Webmin Installation and Configuration in Ubuntu Linux

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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 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

sudo apt-get install perl5 libnet-ssleay-perl

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

Download ‘webmin-1.310.tar.gz' (at the time of writing) to some location in your machine ex:- /usr/local/src

wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin-1.310.tar.gz

cd /usr/local/src

sudo tar xzvf webmin-1.310.tar.gz

cd webmin-1.310

sudo 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://hostipaddress:10000 and to accept the certificate.

Webmin User Password Change

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

sudo /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

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22 Responses

  1. David says:

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

    And what other way would that be?

  2. sho0reek says:

    Thanks from Russia =)

  3. Bartek Zak says:

    Thanks for the instructions. The install procedure went smoothly and without problems.

  4. Fermulator says:

    Webmin now provides packages for numerous distributions. http://www.webmin.com/download.html

    Specifically for ubuntu, the deb package is available.

    Perhaps updating this howto would be beneficial?

  5. TizzyD says:

    There’s a APT source available:


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

    It says “Sarge”, but just add this line in and you can do it completely via apt-get. Works like a charm on Hardy.

  6. aye says:

    thank you for tutorial

  7. zeane says:

    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.

  8. anon says:

    It’s better practice to not put this in the sources.list file; rather, put it in it’s own file under the sources.list.d directory. I have a file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/webmin.list on my server, containing the following:

    # Webmin packages
    deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib

    This means that when I want to do a distribution upgrade, I’m not having to do bespoke rules to keep webmin at sarge.

    You can also (more elegantly 🙂 ) install the key in this manner:

    wget -q http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc -O – | sudo apt-key add – && sudo apt-get update

  9. Krunal Patel says:

    Actually when I write in browser that
    http://ubuntu:10000/
    to open webmin it don’t works…. so please tell how to start webmin
    I have installed already… but how to start from Browser.??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

  10. admin says:

    try to use your machine ip address for example your ip is 192.168.1.3

    https://192.168.1.3:10000

  11. al says:

    having just setup a ubunto server with LAMP – and checked my connection via ping and telnet, i am unable to make success of this guide.
    ( cant remember – but lamp includes perl? yes i think so! or .. )

    1. used the first line as listed at webmin.com /download with wget – got error 404 not found

    2. tried using debian specific line with webmin_1.
    490_all.deb – got message Unsupported scheme.

    could someone plz update this article / suggest how a novice like me can get webmin downloaded and installed.

    thank.

  12. noory says:

    thank you for tutorial

  13. Eric P says:

    Dude, you rock!

    Couple of changes that I needed to make:

    download/use latest version 1.510
    wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin-1.510.tar.gz

    This didn’t work:
    cd /usr/local/src
    sudo tar xzvf webmin-1.510.tar.gz

    File was downloaded to a diff location:
    find / -name webmin-1.510.tar.gz
    Result: /home/ubuntu/webmin-1.510.tar.gz

    Revised to the following:
    cd /home/ubuntu
    sudo tar xzvf webmin-1.510.tar.gz
    cd webmin-1.510
    sudo sh setup.sh

    WORKED !!!

    Followed the balance of the instructions.

    I honestly didn’t think installing Webmin could be that easy.

  14. Rara says:

    Thanks for Installing Webmin in Ubuntu tutorial, i have been use webmin in my vps.

  15. Daniel K says:

    Thanks Eric P for the updated instructions/location of downloaded package!!
    Thanks for original instructional post.

  16. Brad Thomas says:

    Like Eric P says, I had to change just one command:

    sudo tar xzvf webmin-1.310.tar.gz

    to

    sudo tar xzvf $HOME/webmin-1.310.tar.gz

    I downloaded it to a different location as well – my $HOME folder.

    After that, everything worked perfectly.

    Thanks for helping me get Webmin installed on Ubuntu Server 10.10

    Now, all I have to do is to upgrade it! 🙂

  17. Steven Bloomfield says:

    Try this instead:

    wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/webadmin/files/webmin/1.530/webmin_1.530_all.deb

    sudo dpkg -i webmin_1.530_all.deb

    I ran this on Ubuntu Server 10.10 fresh install

  18. Cyber says:

    Solid instruction.

  19. taurai chipanera says:

    excellent tutorial very helpfull

  20. Frank says:

    What version of ubuntu should i use?

  21. Jimmy says:

    Thanks for the tutorial but it could do with a little freshening up to use the repository so it is in the update stream with the rest of your software managed via apt. To combine a couple of previous responses into one:

    wget -q http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc -O – | sudo apt-key add – && sudo apt-add-repository ‘deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib’ && sudo apt-get update

    should get you all ready then do:

    sudo apt-get install webmin

    And you sould be good to go. The tutorial could do with this being in there as the simplest option.

    Also as a bonus: The server runs on https by default and should stay that way in my opinion but a nice hidden gem of a feature is that if you go into webmin’s settings once you’ve logged in you can turn on a setting to redirect htttp requests to the https version, if you’ve used webmin without this you’ll know how easy it is to forget and have to go back up to the address bar, all the 5 seconds I’ve saved must have given me a day of life back so far 😉

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