From: Aron Roberts (aron@socrates.berkeley.edu)
Date: Tue Sep 04 2001 - 11:07:20 PDT
Readers of the MacFixIt Web site have reported having encountered
several different types of error messages after having installed the
September 2001 Virus Definitions update to the Virex anti-virus
utility.
The authors of that site suggest:
"Given the number reports of trouble we've received ... we
recommend holding off on installing the September update until this
gets sorted out."
FYI.
Aron Roberts
Workstation Software Support Group
--On the MacFixIt home page today, September 4, 2001 <http://www.macfixit.com/>:
Virex error with September definitions: a follow-up
Many users responded to Friday's item of error messages in Virex after installing the September definitions. We are still not certain of the underlying cause, but something is clearly amiss. Given the number reports of trouble we've received (and considering those who successfully performed a scan from the control panel) we recommend holding off on installing the September update until this gets sorted out.
Some users found that scanning with the Control Panel worked just fine, yet for others it had little or no effect. Two users noted that the problems seemed to be triggered by scanning a very large file, such as a VPC image or a Mac OS update. One user also reported that at least one of his large files was corrupted, evidently by the scan and subsequent crash. Louie Berry writes:
"After receiving errors, performing the initial scan from the control panel, and running a subsequent scan from the application, I noticed multiple errors where the app said it couldn't decompress certain files. They were all .BIN files common to flight sims and ROM flashers. When scanning these same files from the control panel, Virex had no trouble decompressing these same files. Moreover, when Virex got to a very large .smi or .smi.bin file (such as the Mac OS 8.6 Update) it would lock up the machine and the file would become corrupt. When I downloaded a fresh version of the file and Virex would scan it at download, the same thing would happen. Smaller .smi files worked fine."
Further suggesting that large files may be at least part of the problem, several users also added that bumping up the memory for Virex to about 16 MB solved the problem. (Thanks also to Michel Tavir, Frank Thomas, Richard Hungerford, Gerry Moravec, and others. )
--
http://www.macfixit.com/archives/august.01.c.shtml#virexerror-08-31
Virex error with September definitions
Klaus Warschkow writes: "After installing Virex definitions for September, we started having a problem with several different Macs running Mac OS 9.2.1: While running a virus scan from within Virex, we get error messages such as 'a strange error has occurred (32767)' and Virex does not scan applications anymore. We have reinstalled Virex on one of the Macs and updated the virus definitions only to 08/2001; the error messages no longer occur and scanning applications works again." Andre Bellemare confirms this.
We now have confirmation of this occurring in OS versions from 8.1 to 9.2.1. Lon Hutchison did not have the problem running 9.2.1, but notes that he does not use the Virex Scheduler extension.
Update: Ken Marks claims: "The error messages can be fixed by scanning with the Control Panel. After that, the application scans without error messages."
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