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Symantec Employee
cswertfager
Posts: 47
Registered: ‎05-04-2009

Re: symavscandaemon crash

Thank you for the detailed information. We have reproduced the crash and are researching what is causing the it. I'll let you know when we know more.

 

Corey Swertfager

Symantec Macintosh QA

 

Corey Swertfager
Symantec Macintosh QA Engineer
Regular Contributor
BobP1776
Posts: 72
Registered: ‎05-22-2009

Re: symavscandaemon crash

The 0603 virus definitions brought in today by Live Update do not fix this problem.  You can do a manual scan immediately after Live Update finishes, but once you Restart the computer, manual scans will once again crash the scan daemon.

 

In fact we seem to have taken a step backwards from last week, in that now EVERY Restart leaves you in the state where you can't do manual scans (which was also the case when I originally detailed this problem).

 

-------------------------------------

 

The Workaround described above continues to work, however:  Download the new (0603) version of Intelligent Updater and run it once each time you Restart the computer.

--Bob 

Symantec Employee
cswertfager
Posts: 47
Registered: ‎05-04-2009

Re: symavscandaemon crash

The actual virus definitions themselves don't matter - I had the crash occur with the definitions installed by NAV 11. it’s a scan UI process timing issue that was exacerbated by changes in OS 10.5.7. We have a fix we're testing (I've restared the computer several times after the installing the fix with no crash). If you'd like to try it (NAV 11.0.2 English must be installed):

 

https://fileshare.symantec.com
Username: Symantec_Forums
Password: Sym_form&9

1. Download and expand SymUIAgent2.0.1.tgz.

2. Double-click SymUIAgent.English.pkg and follow prompts.

 

If you do try it, please let me know the results and which computer and processor speed you tried it on. The Mac on which I reproduced the crash is a slower one - Powerbook G4 1.3 GHz.

 

Thanks!

Corey

Corey Swertfager
Symantec Macintosh QA Engineer
Regular Contributor
BobP1776
Posts: 72
Registered: ‎05-22-2009

Re: symavscandaemon crash

Corey,

This new version of SymUIAgent does indeed appear to be a fix.  I've completed 4 Restarts without any manual scan crashes.  There are also no messages being thrown to the Console log.  A full system scan initiated after a Restart also starts up without any problems.

 

The computer is a 1.5GHz PowerBook G4 17" running Mac OS X 10.5.7 with 1.5GB RAM.

 

If the problem is a timing/speed issue, please note that I'm doing these tests right after Restarting and with no other applications running except for Console.  Indeed I even wait for MobileMe Sync to complete after the Restart before trying the first manual scan.  So I haven't tried to bog down the computer with other applications running to see if that screws up the first attempt to initiate a manual scan.

 

I take it it is OK to leave this new code in place even if the real release of the fix doesn't happen before the new virus definitions come out next week, correct?

--Bob 

Symantec Employee
cswertfager
Posts: 47
Registered: ‎05-04-2009

Re: symavscandaemon crash

Hi Bob,

 

Thanks for trying the fix. The timing issue was between some of our components, so other processes wouldn't necessarily affect the timing. Yes, it's safe to leave the new code in place. The developer said it was a simple fix, but we want to run more tests before releasing a patcher. Note that this will be a separate patcher, not part of the virus definitions.

 

Thanks!

Corey

Corey Swertfager
Symantec Macintosh QA Engineer
obo
Newbie
obo
Posts: 1
Registered: ‎06-11-2009

Re: symavscandaemon crash

Hi Carey,

could you write when the patch will be available ?

 

Best Regards

Oreste 

 

PS. Until today (11/06/09) I still see the same problem after Liveupdate Update everything.

Newbie
davidlamas
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎06-13-2009

Re: symavscandaemon crash

And the download of the temporary fix is no longer available... or does not work on Safari/Firefox so, no scans for me since buying NAV two days ago.

 

Chat support was also useless as this problem was unknown to them.

 

Shall I just return the package?

 

Regards,

DAVID 

Regular Visitor
Cajarosz
Posts: 7
Registered: ‎05-17-2009

Re: symavscandaemon crash

Hi Everyone!!

 

Since I got the fix two weeks ago, everything appears to be working for me and I haven't had the need to run the intelligent updater and ever across boots of the MAC, I've had no problems.  Even the automated (scheduled) scans are working fine.

 

Bob, you and everyone following this thread, I thank you for the time and effort you've put in to solve this issue!!!!  You all are rock stars from my point of view!!!

 

Best and finest regards!!!

 

chrisj 

Regular Contributor
BobP1776
Posts: 72
Registered: ‎05-22-2009

Re: symavscandaemon crash

The software patch that was put out for testing is indeed no longer accessible, and I've got no idea how long it will take Symantec to finalize testing on it and push it out to users in general -- i.e., the real fix for this bug.

 

However the workaround I described earlier in this thread should still work:  Download the latest Intelligent Updater and run it once each time you Restart your Mac.  Understand that to keep up to date on the virus definitions, you will need to periodically re-download the latest Intelligent Updater.  Also make sure you get the version appropriate to your Mac.  In my case that's the Intelligent Updater for the 11.0.2 product running on a PowerPC Mac.

 

The Intelligent Updater replaces all your virus definition files with fresh copies, so it works each time you run it, whereas Live Update only updates things if there have been changes since the last time you updated. 

--Bob 

Regular Visitor
Cajarosz
Posts: 7
Registered: ‎05-17-2009

Re: symavscandaemon crash

Gotcha Bob!!!

 

Thanks again!!!!

 

Best and finest regards!!!

 

chrisj