Tiger users: Remove Virex (completely)!

[jsw]

As alluded to in this thread and possibly others I missed, Virex is not Tiger friendly. A background process will chew up a lot of CPU.

Either use the script that came with the package to remove Virex, or use Spotlight to find all "Virex" entries and remove them (which will, in some cases, require an admin password). Unless you do, the background process will keep spawning at boot time (as opposed to when you log in, so it won't be in your Login Items). You'll likely need to reboot, esp. if you remove everything manually.

 

[Zoowatch]

i've been told by a guy at the UK apple store that Virex is not compatible with Tiger (yet)... and therefore it is no longer offered to .Mac users

 

[jsw]

i've been told by a guy at the UK apple store that Virex is not compatible with Tiger (yet)... and therefore it is no longer offered to .Mac users

Good thing too!

But a number of us have it installed from Panther and likely aren't aware that it's still running, even if they don't think it is, so I figured a warning was in order.

 

[ksz]

Spotlight will not find the runaway VShieldCheck process. Neither will the Finder's search command.

If you don't have the original dmg image file containing the uninstaller, download it from your iDisk "Software" directory, copy the dmg file to your local disk, double-click to mount the image, then run:

"Virex Uninstall.command"

It will open a Terminal window, ask for the administrator password, then remove everything cleanly.

If you don't have access to this script, copy it from below. Save it into a text file, open a terminal window, enable "execute" permission (chmod +x <filename>), then invoke it.


#!/bin/sh

echo "Virex 7.5 Uninstall"
echo "-------------------"
echo "This will uninstall Virex 7.5. If you wish to"
echo "proceed, authenticate below or close this window"
echo "if you wish to cancel."
sudo echo ""

# Stop all the daemons that are currently running

cd /

pid=`ps -a -U root -o "pid" -o "command" | awk -F " " '{ if ( $2 == "/usr/local/vscanx/VShieldCheck" ) {print $1} }'`
sudo kill -1 ${pid} 2>/dev/null

pid=`ps -a -U root -o "pid" -o "command" | awk -F " " '{ if ( $2 == "/usr/local/vscanx/VShieldBkgd" ) {print $1} }'`
sudo kill -1 ${pid} 2>/dev/null

pid=`ps -a -U root -o "pid" -o "command" | awk -F " " '{ if ( $2 == "/usr/local/vscanx/VShieldCore" ) {print $1} }'`
sudo kill -1 ${pid} 2>/dev/null

pid=`ps -a -U root -o "pid" -o "command" | awk -F " " '{ if ( $2 == "/usr/local/vscanx/VShield" ) {print $1} }'`
sudo kill -1 ${pid} 2>/dev/null

pid=`ps -a -U root -o "pid" -o "command" | awk -F " " '{ if ( $2 == "/usr/local/vscanx/VShieldMount" ) {print $1} }'`
sudo kill -1 ${pid} 2>/dev/null

pid=`ps -a -U root -o "pid" -o "command" | awk -F " " '{ if ( $2 == "/usr/local/vscanx/VShieldUpdate" ) {print $1} }'`
sudo kill -1 ${pid} 2>/dev/null

pid=`ps -a -U root -o "pid" -o "command" | awk -F " " '{ if ( $2 == "/usr/local/vscanx/VirexLogin" ) {print $1} }'`
sudo kill -1 ${pid} 2>/dev/null

sudo rm -rf "/Applications/Virex 7.5.app"
sudo rm -rf "/Applications/Utilities/Virex Schedule Editor.app"
sudo rm -rf "/etc/mach_init_per_user.d/virex_login.plist"
sudo rm -rf "/usr/local/vscanx"
sudo rm -rf "/usr/share/man/man1/uvscan.1"

sudo rm -rf "/Library/Application Support/Virex/com.nai.virex75.update_mod.plist"
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Application Support/Virex/com.nai.virex75.eupdate.plist"
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Application Support/Virex/VShieldExclude.txt"
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Application Support/Virex/digest.plist"
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Application Support/Virex/.DS_Store"
# Don't remove if the eupdate Schedules are still there
sudo rm -df "/Library/Application Support/Virex" 2>/dev/null

sudo rm -rf "/Library/StartupItems/Virex"
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Frameworks/AVEngine.framework"
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Frameworks/MacScanner.framework"
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Receipts/Virex 7.5.pkg"
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Documentation/Help/VirexHelp.help"
sudo rm -rf "/usr/share/man/man1/VShieldStatus.1"

if [ -x "/System/Library/Extensions/Virex.kext" ]; then
sudo rm -rf "/System/Library/Extensions/Virex.kext"
fi

 

[cctoronto]

Spotlight will not find the runaway VShieldCheck process. Neither will the Finder's search command.

If you don't have the original dmg image file containing the uninstaller, download it from your iDisk "Software" directory, copy the dmg file to your local disk, double-click to mount the image, then run:

"Virex Uninstall.command"

It will open a Terminal window, ask for the administrator password, then remove everything cleanly.

If you don't have access to this script, copy it from below. Save it into a text file, open a terminal window, enable "execute" permission (chmod +x <filename>), then invoke it.

when i try to do this, this what happens:

Last login: Fri Apr 29 23:38:28 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
Christophers-Computer:~ chris$ chmod +x <virex uninstall>
-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `newline'
Christophers-Computer:~ chris$

i have named the text file 'virex uninstall', and it's located on the desktop
Can you please explain exactly how to do this for me, a simpleton, who has never run anyhting on the terminal window... I have saved the info/script to a text file but i'm not too clear on how to 'invoke' the text file or even what invoking means... thanks in advance... this is the exact CPU problem i'm having...

 

[ksz]

when i try to do this, this what happens:

Last login: Fri Apr 29 23:38:28 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
Christophers-Computer:~ chris$ chmod +x <virex uninstall>
-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `newline'
Christophers-Computer:~ chris$

i have named the text file 'virex uninstall', and it's located on the desktop
Can you please explain exactly how to do this for me, a simpleton, who has never run anyhting on the terminal window... I have saved the info/script to a text file but i'm not too clear on how to 'invoke' the text file or even what invoking means... thanks in advance... this is the exact CPU problem i'm having...

Chris,

On the Terminal command prompt, do not type the angle brackets "<" and ">". These symbols have special meaning in Unix -- they pipe standard-output from one process to the standard-input of another and vice-versa. If you're not familiar with Unix, don't worry, just type this on the Terminal command line:

chmod +x "virex uninstall" <--- type the double-quotes

If you still have problems, let me know and I'll try to help.

 

[ksz]

In order to invoke a command, you just need to type the command name and press enter. If the command name has spaces, you can do one of two things:

1. Enclose the entire command name in quotes.
2. Use a backslash before the space.

Example:

To run a command such as "virex uninstall" (contains a space), go to the directory containing that command (use "cd" to change directory) then type:

./"virex uninstall"

or

./virex\ uninstall

The command "chmod +x" enables the execute flag which tells Unix this is a file than can be executed (a program file) as opposed to being simply a text or document file.

The dot-slash (./) at the beginning of the line is just a safety measure to ensure that the file "virex uninstall" located in the current directory is executed.