[frdmfghtr]

I recently reinstalled Norton Antivirus (free site license and AV software req'd for campus LAN) and the Liveupdate cron job won't run. The scan cron job will run.

If I run Liveupdate manually, it runs fine. I've repaired disk permissions, manually checked the cron entry (shown below), ran Onyx to clean all the caches and rebooted, but no luck so far. The Norton Missed Tasks service is running according to Activity Monitor.

Ideas?

cron entry:

0 14 * * * "/Library/Application Support/Symantec/Scheduler/SymSecondaryLaunch.app/Contents/schedLauncher" 3 "/Applications/Symantec Solutions/LiveUpdate.app/Contents/MacOS/LiveUpdate" " " "oapp" "aevt" "exAG" "-update LUal"

[frdmfghtr]

I think I found the issue...

When I install NAV 10.0 fresh, Liveupdate runs as schedule in the cron table. Once it updates itself to Liveupdate 4.0, the scheduled jobs no longer run.

Too bad that the Liveupdate doesn't allow selective updating, like the Windows version does (I think).

[Cadaver]

And the reason for running NAV on your Mac is...?

[cybergoober]

He already said in the first post. His school has a site-license and AV software is required on his school's LAN.

I'm in much the same situation here at work. AV software is required and we have a site-license for SAV...

[ghporter]

My school also requires ALL computers that connect (wired or wireless) to run antivirus software, and they also provide Norton AV for Macs (and Symantec Client Security for PCs).

I do not think I'm having the problem you're having, frdmfghtr, but I'll have to check later; my MBP is sitting in my book bag because we have a "winter weather day" today (in San Antonio, Texas!) and I am not in class-I'm using my PC right now. I'll get it out later and check.

[ghporter]

Now for a silly question: where is the log you're finding these missed events in? My installation of NAV uses NA's scheduler to set up weekly updates, and it's working fine.

[frdmfghtr]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Now for a silly question: where is the log you're finding these missed events in? My installation of NAV uses NA's scheduler to set up weekly updates, and it's working fine.

The Scheduler is used to set them up, but then NAV sets up cron jobs; the NortonMissedTask process apparently keeps an eye out for missed tasks and runs them. I don't know exactly how the process works, all I know is that there are cron entries for the AV tasks and they used to run on wake-up if the scheduled time passed.

On one reinstallation, I didn't run Liveupdate manually; I let it run on its own, and it did all the updates per schedule until LU updated itself from 3.5 to 4.0.3. After that, no more automatic update jobs would run.

There's no log where it shows the missed jobs not running; it's the lack of log entries in the console.log showing the missed task running. In the past, whether there were updates available or not, console.log would show a NortonMissedTask entry launching the child process (presumably the update job). Now there is nothing. In addition, watching the Activity Monitor for Liveupdate to start shows no activity either; again, with Liveupdate 3.5, I could observe both log entries and Activity Monitor changes when the scheduled event would run.

Also, when you run Liveupdate manually, it will show the date of the last update check; mine showed Sunday as the last check, and I have updates scheduled on a daily basis.

Here's what Symantec Tech Support sent as their attempt to fix the problem.

I suggest that you follow the steps given below and then check for the issue.

Before you begin: You must be in the Finder. Click the desktop or the Finder icon in the Dock to be in the Finder.

1. On the Go menu, click Applications.
2. Open Utilities.
3. Open Terminal.
4. At the prompt, type the following:

sudo touch /var/log/wtmp

5. Press return.
6. Type your administrator password.
7. Press return.
8. Quit Terminal.
9. Restart the computer.

Mac OS X will now log the times that you log on to the computer, and the Scheduler will know when to run its scheduled tasks.

I did that, and it didn't fix anything. Previous responses were to fix disk permissions (did that) and that didn't help either.

I could just say the heck with it and use ClamXAV (I never uninstalled it, but turned off the folder sentry) if I can't get NAV to work, but sometimes I can be a little stubborn about expecting things to work properly.

[frdmfghtr]

And to add to the mix...a scheduled scan job started right on cue; LiveUpdate jobs don't run automatically after an update from 3.5 to 4.0.3. This all points towards a problem with LiveUpdate.

[frdmfghtr]

To follow up...there was a problem with LiveUpdate 4.0.2, and the LiveUpdate 4.0.3 fixed that...but there seems to be a new issue. I'm not the only one experiencing it...

MacFixIt - Symantec LiveUpdate: Problems running under Mac OS X 10.4.8

If there's an issue with old preference files causing trouble, how do I get rid of them? I ran the Symantec Uninstaller, the went through the library and preferences directories and got rid of everything I could find related to NAV, but when I would do a fresh installation, some of my old preferences (SafeZones to be exact) were still present., even after a removal and reboot.

[ghporter]

Thanks for the clarification. I haven't been able to check whether LU is universal or not, but it looks like scheduled scans and updates are both working fine on my MacBook Pro. Hmmmm.

[frdmfghtr]

What version of LiveUpdate do you have, i.e. what version # shows up when a LiveUpdate session completes?

I'd like to try a full deinstallation, if only I knew where ALL the files were...as has been stated here and elsewhere, the uninstaller doesn't do a through job; preference files are still left somewhere.

Because I'm careful to the point pf paranoid regarding virii, I'd like to stick with NAV since it can automatically scan in the background with little noticeable performance cost; ClamXAV has an issue with scanning new downloads.* I tried McAfee Virex (30-day trial) and didn't like the performance hit when scanning files on access; scan on read or write is OK though (which would you choose, scan-on-read or -write?)

The temporary workaround is to manually run LiveUpdate...at least I didn't pay for NAV.

* When a file is being downloaded, ClamXAV Folder Sentry tries to scan it but cannot access it and thus fails. Once it is fully downloaded, the file can be scanned by Folder Sentry.

[ghporter]

I have version 4.0.2 (111), which is the latest version offered by my school. I just ran LiveUpdate, and it updated itself to 4.0.3. We'll see if this generates any "interesting" behavior.

[frdmfghtr]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

I have version 4.0.2 (111), which is the latest version offered by my school. I just ran LiveUpdate, and it updated itself to 4.0.3. We'll see if this generates any "interesting" behavior.

Any interesting behavior?

I'm getting no scheduled LiveUpdates on my C2D MB either...and I got a response from Symantec on the 19th:

"...please note that, the issue that you are currently facing has been reported to Symantec and Symantec is currently investigating and working towards a resolution and soon you will be able to update through Symantec Scheduler.

Please get in touch with us, if you need any further assistance.

Regards

Prashanta
Symantec Authorized Technical Support"

[roskaposti]

I have the same problem.

Any news about when Symantec will be releasing the fix?

[besson3c]

A good way to troubleshoot cronjobs is to either tail -f the system log, or monitor it via the Console if you would prefer a GUI.

I suggest changing its run time to a minute or two from present so that you don't have to wait until it next executes. The log will tell you exactly what the problem was.

You can also execute the command manually in the terminal as root (w. a sudo) and possibly observe the same problem, depending on what it is.

[netguy45]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

A good way to troubleshoot cronjobs is to either tail -f the system log, or monitor it via the Console if you would prefer a GUI.

I suggest changing its run time to a minute or two from present so that you don't have to wait until it next executes. The log will tell you exactly what the problem was.

You can also execute the command manually in the terminal as root (w. a sudo) and possibly observe the same problem, depending on what it is.

I've got the same problem of the LiveUpdate not working. I am running 10.4.8 fully patched on the 4 systems I have tested and all of them exhibit this problem. I tried manually running the cron job command in the terminal and the command executes with no feedback - I don't get an error and nothing appears in any logs. I also tried scheduling an update task for a few minutes ahead of time and waited. When the update time came my computers do nothing. There is also no information as to what is going wrong in any logs.

Similar to what has been stated already in this thread, I have no problems with scheduled scans. I tried scheduling an update for just the product, and then just the definitions. Both had the similar result of nothing happening when the specified update time passed.

The version of LiveUpdate I am running is 4.0.3 (117).

[besson3c]

Failing silently without a trace is hard to deal with, especially without having access to the product myself, sorry!

Does anything appear in your console.log or system.log when the schedule runs?

[frdmfghtr]

I haven't tried scheduling an update in a while but since LiveUpdate is still at the version I had trouble at (4.0.3) I doubt it's been fixed. When working the issue with Symantec, the final reply after trying several "fixes" was that it is a known issue and their engineers are working on it.

I haven't decided if the reply was simply to get me to accept the problem or if it really has been escalated--and I really don't care at this point, since I can remember to do a manual update every few days anyway.

I tried watching the system logs when the task was supposed to run, and nothing would ever show up.

[ghporter]

Well so far my MBP seems to be chroning everything as it's supposed to. Weird.

[netguy45]

I contacted Symantec Tech support and here is their reply to me on March 10, 2007:

Thank you for contacting Symantec Online Technical Support.

We are currently experiencing higher than normal message volumes. We apologize for any inconvenience this delay may have caused and thank you for your patience.

I understand from your message that Symantec Scheduler is not working for LiveUpdate.

Please note that, the issue that you and other Mac users are currently facing has been reported to Symantec and Symantec is currently investigating and working towards a resolution and soon you will be able to update through Symantec Scheduler.

You will be notified as soon as we receive an update from the concerned department regarding the solution.

Meanwhile, I suggest that you follow the instructions in the link given below and then check whether it resolves the issue:

Title: 'Scheduling LiveUpdate for all users using UNIX commands'
Document ID: 2004052015282311
> Web URL: Scheduling LiveUpdate for all users using UNIX commands

Please get in touch with us, if you need any further assistance.

So I guess they are still working on the problem

[netguy45]

Symantec has released an updated version of LiveUpdate which fixes this problem. I tested it out and it appears to work. Here is the email I got from Symantec today notifying me of the fix:

I am pleased to inform you that Symantec has released LiveUpdate version 4.0.4 that resolves the Symantec Scheduler for LiveUpdate issue.

I suggest that you manully download updates using the Norton AntiVirus for Macintosh (NAVM) 10.0 interface to download the LiveUpdate 4.0.4 version.

Next, re-schedule the Symantec Scheduler and check for the issue.

[besson3c]

Was the problem that the crontab was not owned by root, and you were expecting it to work for other users on your system? Or, did it not include the right command line flags as per the examples in their Knowledge Base?

[netguy45]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Was the problem that the crontab was not owned by root, and you were expecting it to work for other users on your system? Or, did it not include the right command line flags as per the examples in their Knowledge Base?

The LiveUpdate program itself was screwed up. So there was nothing that could be done on the customer side. I suspect the problem was with the program "schedLauncher" because when I left that out of the cron job command the definitions update would work. Manually setting the cron job line like the KB article said was not an option for me because we have a lot of privately owned computers used by students at home with the software installed so there needed to be a fix where the person could just press the "Update All Products" button. Trying to explain how to input a cron job line and then remove it when Symantec fixed the problem was not feasible.

I just tried to update the LiveUpdate client on a few other computers and they are not detecting the newer revision now. If you manually FTP into the Symantec server you can see the 4.0.4 LiveUpdate client in there so it might be this new LiveUpdate change has not propogated to all the Symantec LiveUpdate servers yet.

[besson3c]

What a PITA... It's too bad you need to run NAV.

[frdmfghtr]

I updated here, and the scheduled updates are running as expected.