Devuan support?

Webmin
1
SYSTEM INFORMATION
OS type and version Devuan daedalus
Webmin version 2.105

I was wondering what the official position was with respect to Webmin’s support of Devuan

I’ve been using Webmin on and off with Devuan over the past few years, and by and large, it works pretty well out of the box

One small suggestion/fix would be for Webmin to identity Devuan correctly. At this time, Webmin identifies Devuan daedalus as “Debian Linux 12.0”, which is strictly incorrect, of course, even though Devuan daedalus is based on Debian 12

I suspect that Webmin looks for the file /etc/debian_version, which Devuan has, and in the case of Devuan daedalus, the content of this file is

12.0

But Devuan also has the file /etc/devuan_version, which Debian lacks, and the content of this file on Devuan daedalus is

daedalus

So the suggestion/fix would be for Webmin to look for the file /etc/devuan_version before it looks for the file /etc/debian_version, and if the former file is present, then the OS is Devuan and there’s no need to look for the latter file. (Something like this)

2

Another suggestion/fix would concern Devuan’s not having systemctl, for which it has service instead

I mention this because the presence of MariaDB wasn’t recognized by Webmin:

The MariaDB startup script systemctl was not found on your system. Maybe MariaDB is not installed, or your module configuration is incorrect.

Once I went into the configuration of the Webmin module for MariaDB and manually specified service mariadb start for Command to start MariaDB server and service mariadb stop for Command to stop MariaDB server, Webmin recognized the presence of MariaDB

3

But the general issue doesn’t just concern MariaDB

Although the presence of Postfix is recognized by Webmin, it’s still necessary to go into the configuration of the Webmin module for Postfix and to change

  • systemctl start postfix to service postfix start (for Command to start Postfix)
  • systemctl stop postfix to service postfix stop (for Command to stop Postfix)
  • systemctl reload postfix to service postfix reload (for Command to apply Postfix configuration)
4

So every install would have to be checked for this file and ANY file that any other distro has?

“Today, there are over 600 active Linux distros. (Tecmint)”

While I’m not thrilled with the new ways after all the time I spent with the old, not much point bucking the trend.

Sticking with an A supported OS for WM/VM is more likely to give you fewer headaches in the long run. Both from the OS and WM/VM point of view.

5

Well, no, and nor did I suggest this!

The point is more that if there’s a desire to have Webmin support Devuan better – but perhaps there isn’t such a desire – then it would be easy enough to distinguish Devuan from Debian

I think that it would be fairly easy to have Webmin support Devuan better (but I’m speaking as a layperson)

6

Again, I was simply making suggestions in case there’s a desire for Webmin to support Devuan better

The page https://webmin.com/download/ suggests that the deb package can be used on

Ubuntu, Kali, Parrot, Pop!, Lite, Devuan

7

First, apologies. I made the classic mistake. Most posts here are Virtualmin related. Opps.

But, the download page says which systems they test on. I don’t speak for the staff, but a system that hits 34, at best, on the linked chart is kinda hard to make a case for supporting without some community help.

If Devuan has a forum site, I’d gauge interest there on folks willing to pitch in a bit for the sake of the distro. Otherwise, just be willing to accept the fact that you have chosen a niche OS and make the changes you need, as needed.

8

Again, I was simply making suggestions – I wasn’t complaining

And I was simply making suggestions because Devuan is mentioned on the download page

At the same time, it was also clear to me that Devuan (as opposed to Debian) isn’t an officially “supported and tested” system

9

Understood. I’m sure the staff wants to support as much as possible. But, it is a very small staff. I’d venture to say the biggest obstacle is testing. That’s why I asked about a Devuan forum.

10

I understand

For what it’s worth, I’d be willing to help test Webmin on Devuan

As I said at the outset, Webmin works pretty well out of the box on Devuan

(Yes, there’s a Devuan forum)

12

You made the same mistake as me. Webmin standalone. Not Virtualmin. Makes it a whole different discussion.

13

You mentioned Virtualmin twice, but I was talking about Webmin, which is also the category of this thread

My intention wasn’t to start a discussion about systemd vs non-systemd

14

Someone would need to contribute to make it nice.

It’s currently detected as a debian OS (See here: Code search results · GitHub)

But, systemd is a pretty big difference, and it becomes a bigger difference over time. I don’t know anything about Devuan, and I suspect Jamie doesn’t either.

My advice to make it nice would be:

  1. Make a new devuan OS type and add detection for it in the file I linked above.
  2. Copy all the debian config files in every module. Choose the Debian version that most closely matches the version the current version of Devuan branched from.
  3. Fix whatever is wrong in the config files you just created.
  4. Make a PR with all those new files and the patched os_list.txt to the Webmin project on github, so we can review it and get it merged.

It’s probably an afternoon or two of work, not a really huge endeavor.

2 Likes
15

On the one hand, yes, systemd is a pretty big difference, but on the other hand, to the extent that Webmin (and Usermin) don’t themselves depend on systemd, the situation may not be so bad

After all, neither Solaris nor FreeBSD uses systemd either. (That said, the days of Solaris may be numbered at this point in time)

Thanks for this advice – I may find the courage to pursue this at some point! :slightly_smiling_face:

16

I didn’t say it would be bad. Just that the way Webmin interacts with services, detects whether they’re up/down, starts/stops them, how it views/searches logs…probably other stuff. Is different.

Webmin will work with anything, but somebody has to help it understand the system it’s on. Treating it like a Debian system is an imperfect compromise and will probably diverge more with time. If you want it to be nice and stay nice, you’ll have to put in some work (but not a lot).

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Many regulars use the ‘latest’ feature of the forum software and are usually unaware of the category. I’ve gotten better at realizing Webmin specific questions but it isn’t 100%. That’s why I apologized above.

1 Like
18

No worries :slightly_smiling_face:

I also use Virtualmin on a bona fide Debian system :slightly_smiling_face:

But one of the advantages of Webmin/Usermin over other panels is that they can be used on a wider range of systems, which is an advantage worth preserving, I feel :slightly_smiling_face: