That’s a different question, needing a new topic. Webmin bundles a tiny ACME client for cases where certbot is not available, which should generally be avoided if you can get certbot (and you can, your OS has a native package). But, if you want to talk about getting a cert with Webmin’s built-in ACME client, open a new topic.
root@astrowin3:~# sudo apt show certbot
Package: certbot
State: not a real package (virtual)
N: Can’t select candidate version from package certbot as it has no candidate
N: There is 1 additional record. Please use the ‘-a’ switch to see it
N: No packages found
THEN:
root@astrowin3:~# sudo apt show certbot -a
Package: certbot
Version: 1.21.0-1build1
Status: deinstall ok config-files
Priority: optional
Section: web
Source: python-certbot
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers
Original-Maintainer: Debian Let’s Encrypt
Config-Version: 1.21.0-1build1
Installed-Size: 63.5 kB
Provides: letsencrypt
Depends: python3-certbot (= 1.21.0-1build1), debconf (>= 0.5) | debconf-2.0, python3:any
Suggests: python-certbot-doc, python3-certbot-apache, python3-certbot-nginx
Replaces: letsencrypt
Homepage: I am limited to only 2 links
Download-Size: unknown
APT-Sources: /var/lib/dpkg/status
Description: automatically configure HTTPS using Let’s Encrypt
The objective of Certbot, Let’s Encrypt, and the ACME (Automated
Certificate Management Environment) protocol is to make it possible
to set up an HTTPS server and have it automatically obtain a
browser-trusted certificate, without any human intervention. This is
accomplished by running a certificate management agent on the web
server.
.
This agent is used to:
.
Automatically prove to the Let’s Encrypt CA that you control the website
Obtain a browser-trusted certificate and set it up on your web server
Keep track of when your certificate is going to expire, and renew it
Help you revoke the certificate if that ever becomes necessary.
.
This package contains the main application, including the standalone
and the manual authenticators.
have you got all the Ubuntu repositories enabled ?
I do not know how to check, nor do I know how to do that if it is required.
On 01/13/2026 1:45 AM, jimr wrote:
a_edwall:
It doesn’t appear to exist any more as a search does not find it.
maybe not in 22.04, which is getting a bit old now, but is there in Ubuntu 24.04,
try using
sudo apt show certbot
I see certbot listed like so: image
have you got all the Ubuntu repositories enabled ?
Later versions of ubuntu apt sources are handled differently so the syntax of the files are totally different but when I get to my pc I’ll paste it here with pleasure
impish is not 22.04. Impish is 21.10, which is EOL. You cannot safely run it on a server on the internet and need to plan an upgrade, preferably to an LTS version of Ubuntu.
It’s usually easiest and safest to spin up a new VM with your new OS, make backups of your data and/or sites (if using Virtualmin, you can usually just use Virtualmin domain and config backups, though you may want to bring across some stuff that Virtualmin doesn’t backup, as well, depending on what you’re doing with the system).
If you’re not using Virtualmin, you’ll need to figure out what you need to migrate across.
You could also do an in-place upgrade using do-release-upgrade, which is riskier and usually takes longer and requires more downtime that a migration to a new system. Still requires a good backup of anything that isn’t provided by the OS, as well, so it’s not like you get out of making good backups either way.
Upgrades aren’t really our area of expertise, so you’ll want to read the Ubuntu docs about upgrading, if you choose an in-place upgrade with do-release-upgrade. I don’t know if you can upgrade from a non-LTS release into an LTS release, but if you can, I would recommend you do so. Running a non-LTS Ubuntu release on a server is bad news.
Thank you for all your thoughts. As I recall, getting my VPS set up was a major pain, what with all my different PHP versions, etc. My two domains on my VPS are more or less development domains and the biggest problem I have at the moment is I can’t get SSL certs for either domain. I say, “Who cares?” I’m not doing any e-commerce or financial stuff, so nuts to that. My server, and Webmin, apparently do not want to access external URL’s. Error messages are returned when I try to do anything with apt-get (Ign:1 and Err:1 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch InRelease
Temporary failure resolving “the package mentioned”) or apt install anything (error: cannot install “certbot”: Post “api{dot}snapcraft{dot}io/v2/snaps/refresh”: dial tcp:
lookup api{dot}snapcraft{dot}io on 127.0.0.53:53: server misbehaving). I cannot find the cause of this, so I am stuck. Apparently no one can help me and googling does not return anything useful. I’m almost ready to just say “Phooey” on it all and make my life simpler by dropping all of it.
I apologize for the rant, but maybe some soul will see this and respond.
UPDATE: I got it to work by doing the following:
echo nameserver 8.8.8.8 | sudo tee /etc/resolv.conf
That version of the file was dated 17 May 2023. It used to work at one time, when I had Plesk as my control panel. I really don’t understand all this, but apparently God had mercy on me.
So now I have certbot installed. Let’s see if I can create an SSL cert.
Debian "Stretch" (version 9) was a major, stable release of the Debian Linux
distribution, initially launched in 2017, known for its stability, security,
and suitability for servers and desktops, but it reached its official End-of-Life
(EOL) in July 2020, with Long Term Support (LTS) ending in June 2022,
meaning it no longer receives security updates and users should upgrade to newer
versions like Debian 12 (Bookworm) or Debian 13 (Trixie).
sury does not support EOL distros and the repository you are looking for is no longer available.
The best thing you can do is to
back up your domains via the virtualmin backup feature
save the backups to your home pc or something like dropbox, s3 etc and not your vps
reprovision your vps with an OS of your choice e.g Ubuntu, Debian, Rocky or Alma making sure you opt for an LTS variant
follow This guide to install multiple php versions if you need to
restore your domains from the backups you made earlier using the virtualmin restore feature
if you follow this you will end up with a functioning virtualmin install on a modern OS with everything setup correctly, that said there maybe a few things to tweek with your domains as you are comming from an older OS
I’m not sure if it is worth following and doing or not.
I do see in my Webmin dashboard that it tells me I currently have “Ubuntu Linux 22.04.5”. I can’t say why a “sudo apt-get update” includes all those ‘sury’ references and the ‘stretch’ references and the ‘impish’ references. There’s so much I don’t know.
The youtube link is how to upgrade a desktop and not a server. Vps (servers) are different to desktops and following my previous post is the best way forward unless you are running on a home pc and not a vps. Vps is normally in a remote location and you use the suppliers interface to reprovision the vps and some form of shell to configure it being either ssh or in an other form that the vps supplier has.
