Webmin Installation and Configuration in Debian and Ubuntu Linux

Webmin is a web-based interface for system administration for Unix. Using any browser that supports tables and forms (and Java for the File Manager module), you can setup user accounts, Apache, DNS, file sharing and so on.

Webmin consists of a simple web server, and a number of CGI programs which directly update system files like /etc/inetd.conf and /etc/passwd. The web server and all CGI programs are written in Perl version 5, and use no non-standard Perl modules.

Installing Webmin in Debian

#apt-get install webmin webmin-core

After the installation If you want to access webmin from any machine in your network edit the /etc/webmin/ miniserv.conf file change the “allow” option

allow=127.0.0.1 to allow=0.0.0.0

If you want to restrict webmin for only your network you can do in this allow option

Once you change this and save your file and restart the webmin using following command

#/etc/init.d/webmin restart

Go to your browser and type:- https://ipaddress:10000 and you can login using the debian linux root as username and password for root.

If you ou need any webmin modules for your applications you can download from here

Update Webmin online from your machine

Click on Webmin Configuration under webmin tab from here click on Upgrade Webmin and select the Latest version from www.webmin.com option now click on upgrade webmin button this will start the webmin upgrade from webmin site

Downloading http://www.webmin.com/download/webmin-1.290.tar.gz ..
Downloading http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/webadmin/webmin-1.290.tar.gz (10324511 bytes) ..
Received 1024 bytes (0 %)
Received 1033216 bytes (10 %)
Received 2065408 bytes (20 %)
Received 3097600 bytes (30 %)
Received 4130816 bytes (40 %)
Received 5163008 bytes (50 %)
Received 6195200 bytes (60 %)
Received 7227392 bytes (70 %)
Received 8260608 bytes (80 %)
Received 9292800 bytes (90 %)
Received 10324511 bytes (100 %)
.. Download complete.
No package signature verification done.

Running setup.sh script to upgrade Webmin .. Please wait a minute until it is complete before continuing.

Other available options

From local file
From uploaded file
From ftp or http URL

Installing Webmin from latest .deb package

You can download latest .deb from here

#wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin_1.290.deb

#dpkg --install webmin_1.290_all.deb

the install will be done automatically to /usr/share/webmin, the administration username set to root and the password to your current root password. You should now be able to login to Webmin at the URL http://localhost:10000/

Installing Webmin in Ubuntu

You can use the above procedure but if you want to install latest version you can download from webmin site download section

Prerequisites

Perl 5 interpreter and libnet-ssleay-perl

#apt-get install perl5 libnet-ssleay-perl

Now you need to download the latest webmin from the above downloadlink

Download ‘webmin-1.290.tar.gz’ (at the time of writing) to some location in your machine ex:- /usr/local/src

#wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin-1.290.tar.gz

#cd /usr/local/src

#tar xzvf webmin-1.290.tar.gz

#cd webmin-1.290

#sh setup.sh

This will start the installation and now it will prompt for several questions answer them as follows

Config file directory [/etc/webmin]:
Leave as default, or change as you wish

Log file directory [/var/webmin]:
Leave as default, or change as you wish

Full path to perl (default /usr/bin/perl):
Leave as default, or change as you wish

Operating system:
Enter ‘6’

Version:
Enter ‘6’

Web server port (default 10000):

This is where you can start to make webmin more secure then the standard install you get with apt-get, Synaptic, or RPM. Leave as default or change it to what ever port you want.

Login name (default admin):

It is ‘admin’, so you can leave it as that, or put in any name that you like.

Login password:

By creating the user above and giving it a password, you have now made it so you will not need to log into webmin with root.

Password again:

enter your password again

If you did not install ‘libnet-ssleay-perl’ you will get the following message:

‘The Perl SSLeay library is not installed. SSL not available.’ You can continue with the install, but it would be more secure if you install sslrelay.

Use SSL (y/n):y

Choose yes here

Start Webmin at boot time (y/n):y

select here y

At this point it is going to configure things, install things, and create things…

It will then tell you that you can log in to https://hostname:10000 and to accept the certificate.

Webmin User Password Change

If you want to change root password in webmin use this included Perl script:

# /usr/share/webmin/changepass.pl /etc/webmin root

If you want to install any standard modules you can download from here

If you want to install third party modules you can download from here

Sponsored Link

22 thoughts on “Webmin Installation and Configuration in Debian and Ubuntu Linux

  1. Very concise and helpful, especially now webmin no longer appears to be in the Ubuntu repositories!!! Thanks guys

  2. Do you, per chance, have an updated command for installing Webmin in Debian.

    apt-get install webmin webmin-core

    Doesn’t seem to be valid command anymore.

  3. try to run the following commands

    apt-get update

    apt-cache search webmin

    this should give all webmin related packages

  4. my system responsed as below:

    root@server1:/etc/postfix/ssl# apt-get install webmin webmin-core
    Reading package lists… Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information… Done
    Package webmin is not available, but is referred to by another package.
    This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
    is only available from another source
    E: Package webmin has no installation candidate

    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

    any other way to install this ?

  5. I switched to Ubuntu 6.10 server sparc edition and did some research to install Webmin. Maybe some of this info may be of some use to you.
    Webmin install

    What is Webmin?
    Webmin is an excellent web-based interface to your *nix based machines(www.webmin.com). There are no webmin packages in the latest release “Dapper”. This is how I installed webmin on my Dapper server…
    Edit Jul 15 2006: as of July 2006 webmin.com has a testing deb for the full webmin package. You can use this, but you will have to enable the root user. Following the instructions below will avoid enabling the root account.

    1. Install SSH
    Code:
    sudo apt-get install ssh openssh-server
    2. Enable the universe and multiverse repositories in the /etc/apt/sources.list (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AddingRepositoriesCliHowto)

    3. To make this easier use a ssh client like Putty(Win32) or a Term on another machine that has a GUI and copy/paste these commands or you can just re-type them…

    Below is the source I just happened to use. If it is not working go to: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/w…n-1.300.tar.gz and find a working mirror.

    Where to install Webmin?
    At this point you should note that the directory that you are currently in will be the directory that webmin gets installed into. I don’t mind it being in /home/MyAdminAccount/webmin, but if you want it somewhere else now is the time to change to that directory.

    Doing something like this would put your installation in /opt/webmin
    Code:
    sudo su
    Code:
    mkdir /opt/webmin
    and then
    Code:
    cd /opt/webmin
    Now Download the Webmin archive…
    Code:
    wget http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/webadmin/webmin-1.310.tar.gz
    Code:
    gzip -cd webmin-1.310.tar.gz | tar xvf –
    Code:
    sudo apt-get install libauthen-pam-perl libnet-ssleay-perl libpam-runtime openssl perl perl-modules
    If having problems on Edgy server sparc for libauthen-pam-perl then do
    Code
    #apt-get install libnet-ssleay-perl

    Code:
    cd webmin*
    Code:
    ./setup.sh
    Basically just hit enter and choose SSL and the auto start the service at boot
    Web server port (default 10000): (Feel Free to change this)
    Login name (default admin):
    Login password: AReallyGoodONE
    Password again: AReallyGoodONE
    Use SSL (y/n): y
    Start Webmin at boot time (y/n): y

    Now you can login with the user/password that you set at the https://IpAddressOfYourMachine:10000
    ________________________________________

  6. Thanks for this post, Richard. This was exactly what I needed to get my Webmin going. The standard “apt-get” command didn’t install of the components that make webmin very useful, and I was worried there for a bit, until I saw your post, and not realizing that it would install the same way as if the box were a readhat, I was thinking I was limited to the apt installer (can you tell I’m new to Linux?!?!). This post cleared all of that up, and now I can see my servers tab, and can get my web server going.

    THanks!

  7. Nice how-to, but the line
    #dpkg –install webmin_1.290_all.deb

    should read:
    #dpkg –-install webmin_1.290.deb

  8. But it needs some packages:
    apt-get install libnet-ssleay-perl openssl libauthen-pam-perl libio-pty-perl libmd5-perl
    apt-get install webmin

    And I changed default password for root user
    /usr/share/webmin/changepass.pl /etc/webmin root my password

    Thanks for your efforts

  9. If you like to install and update Webmin via APT, edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file on your system and add the line :

    deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib

    You should also fetch and install this GPG key with which the repository is signed, with the commands :

    cd /root
    wget http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc
    apt-key add jcameron-key.asc

    You will now be able to install with the commands :

    apt-get update
    apt-get install webmin

    All dependencies should be resolved automatically.

  10. As a systems administrator, I’m configuring for change passwd plugs in Linux.
    Someone send me the following installation and configuration for change
    passwd plugs in Linux. Please assist me so that users can be able to
    change their passwd. I have gone through as below. I’m using fedora 6 with
    thier coresonding versions of passwd and compatibility shown (1) and (4).

    Installing Change Passwd Plugin
    ===============================
    Download two plugin change_passwd and compatibility
    1) Start with untaring the file into the plugins directory.
    Here is a example for the 4.0 version of the change_passwd
    plugin. (or any current version from download)

    $ cd plugins
    $ tar -zxvf change_passwd-4.0-1.2.8.tar.gz

    2) Change into the change_passwd directory, copy config.php.sample
    to config.php and edit config.php, making adjustments as
    you deem necessary.

    $ cd change_passwd
    $ cp config.php.sample config.php
    $ vi config.php
    The below is the edited file for config.php

    <?php

    global $confirmPass, $oldPass, $seeOutput, $pathToChpasswd,
    $pathToPw, $debug, $minimumPasswordLength;

    // Set this to the minimum length of passwords you want
    // to enforce. Set to zero to disable this check
    //
    $minimumPasswordLength = 8;

    // Set this to 1 if you want the user to have to enter
    // their new password twice. Set to zero otherwise,
    // but why would you do that?
    //
    $confirmNewPass = 1;

    // Set this to 1 to require the user to enter thier current
    // password in order to change it (FreeBSD (‘pw’ utility)
    // users typically set this to zero; others can (and should!)
    // leave this as is.
    //
    $confirmOldPass = 0;
    //$confirmOldPass = 0;

    // Please include the full path (not relative) to the chpasswd program //
    ONLY if you are NOT using the one included with this plugin!
    //
    $overridePathToChpasswd = ”;

    // Use this setting only if you want to use the pw program to change //
    your password (available on e.g. FreeBSD). Include full path
    // (not relative) to the pw program. This will override the chpasswd //
    program, so leave it empty if you are using chpasswd.
    //
    $pathToPw = ”;

    // If you want see the output of the chpasswd program (usually
    // only useful for debugging purposes, set this to 1
    //
    $seeOutput = 0;

    // For debugging only, set this variable to 1. WARNING: this will

    3) Make sure the file permissions on the chpasswd file are
    correct (unless you’ll be using the ‘pw’ utility on
    FreeBSD). Substitue the name of the user that your web
    server runs under for “apache” in the command below:

    $ chown root:apache chpasswd
    $ chmod 4750 chpasswd

    4) Also, please verify that you have the “compatibility” plugin
    installed.
    plugin]# tar xfvz compatibility-2.0.9-1.0.tar.gz

    5)Go to the squirrelmail configuration and make sure the change passwd and
    compatibility plugins are selected , save and quit

    Then restart httpd service
    The step 5 could not understand and therefore I could not complete. Please assist me.

  11. I installed webmin on debian lenny (5.03) and I’m unable to connect to https (/etc/webmin/miniserv.conf ssl=1)!
    In http I have no problem (/etc/webmin/miniserv.conf ssl=0)!

    Have you any idea?

    apt-get install perl5 libnet-ssleay-perl
    apt-get install webmin
    (depository deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib)

  12. hi,
    I found its…..

    debian:/home/anupam/Desktop/webmin-1.290# sh setup.sh
    ***********************************************************************
    * Welcome to the Webmin setup script, version 1.290 *
    ***********************************************************************
    Webmin is a web-based interface that allows Unix-like operating
    systems and common Unix services to be easily administered.

    Installing Webmin in /home/bidyut/Desktop/webmin-1.290 …

    ***********************************************************************
    Webmin uses separate directories for configuration files and log files.
    Unless you want to run multiple versions of Webmin at the same time
    you can just accept the defaults.

    Config file directory [/etc/webmin]:
    Log file directory [/var/webmin]:

    ***********************************************************************
    Webmin is written entirely in Perl. Please enter the full path to the
    Perl 5 interpreter on your system.

    Full path to perl (default /usr/bin/perl):

    Testing Perl …
    Perl seems to be installed ok

    ***********************************************************************
    Operating system name: Debian Linux
    Operating system version: 5.0

    ***********************************************************************
    Webmin uses its own password protected web server to provide access
    to the administration programs. The setup script needs to know :
    – What port to run the web server on. There must not be another
    web server already using this port.
    – The login name required to access the web server.
    – The password required to access the web server.
    – If the webserver should use SSL (if your system supports it).
    – Whether to start webmin at boot time.

    Web server port (default 10000): 3128
    ERROR: TCP port 3128 is already in use by another program

    debian:/home/bidyut/Desktop/webmin-1.290# sh setup.sh
    ***********************************************************************
    * Welcome to the Webmin setup script, version 1.290 *
    ***********************************************************************
    Webmin is a web-based interface that allows Unix-like operating
    systems and common Unix services to be easily administered.

    Installing Webmin in /home/bidyut/Desktop/webmin-1.290 …

    ***********************************************************************
    Webmin uses separate directories for configuration files and log files.
    Unless you want to run multiple versions of Webmin at the same time
    you can just accept the defaults.

    Config file directory [/etc/webmin]:
    Log file directory [/var/webmin]:

    ***********************************************************************
    Webmin is written entirely in Perl. Please enter the full path to the
    Perl 5 interpreter on your system.

    Full path to perl (default /usr/bin/perl):

    Testing Perl …
    Perl seems to be installed ok

    ***********************************************************************
    Operating system name: Debian Linux
    Operating system version: 5.0

    ***********************************************************************
    Webmin uses its own password protected web server to provide access
    to the administration programs. The setup script needs to know :
    – What port to run the web server on. There must not be another
    web server already using this port.
    – The login name required to access the web server.
    – The password required to access the web server.
    – If the webserver should use SSL (if your system supports it).
    – Whether to start webmin at boot time.

    Web server port (default 10000):
    Login name (default admin): anupam
    Login password:
    Password again:
    Use SSL (y/n): y
    Start Webmin at boot time (y/n): y
    ***********************************************************************
    Creating web server config files..
    ..done

    Creating access control file..
    ..done

    Inserting path to perl into scripts..
    ..done

    Creating start and stop scripts..
    ..done

    Copying config files..
    acl adsl-client apache at backup-config bandwidth bind8 bsdexports burner cfengine change-user cluster-copy cluster-cron cluster-passwd cluster-shell cluster-software cluster-useradmin cluster-usermin cluster-webmin cpan cron custom dfsadmin dhcpd dnsadmin dovecot exports fdisk fetchmail file firewall format frox fsdump grub heartbeat hpuxexports htaccess-htpasswd idmapd inetd init inittab ipfilter ipfw ipsec jabber krb5 ldap-client ldap-useradmin lilo logrotate lpadmin lvm mailboxes mailcap majordomo man mon mount mysql net nis openslp pam pap passwd postfix postgresql ppp-client pptp-client pptp-server procmail proc proftpd pserver qmailadmin quota raid rbac samba sarg sendmail sentry servers sgiexports shell shorewall smart-status smf software spam squid sshd status stunnel syslog syslog-ng telnet time tunnel updown useradmin usermin vgetty webalizer webminlog webmin wuftpd xinetd zones
    ..done

    Configuring Webmin to start at boot time..
    Created init script /etc/init.d/webmin
    ..done

    Creating uninstall script /etc/webmin/uninstall.sh ..
    ..done

    Changing ownership and permissions ..
    Chowning /etc/webmin/acl
    Chowning /etc/webmin/adsl-client
    Chowning /etc/webmin/apache
    Chowning /etc/webmin/at
    Chowning /etc/webmin/backup-config
    Chowning /etc/webmin/bandwidth
    Chowning /etc/webmin/bind8
    Chowning /etc/webmin/bsdexports
    Chowning /etc/webmin/burner
    Chowning /etc/webmin/cfengine
    Chowning /etc/webmin/change-user
    Chowning /etc/webmin/cluster-copy
    Chowning /etc/webmin/cluster-cron
    Chowning /etc/webmin/cluster-passwd
    Chowning /etc/webmin/cluster-shell
    Chowning /etc/webmin/cluster-software
    Chowning /etc/webmin/cluster-useradmin
    Chowning /etc/webmin/cluster-usermin
    Chowning /etc/webmin/cluster-webmin
    Chowning /etc/webmin/cpan
    Chowning /etc/webmin/cron
    Chowning /etc/webmin/custom
    Chowning /etc/webmin/dfsadmin
    Chowning /etc/webmin/dhcpd
    Chowning /etc/webmin/dnsadmin
    Chowning /etc/webmin/dovecot
    Chowning /etc/webmin/exports
    Chowning /etc/webmin/fdisk
    Chowning /etc/webmin/fetchmail
    Chowning /etc/webmin/file
    Chowning /etc/webmin/firewall
    Chowning /etc/webmin/format
    Chowning /etc/webmin/frox
    Chowning /etc/webmin/fsdump
    Chowning /etc/webmin/grub
    Chowning /etc/webmin/heartbeat
    Chowning /etc/webmin/hpuxexports
    Chowning /etc/webmin/htaccess-htpasswd
    Chowning /etc/webmin/idmapd
    Chowning /etc/webmin/inetd
    Chowning /etc/webmin/init
    Chowning /etc/webmin/inittab
    Chowning /etc/webmin/ipfilter
    Chowning /etc/webmin/ipfw
    Chowning /etc/webmin/ipsec
    Chowning /etc/webmin/jabber
    Chowning /etc/webmin/krb5
    Chowning /etc/webmin/ldap-client
    Chowning /etc/webmin/ldap-useradmin
    Chowning /etc/webmin/lilo
    Chowning /etc/webmin/logrotate
    Chowning /etc/webmin/lpadmin
    Chowning /etc/webmin/lvm
    Chowning /etc/webmin/mailboxes
    Chowning /etc/webmin/mailcap
    Chowning /etc/webmin/majordomo
    Chowning /etc/webmin/man
    Chowning /etc/webmin/mon
    Chowning /etc/webmin/mount
    Chowning /etc/webmin/mysql
    Chowning /etc/webmin/net
    Chowning /etc/webmin/nis
    Chowning /etc/webmin/openslp
    Chowning /etc/webmin/pam
    Chowning /etc/webmin/pap
    Chowning /etc/webmin/passwd
    Chowning /etc/webmin/postfix
    Chowning /etc/webmin/postgresql
    Chowning /etc/webmin/ppp-client
    Chowning /etc/webmin/pptp-client
    Chowning /etc/webmin/pptp-server
    Chowning /etc/webmin/procmail
    Chowning /etc/webmin/proc
    Chowning /etc/webmin/proftpd
    Chowning /etc/webmin/pserver
    Chowning /etc/webmin/qmailadmin
    Chowning /etc/webmin/quota
    Chowning /etc/webmin/raid
    Chowning /etc/webmin/rbac
    Chowning /etc/webmin/samba
    Chowning /etc/webmin/sarg
    Chowning /etc/webmin/sendmail
    Chowning /etc/webmin/sentry
    Chowning /etc/webmin/servers
    Chowning /etc/webmin/sgiexports
    Chowning /etc/webmin/shell
    Chowning /etc/webmin/shorewall
    Chowning /etc/webmin/smart-status
    Chowning /etc/webmin/smf
    Chowning /etc/webmin/software
    Chowning /etc/webmin/spam
    Chowning /etc/webmin/squid
    Chowning /etc/webmin/sshd
    Chowning /etc/webmin/status
    Chowning /etc/webmin/stunnel
    Chowning /etc/webmin/syslog
    Chowning /etc/webmin/syslog-ng
    Chowning /etc/webmin/telnet
    Chowning /etc/webmin/time
    Chowning /etc/webmin/tunnel
    Chowning /etc/webmin/updown
    Chowning /etc/webmin/useradmin
    Chowning /etc/webmin/usermin
    Chowning /etc/webmin/vgetty
    Chowning /etc/webmin/webalizer
    Chowning /etc/webmin/webminlog
    Chowning /etc/webmin/webmin
    Chowning /etc/webmin/wuftpd
    Chowning /etc/webmin/xinetd
    Chowning /etc/webmin/zones
    ..done

    Running postinstall scripts ..
    ..done

    Attempting to start Webmin mini web server..
    Starting Webmin server in /home/bidyut/Desktop/webmin-1.290
    ..done

    ***********************************************************************
    Webmin has been installed and started successfully. Use your web
    browser to go to

    https://debian:10000/

    and login with the name and password you entered previously.

    Because Webmin uses SSL for encryption only, the certificate
    it uses is not signed by one of the recognized CAs such as
    Verisign. When you first connect to the Webmin server, your
    browser will ask you if you want to accept the certificate
    presented, as it does not recognize the CA. Say yes.

    then type
    https://localhost:10000/

    may be u can get some another page ofending SSL but try to debug it.

  13. I am totally new to everything LINUX, SERVERS, everything. My knowlegde is less than kindergarden.
    I was very lucky to find this site. Excellent, just excellent.
    i installed webmin in my rented vps in 10 minutes.
    Brilliant authoring.

    Thank you so much

  14. All,

    Installed WebMin ver 1.550 on my Ubuntu Box. Have other good installs, but this one crashed at the MySQL install part, so selected the “proceed anyway” and can pull up WebMin to the login screen in browser, but of course without the MySQL working will not let me login, so how do I re-install just the MySQL portion of WebMin?

    Using MySQL Admin Tool can see the DB and tables are missing and wonder if there is an IMPORTable file to gen DB and structure for this?

    Thanks!

    OMR

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