Installing Webmin

Installation of Webmin differs slightly depending on which type of package you choose to install. Note that Webmin requires a relatively recent Perl for any of these installation methods to work. Nearly all, if not all, modern UNIX and UNIX-like OS variants now include Perl as a standard component of the OS, so this should not be an issue.

Installing from a tar.gz

First you must untar and unzip the archive in the directory where you would like Webmin to be installed. The most common location for installation from tarballs is /usr/local. Some sites prefer /opt. If you’re using GNU tar, you can do this all on one command line:

# tar zxvf webmin-0.87.tar.gz 

If you have a less capable version of tar, you must unzip the file first and then untar it:

# gunzip webmin-0.87.tar.gz  # tar xvf webmin-0.87.tar  

Next, you need to change to the directory that was created when you untarred the archive, and execute the setup.sh script, as shown in the following example. The script will ask several questions about your system and your preferences for the installation. Generally, accepting the default values will work. An example installation might look like this:

[root@delilah webmin-1.050]# ./setup.sh  ******************************************************************  * Welcome to the Webmin setup script, version 1.050 *  ******************************************************************  Webmin is a web-based interface that allows Unix-like operating  systems and common Unix services to be easily administered.  Installing Webmin in /usr/local/webmin-1.050 ...  ******************************************************************  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]: /usr/local/etc/webmin  Log file directory [/var/webmin]: /usr/local/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: Redhat Linux  Operating system version: 8.0  ******************************************************************  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): root  Login password:  Password again:  The Perl SSLeay library is not installed. SSL not available.  Start Webmin at boot time (y/n): n  ******************************************************************  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..  ..done  Creating uninstall script /usr/local/etc/webmin/uninstall.sh ..  ..done  Changing ownership and permissions ..  ..done  Running postinstall scripts ..  ..done  Attempting to start Webmin mini web server..  Starting Webmin server in /usr/local/webmin-1.050  ..done  ******************************************************************  Webmin has been installed and started successfully. Use your web  browser to go to  http://delilah.swell:10000/  and login with the name and password you entered previously.  [root@delilah webmin-1.050]# 

Here you can see that I’ve chosen the default in some locations and deviated from the default in others. The most likely changes you may want to make include changing the default installation directories and altering the port on which Webmin will listen. Webmin also politely generates an uninstall.sh script that allows you to easily remove Webmin from your system.

Installing from an RPM

Installing from an RPM is even easier. You only need to run one command:

[root@delilah root]# rpm -Uvh webmin-1.050-1.noarch.rpm 

This will copy all of the Webmin files to the appropriate locations and run the install script with appropriate default values. For example, on my Red Hat system, the Webmin perl files will be installed in /usr/libexec/webmin while the configuration files will end up in /etc/webmin. Webmin will then be started on port 10000. You may log in using root as the login name and your system root password as the password. It's unlikely you will need to change any of these items from the command line, because they can all be modified using Webmin. If you do need to make any changes, you can do so in miniserv.conf in /etc/webmin.

Installing from a pkg

To install on a Solaris machine using the pkg file, the steps are almost as simple as using the RPM. First, unzip the file using gzip and then use pkgadd to install the package:

root# gunzip webmin-1.050.pkg.gz  root# pkgadd -d webmin-1.050.pkg 

This will install Webmin into /usr/opt and run the install script with appropriate-default values.