# Apache fail and will not start **URL:** \ **Category:** Help! (Home for newbies)\ **Created:** [October 2, 2025, 3:32pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/apache-fail-and-will-not-start/135368 "2025-10-02T15:32:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stegan](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/stegan/32/6860_2.png) [@Stegan](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/Stegan)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 3:32pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/apache-fail-and-will-not-start/135368/1 "2025-10-02T15:32:35Z")
| SYSTEM INFORMATION | | | --- | --- | | OS type and version | Debian Linux 12 | | Usermin version | 2.400 | | Virtualmin version | 7.40.1 | | Theme version | 25.10 | | Apache version | 2.4.65 | | Package updates | All installed packages are up to date | for my sins a new VM for a client An Apache install ☹ - beginning to wish I had stayed well clear normally a LEMP install. 🙂 Created a VS (actually 4) not really thinking there would be a problem. all went well until adding SSL (a classic error) - easily traced back to Apache Server not started (well that was obvious). but why? - attempted to restart - no luck! rather obviously nothing in access or error log. `limits and validation -> apache website` = all features are good systemctl status apache2.service ![apache](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/uploads/default/original/3X/e/0/e010da7ac092798c4e249a3fc2c282ee0fa569c2.png) any other clue where to look? ---
**Author:** ![ID10T](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/id10t/32/7895_2.png) [@ID10T](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/ID10T)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 3:43pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/apache-fail-and-will-not-start/135368/2 "2025-10-02T15:43:55Z")
Ummm… Sounds like this? I’m surprised this fix isn’t pushed out yet. Kind of a big one. > [@Issue fresh install on ubuntu 24.04](http://forum.virtualmin.com/t/issue-fresh-install-on-ubuntu-24-04/134998/21): > > That makes perfect sense. I wasn’t aware that the fix wasn’t released yet. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Stegan](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/stegan/32/6860_2.png) [@Stegan](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/Stegan)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 10:07am UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/apache-fail-and-will-not-start/135368/3 "2025-10-04T10:07:44Z")
yes it does, but now having looked in `/etc/apache2/ports.conf` no repeated ports. following a reboot after disabling all but one VS (_should be easier to trace what is going wrong?_) ![apache](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/uploads/default/original/3X/3/d/3d01e9e6cc7aa89fcd3d87fec902984b9a31b345.png) it looks like it starts but then apache2 still refuses to remain started. it is just a development server atm, so plenty of time to put it right/start over just not impressing client (_there was a reason why i stopped using apache_) ---
**Author:** ![Stegan](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/stegan/32/6860_2.png) [@Stegan](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/Stegan)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 1:25pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/apache-fail-and-will-not-start/135368/4 "2025-10-04T13:25:16Z")
wrong - that didn’t last ☹ back to start ![apache](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/uploads/default/original/3X/5/c/5ce78c9b3fe317780c801fcf5855d552976b0ca6.png) ---
**Author:** ![IvanS](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/ivans/32/3599_2.png) [@IvanS](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/IvanS)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 7:23pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/apache-fail-and-will-not-start/135368/5 "2025-10-04T19:23:36Z")
I have run into this a 2-3 days ago. That was my fix. ---
**Author:** ![stefan1959](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@stefan1959](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/stefan1959)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 11:16pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/apache-fail-and-will-not-start/135368/6 "2025-10-04T23:16:39Z")
Like the out says, check the Apache error log for more info. ---
**Author:** ![Stegan](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/stegan/32/6860_2.png) [@Stegan](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/Stegan)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2025, 8:22am UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/apache-fail-and-will-not-start/135368/7 "2025-10-05T08:22:48Z")
> [@Stegan](#): > > rather obviously nothing in access or error log. sure - that was the first place I looked but rather obviously if the webserver does not start nothing gets written there - which is why I looked at `systemctl status apache2.service` and `journalctl -xeu apache2.service` the apache2.service is killed during bind ??? “unable to open logs” ---
**Author:** ![jimr1](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/jimr1/32/14173_2.png) [@jimr1](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/jimr1)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2025, 8:45am UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/apache-fail-and-will-not-start/135368/8 "2025-10-05T08:45:03Z")
What’s running on port 443 that is stopping apache from starting ? in your screen shot it shows that port 443 is being used by another service or you have too many listen statements in ports.conf, which should only contain ```auto Listen 80 Listen 443 ``` also check that you haven’t added any listen statements to any virtual server config files ---
**Author:** ![Stegan](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/stegan/32/6860_2.png) [@Stegan](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/Stegan)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2025, 10:00am UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/apache-fail-and-will-not-start/135368/9 "2025-10-05T10:00:19Z")
yes ports.conf was checked and was set to just that following @ID10T 's post above (I removed the specific `Listen xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 443` and `Listen [ipv6] 443` ![ports.conf](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/uploads/default/original/3X/d/a/da223b833cf686bf2aee7b967597fcf5bced44b9.png) I also looked in the `/etc/apache2/sites-available/domain.conf` (must say it is full of the usual apache nonsense) but nothing I could make out that could be really odd. **remember this is a new VM all I have done is added Virtualmin and 4 VS and attempted to add (LE) SSL - I have not edited anything - no PHP/NodeJS/not even client’s website** I probably have forgotten more Apache than I ever learned - I am more use with nginx these days 🤷‍♂️ ---
**Author:** ![nicolasmitchell](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/nicolasmitchell/32/3628_2.png) [@nicolasmitchell](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/nicolasmitchell)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 1:26pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/apache-fail-and-will-not-start/135368/10 "2025-10-09T13:26:24Z")
`netstat -nlp | grep 443` ? ---
**Author:** ![Stegan](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/stegan/32/6860_2.png) [@Stegan](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/Stegan)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 2:13pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/apache-fail-and-will-not-start/135368/11 "2025-10-09T14:13:39Z")
![netstat](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/uploads/default/optimized/3X/9/f/9f807ef55da48b9c43dedfe803cd979e347eaac0_2_690x56.png) ---
**Author:** ![nicolasmitchell](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/nicolasmitchell/32/3628_2.png) [@nicolasmitchell](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/nicolasmitchell)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 3:42pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/apache-fail-and-will-not-start/135368/12 "2025-10-09T15:42:41Z")
Doesn’t that show apache running and listening on 443? Sorry to keep editing this post. ---
**Author:** ![nicolasmitchell](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/nicolasmitchell/32/3628_2.png) [@nicolasmitchell](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/nicolasmitchell)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 10:22pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/apache-fail-and-will-not-start/135368/13 "2025-10-09T22:22:15Z")
I can’t reproduce this. | SYSTEM INFORMATION | | | --- | --- | | OS type and version | Debian Linux 12 | | Usermin version | 2.400 | | Virtualmin version | 7.40.1 | | Theme version | 25.10 | | Apache version | 2.4.65 | | Package updates | All installed packages are up to date | Adding a virtual server hasn’t broken apache for me. If you remove the virtual servers you added then run `ls /etc/apache2/sites-enabled` you should see nothing returned. Unless you previously did `a2ensite default-ssl.conf` in which case you’d see `[snip] default-ssl.conf -> ../sites-available/default-ssl.conf` Does apache start under either of these two scenarios for you? ---
**Author:** ![Stegan](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/stegan/32/6860_2.png) [@Stegan](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/Stegan)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2025, 12:25pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/apache-fail-and-will-not-start/135368/14 "2025-10-10T12:25:29Z")
> [@nicolasmitchell](#): > > Sorry to keep editing this post. that is not a problem - just glad of any help 😃 running perhaps - but for how long? yesterday i somehow resolved the sub server error ([Web Options not working](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/web-options-not-working/135411/3)) and then re-booted but that has led to a new error (even worse! - new topic - domain - no login) I’m at the point of giving up. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/uploads/default/original/2X/c/cd96d761e326db4b2bef94886a639109bd7a8e76.svg) [@system](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 12:25pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/apache-fail-and-will-not-start/135368/15 "2025-12-09T12:25:45Z")
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