Is it possible, at time of virtualmin install, to choose something other than the current version?
A new feature in 7.5 removes the "Apache SSL website enabled" checkbox, which I still want. It appears that beginning with an older version of virtualmin and later upgrading preserves this feature.
Currently to install virtualmin I would:
I do not wish to not have SSL Website enabled (except manually). I can disable each one manually by clicking “Configure SSL Website” and checking “No”… but that is extra steps and then the presence of that bullet item does not disclose the presence of an SSL (which I would have to also take extra steps to check).
Basically I want a new virtualmin install to do this the way an old one still does even after having been upgraded.
Only option is disable all together but you probably don’t want that. Maybe a request for it to be a option again. Else staff may have the old scripts.
It’s come up a few times, so it may be that the option needs to come back. But, I want to understand why. The UI is so fucking complicated, I hate that we can’t remove anything without getting a lot of pushback.
Would it help everyone to be given some idea of the planned changes before they are actually implemented?
It is very disconcerting to suddenly find a change has been implemented after a lot of work has been done to implement it. It might seem to be an advance to the development team but not to the users.
That is not quite the same as bug fixes which should always take priority. We don’t need to know a bug is about to be fixed - knowing after the event is reassuring.
I’m sure we could all add to a large wish-list completely unaware of how much each wish would actually cost (we all appreciate that resources are limited.
I’d hate to see Virtualmin progress like Microsoft. With new versions throwing away the good parts as the expense of faddy trendy rubbish that serves no real benefit to its dedicated users.
We still offer SSL as an optional (and premium) add-on for a small number of hosted clients. We have pitched Let’s Encrypt to the decision makers (and we are moving to it in other areas) including mentioning that it takes extra steps to disable it in Virtualmin (which it has for a couple of versions) but while resold “premium” SSLs remain “lucrative” we need to continue opting out.
A deeply buried setting to reenabled the former checkbox would be excellent. I would only need to document that internally once.
As for installing old versions, the installer always gets the latest packages, by design (even old versions of the install script will either not work or will get the latest packages). It’s possible to specify a version in the package manager later, and you can downgrade to any version in our repos, but we don’t keep many older versions in the repos.
We have, in the past, considered adding a maintenance mode set of repos for old distros and old versions of Virtualmin for Pro customers or maybe for a new paid service for anyone. We don’t currently try to make EOL distros work and we don’t try to support users on very old versions of Virtualmin (it’s just too much work for a tiny team, but I know most of the big Linux distros treat the problem as a revenue stream, and maybe we should, too). It’s a lot of work, and I don’t know how much revenue we could expect from it, though, and honestly I feel like the best thing we can do for customers is encourage them to use current operating systems and versions of everything…so, it kinda feels like encouraging risky behavior.
Oh, but the ancient (unmaintained) repo actually does have an older version (7.3 or 7.2, but no 7.4 or 7.5 for some reason, maybe they were buggy, I don’t remember):
Having it create certs was a problem when I moved sites so it’s still turned off for me. I think this is what you want?
System Settings > Virtualmin Configuration > SSL settings
Thank you stefan1959. I overlooked your answer because I only notice that left checkbox. Just unchecking default for Apache SSL website does what I want.