I have a little background to fill in here before my question.

My friend has been having problems with Viruses/worms/etc. on his windows XP laptop.
He uses the P2P networks for music and pron, and has paid with an inoperable computer.

I suggested he try a Linux distro, and he said he would try one, but he uses Reason and a lot of proprietary software for his music.

ANYWAY.... I would like to help him with his virus problem.

I figured I could just save all his music files and reinstall, and everything would go back to normal for him.
It didn't go back to normal.

I think it has a boot virus. (left mouse button doesn't work.)
I can't run any virus programs due to the fact the end up generating BSOD.


Is there a small live CD distro that has a virus scanner?

Any advice?


Regards,
Blair

The only one I can think of is Knoppix. It has a virus scanner (which you can update) and I believe it can access NTFS partitions.

certaintly !!! - have a look at this post, describes it all.

Thank you. I am so used to using clamav I never thought about f-prot.

Fantastic link. Thank you.
I will let you know how I fare.

Regards,
Blair

I tried both Knoppix and PCLinux04 and I could not get a connection to the internet.
I tried KPPP on both and it won't find the Modem. So I cannot connect to update Knoppix as per prior post.

F-prot is part of PCLINUX, but it won't let me use because the virus definitions are too old. Could I download the latest f-prot virus def via my Ubuntu computer and save them to a CF card. Then mount the cf card under PCLINUX and update def.????

I tried Linux on Laptops to get the modem config, but apparently I am the last person using dialup....

I would try to setup wireless and go to the city and see if I could find a free spot, but wireless card is not supported.

Regards,
Blair

Laptop - does that mean Winmodem ?????
Try an external (serial if you can find one) and see how you go.

For security, I'd expect that updates would have to come from a "known good" source.

Try the forums on knoppix.net for info - heaps there.
FWIW, last week I needed to load a driver for my Dell video card. Knoppix offers a means of getting a script in place and saving it via saveconf. In my case I put it on a USB key - you can use the saved changes on a subsequent boot.
Haven't got it totally sorted yet, as there was no real urgency. Might work for you if you find something that works.

It is a winmodem.....
I am going to try a couple of my newer live cd's and see if they have f-prot.

I am in no mode to mess with win modems and/or ndiswrapper.

Worst comes to worst I can take it back to my friend and use his high speed.

I was hoping for a real small distro that would scan ntfs partition.(I am on 28.8 modem now.)

Regards,
Blair

I gave up trying to do it with Linux.
If I had a better internet connection knoppix or pclinux would have been a viable solution.

Instead I had to use the XP rescue disk to run FIXBOOT and FIXMBR then FORMAT c: FS:/NTFS.
Installed XPLODE and the virus was gone.

I gave my buddy the Ubuntu 5.04 Live CD to try and the install disks if he likes it enolugh.

I would bet $10 bucks his computer has a virus within the first 2 hours of him getting home.

Oh well.

Thanks for all the good suggestions.

Regards,
Blair