Avast Home 6.0.1203 And Logging.log

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I just discovered logging.log in my backups and it is full (literally) of 1.2Mb of entries - beginning on 09-06-2011 - like the one below.

I searched this forum but all the help pointed to avast.db; there is no avast.db on my PC.

Anyone any ideas?

TIA

AlanB

Log entries (like):

09-07-2011 19:59:41 SQL command ‘INSERT OR REPLACE INTO Paths (Time, Path, ShortHash, LongHash) VALUES (1310237981, ?, 518781879, ?);’ failed, error 11 (database disk image is malformed)

2

Disable the debug log.
Set a lower limit for the other logs (kb) if you want so.
You can also, shield by shield, set the logs to replace and not to be appended.

3

Thanks, Tech.

But what is the cause of the error? Presumably Avast “thinks” there is a good reason to write these entries…

AlanB

4

Are we talking about the debug log?

5

I don’t know.

The full path to the file is:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Alwil Software\Avast5\log\Logging.log

6

Can you post a screenshot of your Maintenance settings?

7

'Tis here.

8

So, the only option that lasts is the one on each shield to configure the logs.

9

Done that.

But again - what is causing the error?

I write software for a living. My users would not take me seriously if I said “oh, just ignore the errors - switch logging off”. I, for one, would want to know which part of my application was buggy!

10

OK. After a bit of digging aroud with a hex editor and some other tools I discovered that the offending SQLite database file is url.db in the path C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Alwil Software\Avast5.

Now I can take an educated guess as to what it is for, but how to fix the thing?

A Repair of Avast did not work…

11

Well, as you still have “Alwil” in your path, you should try a clean re-install.

  1. Follow instructions here: http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility
  2. Download & install the appropriate version:
    avast! 6.x Free Antivirus: http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/setup_av_free.exe
    avast! 6.x Pro Antivirus: http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/setup_av_pro.exe
    avast! 6.x Internet Security: http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/setup_ais.exe
  3. Reboot.
12

alanb,

what you can do is stop the “avast! antivirus” service (Control Panel → Administrative Tools → Services) and then

  1. Back up the URL.db file (ideally, send it to me for analysis)
  2. Delete the file URL.db
  3. Restart the service

The file will be automatically recreated once the service starts.
It is used for tracking of source URLs of files you download (which is very important for potential virus identification).

Thanks
Vlk