VIAKT600 botherboard A while back the system froze on me, then I rebooted and the bios said there was a hardware error. I unplugged the machine, rebooted and it was fine. Now, about a month later. I tried to shut the system down and it only did a partial shutdown. Then when I rebooted the bios didn't start. The black screen and a single line of text on it at the top, which I cannot remember. It had the number “128” in it and a bunch of codes or something. I then pressed the reset button and the same thing happened. I then powered down by pulling the AC plug and it came back up with the Asus blue screen, but then crashed. Then I pressed the reset button again and I was able to get into the bois and cursor around for a bit then it crashed. I then rebooted and was able to get into the bios, but I never saved anything (just in case). It was then able to boot. It seems ok right now. Could this be a sign of rootkit BIOS installation of some sort of hacking? I run Ubuntu. How could someone install a rootkit or any other malware in Ubuntu? I've only used repository software. My first browser was Firefox with the usual plug-ins, such as adblock, noscript and download them all. I suspected the browser may have some sort of malware plugin or add-on so I switched to Seemonkey. I don't want to flash the rom just in case a rootkip detects the flash program and erases the rom or something. The reason I'm paranoid is due to the nature of what I do, i.e. I research law and use legal processes that literally nullify government authority or people (I'm out of the system). Yes, you can get out of the system, you just have to know how. My last Asus system was taken out and just before it went down it started doing the same kinds of things, i.e. hardware error then things were fine then some time later, BAM. I am using another Asus board and as far as I can see this seems to be more the a coinsurance. My last OS was XP and this one is Ubuntu, thinking that it would be more secure. Anyone have any ideas?
"Botherboard" Not sure if that was intentional or a Freudian slip! First, understand that rootkits first appeared long ago on UNIX machines, so you should not be surprised they could appear on a Linux machine. BIOS rootkits are very rare. Is this computer protected behind a firewall and anti-malware scanners? I would change the battery - they are only a couple dollars at your local battery/watch/camera counter. Take the old one with you as most counters will recycle. Be sure to UNPLUG the computer and touch bare metal of the case before reaching in. In that case, the FIRST thing you should do is remove your data drive from that machine and install it as a secondary drive in another computer. Then run aggressively through your anti-malware scanners on that drive to ensure it does not infect this new host machine, and then backup all your critical/sensitive data.
