V 4.1 installation freezes on W7 as it kills internet installing Kernel drivers

Comodo Internet Security - CIS Install / Setup / Configuration Help - CIS
1

Seven year old Acer Travelmate 244LM with XP Home.

Now with brand new EasyBCD Bootloader to dual boot to Win 7 Ultimate,
brand new installation in a brand new partition this morning.

This afternoon I downloaded cispremium_installer_x86.exe from

I regret there is no MD5 or superior hash checksum to validate it.
Please give a link if available.

When I launched the installer and answered the questions it commenced installing code.
The progress bar reached an approx 80% completion - regret no numbers appeared.
Progress then froze whilst it was allegedly installing kernel drivers, and it was observed that the W7 internet icon showed disconnection.

Upon a reboot exactly the same, but this time one eye was fixed on the internet icon,
and sure enough there was at approx 80% progress bar a simultaneous internet disconnection and a freezing of all progress.

Please advise :-

  1. What should I do next to get CIS installed ?

  2. Does Comodo have to trawl the Internet to download kernel drivers - are they not included in the installer ?

Regards
Alan

2

It is truly odd.

But let’s assume that the first staling was just a freak occurrence and that the stalling of the second installation attempt was the result of the improper installation of the first installation. Then using the well known clean up tool could do the trick.

When you first installed CIS. Where there any other security or network (netlimiter etc) programs running in the background?

3

After installation of W7 and accepting many W7 updates and patches, we installed CCleaner and removed junk and installed Acronis 2010 and made a backup image to fall back on.

There was only built in W7 security, plus a Netgear Router/Modem DG834G set for Outgoing only.
UAC was disabled for the first attempt, and set for minimum warnings at the second attempt.

I agree that a freak disaster on first attempt might prevent success on a second attempt if the installation deduced from remnants that Comodo was already installed, but why would it abruptly disconnect the Internet at the same point the second time ?

Whatever damage was done to the Internet was cured by a reboot - which suggests that Comodo kernel drivers already installed had done no permanent damage to the Internet.

Is it definite that an internal conflict could by itself stall the installation at the same point each time ?

I regret that due to extreme pressure of time we only made two attempts at Comodo before my son installed Norton Beta (free for 120 days) so he could get me started on using W7 before he went back home.
He is keen to migrate me to W7. My new bootloader is defaulted to XP.

When I have more information upon what could go wrong with the installation, or a later version of Comodo appears, I will be trying again.

Is it possible that for some reason the installation program might have gone to the Internet to download a driver etc. from Comodo or Microsoft or ACER, and lack of progress was not due to detecting a remnant (which should give a Comodo error message) but that it was waiting to receive the file ?

What are these Kernel Drivers, and where are the held ?
On version 3.13 I have only seen a small number of Comodo items in Windows/system32.

I have an adaptation of the Cleanup script which processes everything three times.
The second time is KILL TIME when it zaps what needs to go.
I will skip the first two stages and run the third stage which shows all the Comodo remnants it detects.
Then I will report back what it finds.

This is all proven on version 3.13 and 3.14.
Does version 4.1 have the same kernel drivers as 3.13, or will the existing cleanup tool be ignorant of what appears to be a vast number of new kernel drivers ?

Regards
Alan

4

Alan, I can try to help you if you give me a log files (see https://forums.comodo.com/install-setup-configuration-help-cis/please-read-this-before-posting-an-instalaltion-problem-t59681.0.html)

ps
Firewall installs network driver - that is a reason why your internet connection lost. It is a normal situation

5

Thank you for the offer of help.

I expect to return by tomorrow with a report on any remnants from the first attempt to install Comodo.

I am unfamiliar with both W7 and the latest version of Acronis my son installed on it, and my external drive for backup storage needs pruning before I can be confident of my ability to create backups with an assurance of a quick retreat.

It will be a few days before I can devote myself to cleansing Norton and producing the log files as I once more try to install Comodo.

I think I remember 3.14 was officially installed via an on-line installer, and I chose not to risk being on-line whilst replacing protection. I was happy when an unofficial executable was available which allowed me to download whilst fully protected with the old, and to then disconnect the ethernet whilst replacing with the new.
When I saw that installation of 4.1 appeared to freeze at the instant the W7 internet icon indicated disconnection I jumped to the conclusion that 4.1 was not only going to use the internet to update the minimal default bases.cav, I thought it might also be going to Microsoft to fetch some special dll variants.

If it is normal to lose the internet connection whilst installing the network driver I guess that shows Comodo is not depending on the internet to fetch a “bit more”. Please tell me, once the internet is lost, does it automatically re-connect when the installation is “complete”, or only after a reboot ?

QUESTION. Can the Oracle VM Virtual box alter the Ethernet firmware and cause future problems ?
We previously installed VM and installed W7 under VM in a new 20 GB partition, and W7 installation updates seemed to freeze until we changed the VM internet connection from default to direct Internet Access.
When installed W7 under VM under XP took 1 minute to launch Windows Explorer ! ! !
I had assumed anything VM did was cancelled after a shut-down, which was followed by a BOOT CD to purge the VM partition and then properly install W7.
It occurs to me that perhaps VM tweaked some firmware/bios and that tweak is still in effect until I launch VM again to set its Internet access back from Direct Ethernet to “normal”.
I have the ability to imagine a scorpion underneath every stone on the path ahead ! !

Can you tell me a hash checksum (e.g. MD5) with which I can validate the installer I downloaded ?

Regards
Alan

6

It depends on OS. For Win7 - after installation, you dont need to reboot to restore connection.

I dont know. CIS doesnt have conflicts with Virtual box. Has VBox conflicts with WinXp or Win7 - I dont know - I am using VMWare.

Maybe your PC is too slow?

You dont need checksums. Each installer you downloaded from COMODO has a digital signature. If digital signature is missing - binary is corrupted.

http://i29.tinypic.com/sn32ft.png

7

Thank you

  1. It was a properly installed W7 Ultimate that I was trying to protect with Comodo 4.1
    How long should I expect the disconnection to last before it is automatically restored ?

  2. I have found a Virtual Box forum - I will ask there about permanent effects.

  3. W7 is running at full speed now that it is properly installed and is no longer sharing resources with an XP host and VM emulator.
    I never attempted to install Comodo on W7 under the VM - I had the patience but decided to protect my sanity !

  4. I thought the signature and certificate indicated that the file in question had been released by an entity that was certified by a C.A.
    My concern is not the authenticity of what you supplied, but whether it got corrupted by noise on the Internet.
    Are you saying that the “Name of Signer” would be obliterated if the Internet noise corrupted the download ? Is the entire download validated by SHA?, or Cyclic Redundancy-Checksum, or a simple 8 bit arithmetic sum checksum ?

I once had a problem with an Open Source installation and when I compared the MD5 hash checksum of what I received with the value published by the author I knew I had to download again - and then I had no trouble.
Since then if I see a hash published with the download link I follow the download by validating the checksum before using. If I have problems I will download again and ask for a hash to validate.

I notice that your image shows a timestamp of 27 July 2010.
I have a stamp of 10 June 2010. Is Comodo on the verge of a new release ?

Regards
Alan

8

Not too long. Its depend on you PC speed

No. If file will be corrupted, “Digital signature” tab will hides at all.
You can experiment - just corrupt the file. Open installer as text file, change at least one bit and save it.

I’ve just used internal version as an example.

9

Thank you. I really was not aware of this.

I was on top of the game 3 decades ago when designing high reliability embedded systems with 8 bit microprocessors, and I thought of Pets, Apples, and P.C.s as mere toys, and was amused when rival companies used these toys as the basis for Fire alarm and Intruder alarms.
At 7 day exhibitions our products were switched on and ran with no need for technical support.
The competitors had their engineers swarming over their “toys” for the first half of the week.

Windows 98 with incessant BSODs did not change my opinion of “toys” with their GUIs.

I had not realised the recent improvements to technology - though I suspect this has more to do with “Proper Computer” and UNIX etc. practitioners developing fundamental Internet and C.A. capabilities - but even if Windows has been involved I am grateful for improvements where-ever they come from (so long as the CIA have not got backdoors incorporated ! !).

Alan