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1) Install desktop Environment
2) Install Webmin
1) Install desktop Environment
First you nee to make sure you have enabled Universe and multiverse repositories in /etc/apt/sources.list file once you have enable you need to use the following command to install GUI
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
The above command will install GNOME desktop
If you wan to install a graphical desktop manager without some of the desktop addons like Evolution and OpenOffice, but continue to use the server flavor kernel use the following command
sudo aptitude install
--no-install-recommends ubuntu-desktop
If you want to install light weight desktop install xfce using the following command
sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
If you want to install KDE desktop use the following command
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop
2) Install Webmin in Ubuntu
Webmin is a web-based interface for system administration for Unix. Using any modern web browser, you can setup user accounts, Apache, DNS, file sharing and much more. Webmin removes the need to manually edit Unix configuration files like /etc/passwd, and lets you manage a system from the console or remotely.Currently There is no Webmin package in the Ubuntu repositories.This tutorial will explain how to Install Webmin in Ubuntu Jaunty
You can install webmin for your server web interface to configure apache2,mysql,FTp servers and many more.Now we will see how to install webmin in Ubuntu 9.04
Preparing your system
First you need to install the following packages
sudo aptitude install perl libnet-ssleay-perl openssl libauthen-pam-perl libpam-runtime libio-pty-perl libmd5-perl
Now download the latest webmin using the following command or from here
wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin_1.470_all.deb
Now we have webmin_1.470_all.deb package install this package using the following command
sudo dpkg -i webmin_1.470_all.deb
This will complete the installation.
Using the Webmin APT repository
If you like to install and update Webmin via APT, edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file on your system
sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list
add the line
deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib
Save and exit the file
You should also fetch and install my GPG key with which the repository is signed, with the commands : cd /root
wget http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc
sudo apt-key add jcameron-key.asc
You will now be able to install with the commands
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install webmin
All dependencies should be resolved automatically.
Ubuntu in particular don’t allow logins by the root user by default. However, the user created at system installation time can use sudo to switch to root. Webmin will allow any user who has this sudo capability to login with full root privileges.
Now you need to open your web browser and enter the following
https://your-server-ip:10000/
Now you should see similar to the following Screen
After login if you want to configure Apache,Mysql server you need to click on Servers on your lefthand side you should many servers are ready to configure
This is very Easy to configure most of the servers and Enjoy your new Ubuntu Jaunty LAMP Server.
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list … lol “gedit”
with nogui ?
sudo (vi, nano…etc) /etc/apt/sources.list
Webmin has been abandoned since 2007, iirc. Have you tried eBox?
Webmin is not abandoned and is still being actively developed. (See http://webmin.com/ for details.) I use it for DNS & DHCP management all the time.
That is good news! I had given up on it after seeing https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WebMin and couple of mailing list emails. The first of the emails indicated that the primary developer was trying to get someone to take over the project. The second set of emails indicated that the primary developer had not been able to get any help.
Who cares, I guess. It’s being updated, which is what is important.
Very helpful post. I tried to do this with apttitude (<- sp & context?) during the Ubuntu Server install process several times over the weekend and did not have much success. Too bad I didn’t read this article on Friday.
Because I like doing things the right way from the start, how would one go about doing this during Ubuntu Server install instead of after the server is installed?
Thanks again,
Deech
if you want to install the ubuntu gui in ubuntu server 9.04 without useless apps, you have to use
“sudo aptitude install
no-install-recommends ubuntu-desktop”
and not the apt-get install command
Thanks heaps, finding this post was such a relief!
Hi, Good article. I tried to install with option
--no-install-recommends and this option is obsoleted and replaced by--without-recommendsWeak. Why would I want to install a GUI that requires more RAM, CPU usage, dedicated monitor & keyboard (plus associated power consumption)… or am I expected to RDP/VNC into it?
Just install Webmin & get a Ubuntu Server book. SSH into the server to admin it. You’ll still have a nice, “point-and-clicky” fall back.
OP could’ve mentioned /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ usage.
“sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/webmin.list” & paste the following:
---
# /etc/apt/sources.list.d/webmin.list
# wget -q http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc -O - | sudo apt-key add - && sudo apt-get update
# Webmin packages
deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib
---
Hi people:
Hope my earlier posting got through. If it did, this one’s the same !!
I’m a rookie to this website. Did everything you said to all the way to the last step sudo apt-get install webmin . Two problems: (1) COULD NOT launch/view the secure website https://iytherapy.no-ip.org:10000 on Firefox UNTIL I created an exception for a “missing” certificate (edit/preferences/advanced/encryption/view certificates). I thought wget http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc (got to add sudo before the wget) followed by sudo apt-key add jcameron-key.asc should have taken care of the certificate problem.
(2) No able to remote access this secured site from another desktop.
Any suggestions ?
Thanks people
Why bother with this and still have problems like Ram Sainath mentioned earlier with certificates, etc.
My recommendation, install already pre-build system that is already setup by experts. One was already mentioned earlier ebox. So take a look at servers that have web based user interfaces, but no GUI, so no security risks and no system slowdown. Here are some I have found:
http://ebox-platform.com/ - Ubuntu Based
http://www.clearfoundation.com/ - CentOs Based
http://www.blueonyx.it/ - CentOs Based
http://www.contribs.org/ - CentOs Based
If anybody knows of any additional server distros that have web based control pre-installed, but no GUI, I would be interested to see them here.
I ran
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
on Ubuntu 9.04. It updated a whopping 200+ packages! Too bad I didn’t read Dan Hansen’s comment.
Nevertheless when I give the command
/etc/init.d/gdm start
I get the message
bash: /etc/init.d/gdm: No such file or directory
Best regards
Sridhar
Thanks!
Worked like a charm!
Thanks! Good article for those of us who are new to Linux and want to learn by playing around with their home Linux box.
The updated link for the WGET command is http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/webadmin/webmin/1.500/webmin_1.500_all.deb
Installing a pre-build by experts is a good idea for production but, for learning purposes, doing everything yourself and encountering problems and obstacles is a great way to learn.
Jim
“In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice”
hi all
how can install ubuntu server in gui mode please guide me
heads up
The updated link for the WGET command is http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/webadmin/webmin/1.500/webmin_1.510_all.deb
Hey, thanks for this article, it just saved my life! I have no intention of running a server, i simply downloaded the wrong version of ubuntu and didn’t realise until after install. Problem is I have no CD drive so changing is no simple matter and I need a GUI to get unetbootin working, i had no idea what package i needed to install lol cheers
this article is not as useless as some posts indicate!
P.S. Devendra, I don’t think its possible to install the server in GUI mode, servers are designed to work without GUI so they are faster, this article is simply to help people who are less experienced, there is a link at the top that takes you through the install though. as one of the other comments suggest though anyone who needs a GUI on a server doesn’t have enough experience to run it properly and should probably learn more first otherwise it may be rather insecure.
Erm, servers can run with GUI and they aren’t much slower, the rendering of drawing do take some processing but it’s more convenient then firing up ssh and type commands.
a server with a gui is just a prerequisite for freenx or other remoting tool that will absolutely kill the upstream speed of the server, unless you are just managing a box within the domain. If you use ssh to view an idle server with a gui, you can see that on any box with a post 2000 cpu gdm/xdm barely uses any cpu slice and memory. So go ahead, just don’t fool yourself and think that you can use a gui to manage the server from more than a few local hops.