Topic: freshclam: Update failed

[forumuser7]

Hi,

From time to time I receive emails from
anonymous@mydomain.com
with no body and
Subject: "freshclam: Update failed"

I'm running sme 7.0 rc1
Does anyone know what could be the problem and whether this is a serious problem or not.


Thank your comments!

[byte]

Have you even tried a search? this has been answered before and is also in the bug tracker, and if you think you have a problem as always only place to discuss is on the bug tracker, thanks!

[mwest]

Your an ass "byte".  LOL

I tried a general search and a Bug Tracker search for

"freshclam: Update failed"

and found nothing except to reinstall Freshclam!!!  Unless you have any better ideas... don't waste your time replying to posts without any answers.


Peace  

[raem]

To mwest

No need to be rude because your search skills are weak.

I searched on freshclam: Update failed

and found this post after about one minute
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=31373.0
To quote:
"That would only be true if the reason that the update failed was because your clam RPM installation was corrupted. If that could happen, then we (the developers) would want to know why it happened, and work out how to prevent it. But I don't think that has happened.

I expect the update failed only because the upstream repository was temporarily unavailable. But if you report your problem to the bug tracker, we can help you investigate and find out what is happening."


You could also search on freshclam
and you will find a lot more posts.

To forumuser7

Also see this command line excerpt (from a 7.0RC2 server)

[root@server7 ~]# freshclam
--------------------------------------
ClamAV update process started at Tue Jun  6 14:56:52 2006
ClamAV update process started at Tue Jun  6 14:56:52 2006
main.cvd is up to date (version: 38, sigs: 51206, f-level: 7, builder: tkojm)
main.cvd is up to date (version: 38, sigs: 51206, f-level: 7, builder: tkojm)
daily.cvd is up to date (version: 1514, sigs: 7714, f-level: 8, builder: ccordes)
daily.cvd is up to date (version: 1514, sigs: 7714, f-level: 8, builder: ccordes)

[troykd]

byte is a pompous ass.  This software package could become more popular if it weren't for a small group of immature forum users who feel the need to reply to each post with a "did you do a search?" question.

If you don't want to help them, don't.  If you're not contributing, shut up.

[pfloor]

Hi,

From time to time I receive emails from
anonymous@mydomain.com
with no body and
Subject: "freshclam: Update failed"

I'm running sme 7.0 rc1
Does anyone know what could be the problem and whether this is a serious problem or not.


Thank your comments!

"From time to time" What exactly do you mean here?  Freshclam runs every hour, 24 times a day.  Do you get this every hour at the same time?

Freshclam checks the clamav mirrors every hour to make sure your AV version and database are current.  If it can't reach a mirror for any reason, it will warn you with the email you refer to.  Look at your freshclam log file and find out why it is failing.  My log file contains the following different reasons on several different occations:

ERROR: Update failed. Your network may be down or none of the mirrors listed in freshclam.conf is working.

This would indicate either a local or internet connection problem.

ERROR: Mirrors are not fully synchronized. Please try again later.

This would inticate a problem with the clamav mirrors.

ERROR: Can't query current.cvd.clamav.net
WARNING: Invalid DNS reply. Falling back to HTTP mode.
ERROR: Can't get information about db.local.clamav.net: Temporary DNS error
ERROR: No servers could be reached. Giving up

These would indicate some sort of DNS failure.

As you can see my problem has never had to do with freshclam itself.  Your problem may be different...Look into your log files to see why it is failing.  If it is failing every hour, then the problem is persistant.  If it fails once in a while (like mine) it is probably nothing to worry about because it is more than likely due to some sort of network problem that you may or may not have control over.

Just look in your logs and tell us what you see.

[idyll]

=This software package could become more popular if it weren't for a small group of immature forum users who feel the need to reply to each post with a "did you do a search?" question.

If you don't want to help them, don't.  If you're not contributing, shut up.

Thank you for stating this obvious issue. The tenor of this forum does not encourage people to join and work things out. Instead, we are continually treated like 'tards and admonished to "use the bug tracker" and "search the forums".

It's odd, really, and I am quite sure I lack most of the facts behind the scene. But as the saying goes, perception is reality. From my esteemed "outsider" position this forum is about as receptive as a cold cup of coffee.

I don't pretend to be a developer, and I don't see many others posing either, but there is a complete lack of support other than terse, often condescending single sentence replies. I don't know why people feel like they must support this forum if they truly don't wish to - if the net result is ugly negativity and zero sense of mutual respect. Many people are simply not cut out for supporting a user forum, no shame in that.

Maybe a post by one of the developers could clear the air, impart some perspective, let everyone in on whatever dark cloud hangs over this project and your collective heads. Something is eating at the underbelly of this project, and it comes across poorly. This is a superb server product. If the developers are simply being trashed by work load or no funding or whatever, I wish they would come clean so the rest of us would not feel like we were trespassing. Tell us the score, we're on your side.

The forum, as it exists now, is not a welcoming place to visit. And it's a damn shame since the server is such a solid piece of engineering.

What is missing??????

Thank you for airing this overdue issue.

regards,

patrick - user of multiple servers since SME 5.6 and NOT a developer!

[gordonr]

Maybe a post by one of the developers could clear the air, impart some perspective, let everyone in on whatever dark cloud hangs over this project and your collective heads. Something is eating at the underbelly of this project, and it comes across poorly. This is a superb server product. If the developers are simply being trashed by work load or no funding or whatever, I wish they would come clean so the rest of us would not feel like we were trespassing. Tell us the score, we're on your side.

Yes, the developers have a heavy work load as there are not enough of us and the current donations don't allow us to contemplate paying developers (see the "Thanks and Sponsors" page). All of the developers have jobs to sustain themselves and do the SME Server work on a part-time basis.

Due to the size of the development team, we ask that you report bugs in one place as it makes it easy for the developers and helps to improve the software for all, rather than fixing an individual issue for one person. That place is the bug tracker, not the forums, and the forum posting header requests this for a reason - to conserve our very limited developer resources.

The community elected the leaders (of which I am one) to build a solid foundation for the future of this project. However, these things take time and this community has been very fractured in the past - there are wounds to heal.

We need your help - get involved. Report bugs in the correct place, be helpful in the forums, avoid all abusive language, help out with the documentation and the FAQ, donate some money. Thanks.

[pfloor]

Nice political answer Gordon but I have had just about enough and won't be so nice...

Patrick, I am not a developer either but I help when and where I can and the fact of the matter is that everyone that answers questions here and helps out when they can are just plain sick and tired of answering the same questions OVER AND OVER AND OVER again.

Example: I have personally addressed users changing the mysql root password over half a dozen times in the last few months.  It has been stated over and over again "Do not change the mysql root password" and the fix along with it to get these people back up and running but I will no doubt have to tell more people in the future.  There is plenty of documentation on this issue (6 or more forum topics and at least 3 bugs in the bug tracker) but no one seems to know how to search for it.

The developers time is very precious and there is very little of it to go around.  I don't blame anyone for getting short with a poster especially when they ask about something that has been covered MANY MANY times before and the answer is just a search away (like the mysql example above).

Another thing. Posters DEMANDING that someone help them or asking for urgent help.  If they could pay for support, then they can demand and put urgency on their requests. They can't pay for support here so they will have to wait for help like everyone else.

And what is this "Complete Lack of Support" supposed to mean.  You have been using this stable product without any need to pay for how many years? And now you want support?  If you want support, go purchase RHEL with a support package and get all the support that you pay for.

Everybody here except for a very few people (and you know who you are) just sit back and expect the developers and those that help to give them everything.  Give me, give me, give me...What have they given in return?

What is missing??? you ask.

Everyones (well just about everyones anyway) suppot in the form of coding, help, cash/hardware donations, and/or learning how to search and use the bug tracker.  You ask the developers (and helpers) for continous help, just try finding the answer yourself first, it's not that hard.

If someone can't figure out how to search this website then they are either a "tard" (as you claim you are made to feel) or just plain lazy.  I suspect the latter is the case most of the time.

If you don't like it here then quit using the software and go away.  Go purchase MS Server 2003 or RHEL and then you can bitch when you don't feel you are getting your monies worth.  The less repeated questions that need to be answered, the better.

As I have said before: Push, Pull or get the hell out of the way.

As troykd said and you so proudly quoted: If you don't want to help them, don't. If you're not contributing, shut up.

Well, you are not helping nor are you contributing in this thread so you know what to do...

Gordon, you may delete this post if you want, I just needed to get that off my shoulders.

[raem]

To mwest, troykd, idyll and others who get upset when told to search,

You are missing a vital point about being told to search.
The poster is aware that your question has been answered before and knows that a search will (should) find the answer, as long as you are willing to spend a few minutes searching.

Why keep recreating the wheel, if the answer has already been given in the forums then there is no need to spend more time giving the same answer again.

It is appropriate to advise someone to search when you are aware the answer is there.
It takes time to search so why should you expect other people to do the searching for you and give you the exact forum post or location of the answer.

Being told to search is not a rude or offensive answer.

Being rude or offensive with your feedback is certainly not appropriate.

[idyll]

pfloor....

if you had bothered to search, you would find my multiple replies helping others. Nothing profound, but honest efforts with real details.

But, you didn't.


patrick

[troykd]

Personally, I've found other Linux forums to be friendly and welcoming.  This one is not.

If you're overworked and tired of answering the same questions over and over, stop answering them.  Someone else will.  The world won't stop if you take a break.

You might be a great programmer or developer but you need people skills too and I've seen a distinct lack of them nor even a modicum of civility in this forum.

[pfloor]

pfloor....

if you had bothered to search, you would find my multiple replies helping others. Nothing profound, but honest efforts with real details.

But, you didn't.


patrick

My point exactly...Why would I try a search, no one else does.

See how it feels?

Not so pleasant is it?  You have made good and honest efforts to help others and all I did was blast you because I didn't use the search feature.  This is EXACTLY what you and many others are doing to the developers.

Now that you know how it feel STOP COMPLAINING!!!

[mercyh]

I would like to say thanks for the information on this forum. I work in a small hospital and am the only person in IT. I have a mixed bag of Linux, Novell Netware and of course Microsoft. I have been using SME 6.0 on one of my servers for about 3 years and have upgraded to 7.0rc2. It has been a great linux entry OS for me to learn a little Linux on a production platform. I have found this forum (and the contribs forums) to contain answers to most if not all of my questions concerning SME server and an amazing amount of information that is not SME specific. e.g: oplocks, routing rules, networking information, etc. I have never found a need to post a question. If I waited a couple of days somebody else would have the same problem and the answer would show up. Because of the availability of a system that will run out of the box with no Linux knowlege I have been able to add skills with the command line that would have been difficult to learn using one of the Vanilla linux distros.

I would just like to say thanks to the community for a great distro and excellent support.

[pfloor]

Personally, I've found other Linux forums to be friendly and welcoming.  This one is not.

Sorry you feel unwelcome here.  I usually don't stick around somewhere that I don't feel welcome unless I want or need something.  What is it that you expect to get from here?

If you're overworked and tired of answering the same questions over and over, stop answering them.  Someone else will.  The world won't stop if you take a break.

You are sorely mistaken here.  If the developers don't answer questions then posters reply to their own posts with things like "Thanks for nothing", "I came here for help and no one here knows anything", "I need this fixed now, why won't someone help me", etc.

Or the all popular (and this one just irritates me the most) "I can't be the only one having this problem, can't someone help?" when in fact if they would just search they will find several topics about their same problem.

Also, the developers have to scan the forums to direct people to the bug tracker so the bugs can get fixed and not lost in the forum after a few days.  The developers HAVE to scan the forums and answer questions because most of us don’t know the answers, I sure don’t.

Take a week and scan the forums on an hourly basis and direct people in the right direction and see how frustrating it gets.
 

You might be a great programmer or developer but you need people skills too and I've seen a distinct lack of them nor even a modicum of civility in this forum.

You have hit the nail right on the head here.  These guys are developers and damn good ones at that.  Their skills are focused exactly where they should be to coding and not PR.  If this community wants a real skilled PR director then we need to search out and pay for one.  This will be a $100,000 a year job and at $1000 a month in donations, contribs.org is a bit short.

Unfortunately, last year when the leadership community "Roles" were designed we forgot to include a PR director.  Since you seem to know something about PR, why don't you find us a couple of candidates for PR director that can spend 12 hours a day scouring the forums and making sure everyone is happy...Oh and by the way their only pay will be the satisfaction of what they will be doing.  Then we can take a vote to change to constitution and then another vote to elect one of the candidates.  Good Luck.

The point here is that everyone sure knows how to complain and some even have answers to the problems but no one steps up to the plate and does anything about it.  This is a fairly large community and a small handful of people actually do anything to help.

If I can help someone, I do.  If I can't help I go to the next topic and see if I can help there and so on.  I don't get anything from this except the privilege of using this amazing OS.  What everyone needs to realize is that using SME is not a right, it is a privilege that these developers spend a huge amount of their time making it possible for all of us and a lot of people here are abusing this sacred privilege.

Just think about what you are all complaining about here.  You want (almost demand) the developers code, diagnose, fix, and put together a very complicated OS and then you also want (almost demand at times) that they come here and "chat it up politely" with people that often post in the wrong forum asking repeated and sometimes blatantly stupid questions.

This is a double edged sword and if people keep complaining and not helping, the developers could easily stop everything and I wouldn't blame them one bit.  Then where would we be?  Remember, always be careful what you ask for, you might just get it.

So, either help or stop complaining.

[idyll]

gordonr, thank you for your work and your reasonable reply.

pfloor, it's all yours. Your writing style is very reminiscent of USENET. And, taking your suggestion into mind, I left USENET decades ago.

Buh-bye.

patrick

[Mjohnson]

A couple of points before I retreat back to the shadows:

1.  The SME portal is not that easy to navigate.  We have too much "Pride of Authorship" going around to have an objective view on this subject.  

2.  Regarding searching for answers:  It took me 3 months before I saw that little link at the bottom of the search result categories "Show More Results".  Once I saw that, then searching for an answer to my problems got real real easy.  If you don't see that link, then frankly the search feature is pretty useless.

3.  Regarding response to querries, why not appoint a moderator (or two or three) to be responsible for forum responses, enforcing civility...ect.  The SME equivalent of the Wal-Mart Greeters?  Lot's of folks are looking to help out on this project (me included)...we are just looking for a way to make our efforts be worth while.  

MJ

[chris burnat]

2.  Regarding searching for answers:  It took me 3 months before I saw that little link at the bottom of the search result categories "Show More Results".  Once I saw that, then searching for an answer to my problems got real real easy.  If you don't see that link, then frankly the search feature is pretty useless.

There is usually a simple explanation to most things, and in the present case, Mjohnson's comment above hits it on the nail.  I have been there myself, and only noticed the "show more results" link after many months, and a few terse replies from experienced users...  Do not ask me why, but I really did not see it, and I kicked myself the day I finally found all the posts relevant to my search.  

How difficult would it be to relocate the link on top of the default search, preferably using larger fonts?  Do we actually need the short form search anyway? In the meantime, invitations to perform a search could perhaps mention the need to use  the "show more results" link.

[pfloor]

How difficult would it be to relocate the link on top of the default search, preferably using larger fonts?  Do we actually need the short form search anyway?

burnat, that is absolutly a BRILLIANT idea.  I put it in the bug tracker so Greg can take a look and see what he can do about it.

http://bugs.contribs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1559

[troykd]

pfloor,
The sole point I'm trying to make is, we don't need Nazi's in here.  

If someone makes an inquiry, you don't have to be a dick.

[raem]

burnat

> In the meantime, invitations to perform a search could perhaps mention
> the need to use  the "show more results" link

It is "Show all results" not "Show more results".

If you do a search on "Show all results"
you will find out how many, many, many times it has been suggested to people, to make sure they do click on it.

Just make sure you click on Show all results, to indeed show all the results !

[forumuser7]

I don't want to interrupt the interesting discussion here….
I just want to post some more details regarding “freshclam: Update failed” problem.

pfloor: "From time to time" What exactly do you mean here? Freshclam runs every hour, 24 >times a day. Do you get this every hour at the same time?

I saw warning emails twice in May and twice in June (so far). I do not remember how many warnings I received in April.
I agree that all these emails could indicate a problem with my internet connection, but why frechclam sends only emails without message body?

Here is the output of the freshclam command from my host running now SME 7.0 RC2:

[root@myhost ~]# freshclam
--------------------------------------
ClamAV update process started at Sun Jun 11 22:39:46 2006
ClamAV update process started at Sun Jun 11 22:39:46 2006
WARNING: Your ClamAV installation is OUTDATED!
WARNING: Local version: 0.88.1 Recommended version: 0.88.2
DON'T PANIC! Read http://www.clamav.net/faq.html
WARNING: Your ClamAV installation is OUTDATED!
WARNING: Local version: 0.88.1 Recommended version: 0.88.2
DON'T PANIC! Read http://www.clamav.net/faq.html
main.cvd is up to date (version: 39, sigs: 58116, f-level: 8, builder: tkojm)
main.cvd is up to date (version: 39, sigs: 58116, f-level: 8, builder: tkojm)
WARNING: Your ClamAV installation is OUTDATED!
WARNING: Current functionality level = 7, recommended = 8
DON'T PANIC! Read http://www.clamav.net/faq.html
WARNING: Your ClamAV installation is OUTDATED!
WARNING: Current functionality level = 7, recommended = 8
DON'T PANIC! Read http://www.clamav.net/faq.html
daily.cvd is up to date (version: 1532, sigs: 918, f-level: 8, builder: sven)
daily.cvd is up to date (version: 1532, sigs: 918, f-level: 8, builder: sven)
WARNING: Your ClamAV installation is OUTDATED!
WARNING: Current functionality level = 7, recommended = 8
DON'T PANIC! Read http://www.clamav.net/faq.html
WARNING: Your ClamAV installation is OUTDATED!
WARNING: Current functionality level = 7, recommended = 8
DON'T PANIC! Read http://www.clamav.net/faq.html
[root@myhost ~]#

It says that ClamAV installation is outdated…How can I update it?
Does upgrading to SME 7.0 RC3 solve the problem?

Thank you all for the ideas in advance!

[mdo]

....

It says that ClamAV installation is outdated…How can I update it?
Does upgrading to SME 7.0 RC3 solve the problem?

Thank you all for the ideas in advance!

Yes, SME7.0rc3 includes the latest version for ClamAV (0.88.2 I believe it is).

Re. your original question, the freshclam updates:

Since freshclam checks every hour again for possible updates, I tend to ignore a single, now and then warning about the update problem. If it continues with those emails for some hours, then I would investigate.

Michael

[forumuser7]

Thank You Michiel!

I'm going to upgrade to RC3.
I hope this will solve my problem

Thanks again!

[judgej]

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=31373.0

I just came across this post while searching for the same error. Just to reiterate, the above link provided the solution for me. Thought I would reiterate that, since there are no other clues in the rest of this thread.

If we don't put links in to relevant threads, then "doing a search" just turns up dozens of threads that say, simply, "do a search". That, of course, is as much use as a hole in the head.

-- JJ