Ubuntu Server:Install GUI and Webmin in Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Guide

You should be very careful when using webmin, for different reasons:
– It makes a mess of your config files
– Last time I checked, there was a security flaw in the http server used by webmin
– It should only be accessible, if possible, from the host itself.

Nice series of article though.

I think is better a server without desktop interface..you can login to your webmin interface from another pc in the network anyway I suggest too, as SteveAnon did, LXDE. Is more light and responsive than XFCE.

It must be already in the repository from ubuntu 8.10.. for the previous version here another link
http://ph.ubuntuforums.com/showthread.php?p=5665471

Hey I am curious if the download link doesn’t work how would I go about getting the webmin file? Without a GUI how do you download it from that link? Any help?

Worth noting is the fact that in order to install the dependant packages:

perl libnet-ssleay-perl openssl libauthen-pam-perl libpam-runtime libio-pty-perl libmd5-perl

You will need to have your sources.list file set to include universe:

deb hardy universe

@Gavin

Externally means from outside your office or from another machine

@Gavin

You need to edit the /etc/webmin/miniserv.conf file look for allow=

sudo gedit /etc/webmin/miniserv.conf

Look for the following line

allow = 127.0.0.1

If you want to allow from any ip from your network use the following

allow = 0.0.0.0

save and exit

Now you need to restart using the following command

sudo /etc/init.d/webmin restart

@Gavin

I think your problem is understand the concept of inbound connections to a server and tunneling ports… i’ll try to explain it in a nutshell

Ok – this is the setup i am going to look at for the connection:

Computer—- home-router1(NAT) —— Internet —– home-router2(NAT) —– Server

You want a connection from Computer to server through all these other things. Well – this is not possible like this. First thing to do is to enable port forwarding on home-router2 (the one in front of the Server). In fact, you want to forward port 22. Why 22 ? well, because that is the ssh port which we are going to utilize.
But to be able to test this better, it would make sense to have the ssh server up and running and being able to connect internally. So, firstly, install the openssh-server (You have already installed if not follow this step)
sudo apt-get install openssh-server

once that is up, try to access the server via ssh. once that works internally, try to setup the port forwarding on the router and then try to access the server from the internet (you will need to know your external ip for that – you can find it out at http://www.whatismyip.com). Don’t try from your internal network to access that address – it will not work as most home-routers do not forward internal traffic. You will need to do this from the internet.

Ok… so now you should have an accessable ssh-server from the internet. The next step is to get hostname that always points to your server (as your external ip will most likely change every 24h). Explaning that is a little beyond this, but search google for setting up dyndns.org or no-ip.org in ubuntu or try this http://www.ubuntugeek.com/update-ip-addresses-at-dynamic-dns-services-using-ddclient.html. there is plenty of documentation out there about it. You can use no-ip.org…

Hopefully you have the name now – now the last step – forwarding the port. For that, you connect to the ssh server with port forwarding enabled… in linux the command would be:

ssh [email protected] -L 10000:localhost:10000

This connects to your server (name is myserver.no-ip.org – change this to your real name or your ip) with the username user. The -L bit is the crutial port. It forwards the localport so your server and then connects to the localhost there on port 10000. Setting it up like this, and then logging into the remote machine. Just leave the console after you have logged in and open a browser… and try to connect to localhost:10000 – that should work.

Thanks for that, works great!

Hurm.. i got some query here…
can i use this documentation for xubuntu? =_=

if cannot, do you guys have any other documentation for me to refer…
seem hard to find the right documentation

I have the same question as Svavark –

Now it boots up into GUI always now. Is there a way for it to boot up in bash only?

i think i will try that trick, i hope i will solve my problem too.

Hey.

I came here hoping for a working solution since there seems to be a slight bug with using Webmin, and specifically Virtualmin.

Setup and run Virtualmin, it gives you the following error:

Failed to save enabled features : The Suexec command on your system is configured to only run scripts under /var/www, but the Virtualmin base directory is /home. CGI and PHP scripts run as domain owners will not be executed

It seems that if you install Webmin from their install script (http://www.webmin.com/vinstall.html) you it’ll install successfully, however installing Apache the usual way on Ubuntu installs a version of mod_suexec that doesn’t work with Webmin.

Perhaps it’d be beneficial to let the people know to just install using the install script…then again, the install script states that it’ll only work with specific OS’s only. 8.10 isn’t on there, however 8.04 is.

worked great. everything works like a charm on this old Dell Optiplex

there is life after windows

hello, I’ve got both ubuntu server 9.10CD n 9.10 ubuntu desktop CD too & in my office I can’t use the internet! So I’d like to know if A gui can be installed without an internet connection. 🙂 thanks in advance 🙂

webmin will not accept my normal ubuntu username and password.. how can I log into webmin on ubuntu Lucid Lynx