A shocked dummy

Help! (Home for newbies)
#1

Hi all,

well, I’m not totally dummy, but Virtualmin is going to convince me that I’m a stupid man :frowning:

I’m not a totally computer newbie I easily found my way in any programming language and so on. So I decided to learn how to manage a VPS. Obviously I wouldn’t like to spend money to buy a program just for learning, that can be done later on.

Browsing the net I’ve found Virtualmin and it seemed to me a very interesting program, so I installed it on my Ubuntu 8.04 LTS by install.sh… I wasn’t able to use it! I searched help in the documentation, but there I’ve found more problems… I’m sure I wasn’t able to find the right document, but everything I’ve read was ‘strange’: some documents refer to option that I’m not able to find in my Virtualmin other documents gave me instructions that resulted in other problems and so on…

Well, I decided to uninstall (same script with the --uninstall option) Virtualmin and I installed something easier for a dummy, but it was too easy, too insufficient.
I reinstalled Virtualmin.
It didn’t work any more: “… your system is not ready for use by Virtualmin.” I tried to follow the instruction but without any success. I wasn’t able to use mySql, because it didn’t recognise me and so on.

So I decided to re-uninstall Virtualmin and to uninstall Apache, mySql etc. and to let a new installation of Virtualmin to the work itself.

Surprise!
The new installation was totally different from the first two! Now I don’t have any more at the top of the left frame the options Virtualmin/Webmin and the all menu is different!
And, when trying to get rid of the always present “… your system is not ready for use by Virtualmin.” I click on “Webmin index” on the top of the main (right) frame (or “<- Return to Index”) the left one replicates!

I’m frustrated!

Reading the documentation and the forum I think that Virtualmin is a useful program, so really I would like to understan how to use it.

Can someone help me to exit from this frustrated situation? Is there a “Step by step tutorial for DUMMIES”?

Thank you very much.

#2

I dont think there is such a book.
but in your efforts to install and reinstall several cp’s you may have cludged up the system.

I would advice to download and install http://www.virtualbox.org/ from Sun, create a vps on your desktop, install the OS, preferably a minimal install of centos 5.4, connect to it over ssh and use the install.sh
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS would be fine as well but let virtualmin installer handle the installation of apache, mysql etc.

In fact by using virtualbox you can try out multiple OS’s, without messing up your host OS. And you can take snapshots so whenever it seriously goes wrong, just revert to the last state.

#3

I would advice to download and install http://www.virtualbox.org/ from Sun,

I think I will keep on searching a more manageable cp whose strange behaviours (disappearence of menus etc.) can be easily explained and corrected by the user (if by a dummy :). If I fail I’ll keep on paying the licence of Plesk :frowning:

I have to reveal that this is my first defeat in a long lasting dealing with new programs.

Thank you all for kind attention to my problems and readiness to help me.

Bye,
Nino

#4