Possible virus??
 

I have a laptop with Linux Mint 20, Ulyana, and lately it has been invaded by a square shaped speaker or sound icon occasionally flashing on and off on the bottom of my screen. I have tried clamav, autoclean, and autoremove but so far no luck getting rid of it. Has anyone else seen this annoying icon popping up on their screen? Or any7 suggestions on how to fi9nd it and delete it? It's currently flashing on and off as I type. Thanks.

can you use the prtsc button or screenshot to get a picture of it?

Strangely, there has been a very similar post here during the last year or so: the poster saw a flashing loudspeaker icon and thought it was a virus.
Or maybe it was on another forum.
I'm pretty sure it turned out that it wasn't a virus.

I agree that it is likely not a virus, but, if you want to scan for virus, a web search for "best av linux" will turn up many articles and reviews.

I personally have used Comodo and AVG for Linux. I made a pledge to myself a long time ago not to connect a machine to the internet without an AV.

No I haven't been able to get a screenshot. It flashes off too quickly, and sometimes interferes with what I am typing, like when entering a search on Firefox - DuckDuckGo - two or three letters will show and then it'll page up and I have to close and reopen Firefox to enter the search data. Then it will disappear for a day before returning. It's not here now but was when I first entered the inquiry.

Would love to find that earlier post to see if the user found a solution. I'll keep searching. Thanks

Good point, I presume you have ufw enabled, first job I do after installing linux.

Well clamav would tend to agree it is not a virus. My scan returns the following:
----------- SCAN SUMMARY -----------
Known viruses: 8297254
Engine version: 0.102.4
Scanned directories: 1
Scanned files: 16
Infected files: 0
Data scanned: 1.19 MB
Data read: 1.10 MB (ratio 1.08:1)
Time: 42.552 sec (0 m 42 s)
What I don't understand is why it shows just one directory and 16 files scanned. I have been on the ClamavNet web page trying to figure out how to configure it. Still the loudspeaker icon is flashing this morning.

perhaps a video with a phone or other camera would be possible? then a screenshot of the paused frame where it is showing in a program like vlc.

Does the speaker icon have a big 'X' or diagonal line through it? That could be your monitor reminding you that you have muted its internal speakers.

Possible virus??
 

///home/john/Pictures/DSCN1899.JPG

Having trouble getting a decent picture, and not sure how to send it here, but if this works then you should be able to see the nuisance icon at the bottom of the screen in attached photo. Thanks,
John///home/john/Pictures/DSCN1899.JPG

on my mint 19.3 virtual machine, the only time i see that icon is when i am changing the volume up or down with a key on my keyboard. i wonder if your system is erroneously registering a key press. i don't use mint much other than testing in vm's, but didn't see any way in the settings to turn off that icon popping up when changing the volume.

i would be curious to know if it still does so when your volume is muted. that isn't exactly a fix, but might get it off your screen at times until you would be able to figure out what else might be affecting its behavior.

Thanks Cordx, I have played with the sound settings to see if there were anything there that might be the cause but the flashing icon keeps returning. I had not tried muting the volume so I'll give it a go and see if it comes back.
Thanks again,
TheDurk

Muting the sound doesn't work but it has shown that it is indeed directly connected to sound as after I have muted the sound and the icon flashes on it comes on with a little chirping sound and un-mutes the sound in the process.

the suggestion in the last post of this thread worked to keep the icon from appearing in my mint 19.3 virtual machine:

Done, and my fingers are crossed. Thanks again.