo

You should never use normal sudo to start graphical applications as root. You should use gksudo (kdesudo on Kubuntu) to run such programs. gksudo sets HOME=~root, and copies .Xauthority to a tmp directory. This prevents files in your home directory becoming owned by root.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

**kherring7383@yahoo.com** · April 25th, 2010

After installing Avast several times and getting the same errors, I came across this post and gave it a try and it worked great. Thanks!

**nicks27** · May 1st, 2010

Thanks for the fix.

As an alternative to editing the /etc/init.d/rcS file, I made the edit in the /etc/sysctl.conf file by adding the line:

kernel.shmmax = 67108864

(Thanks to thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=601484 ).
Don't forget to reboot after making the edit.

... and if you want to know the current value of kernel.shmmax then the command:

cat /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax

or:

sysctl kernel.shmmax

will tell you.

**lance bermudez** · August 14th, 2010

to fix the avast errror on a live cd run from the command line

sudo sysctl –w kernel.shmmax=128000000

then avast will run with out errors

**MonkWy** · March 14th, 2012

I have Ubuntu 10.04.4 LST after following instructions to fix the AVAST error engine failure to update I restarted and the Ubuntu hung and wouldn't restart. I shut it down and loaded it again and the AVAST Antivirus program was gone and all the sound was slow and different Ubuntu didn't run correctly so I removed the virtual machine and am starting from scratch.