Minor issue with google-VM Rocky-Linux

edwardsmarkf · May 18, 2021, 6:24pm

minor issue running on google-VM Rocky-Linux:

\# systemctl  start  webmin ;
Job for webmin.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status webmin.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details
\# ps aux | grep -v grep | grep  mini ;
root       37184  0.0  0.5  87132 22224 ?        Ss   14:20   0:00 /usr/bin/perl /usr/libexec/webmin/miniserv.pl /etc/webmin/miniserv.conf
\# ls  -l  /etc/webmin/miniserv.pem
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root bin 974 May 18 13:44 /etc/webmin/miniserv.pem

\chmod  555   /etc/webmin/miniserv.pem
\#
\# /etc/webmin/restart
Stopping Webmin server in /usr/libexec/webmin
Starting Webmin server in /usr/libexec/webmin
Failed to open SSL cert /etc/webmin/miniserv.pem
Failed to create default SSL context at /usr/libexec/webmin/miniserv.pl line 284.
\#
\# ps aux | grep -v grep | grep  mini
root       37259  0.0  0.5  87132 21920 ?        Ss   14:22   0:00 /usr/bin/perl /usr/libexec/webmin/miniserv.pl /etc/webmin/miniserv.conf

i played around with mv /etc/webmin/miniserv.pem /etc/webmin/miniserv.pem-RENAMED; etc but didnt get very far. That actually attempt did get WebMin started, but only using /etc/webmin/start (which still gave errors) and not systemctl start webmin;.

i am happy to experiment with this a bit more if necessary. but i won’t be using google-VM, just thought it might be interesting.

please let me know if you want me to try anything else. in the meantime, i am going to try all this with my primary hosting comany.

Ilia · May 19, 2021, 9:40pm

Hi,

What Webmin version did you try to install exactly? Was it an RPM package or you installed it from source (non-recommended way) using a TAR ball?

Did you run system package upgrades (and perhaps rebooted) your Rocky Linux instance before running any third-party package installations?

edwardsmarkf · May 19, 2021, 10:03pm

hello Ilia -

having done this one too many times, years ago i created an install script:

#!  /bin/bash
#
#   webmin-virtualmin-install.bsh    2020-08-23
#
dnf --assumeyes install wget ;

cat  >  /etc/yum.repos.d/webmin.repo  <<END_OF_REPO;
[Webmin]
name=Webmin Distribution Neutral
#baseurl=https://download.webmin.com/download/yum
mirrorlist=https://download.webmin.com/download/yum/mirrorlist
enabled=1
END_OF_REPO

sudo dnf makecache ;

sudo /sbin/setenforce Permissive ; ## this is a simple workaround but it does not survive reboot! ! !
echo 0  > /selinux/enforce  ;  ## a permanent way to set it after the reboot
sudo /sbin/getenforce ;            ## double-check !!

wget https://download.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc  ;
rpm --import jcameron-key.asc   ;
dnf  --assumeyes  install webmin ;
#
wget http://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/scripts/install.sh ;
chmod --verbose  700   ./install.sh ;
./install.sh ;     ## may have to run this twice

dnf --assumeyes  update ;  ##   double-check

exit;

nothing third party. this was a fresh empty install.

i probably will not be spending any more time with the google-vm but instead will try this with my primary hosting company.

note: my install script for both WebMin & VirtualMin installed fine on RockyLinux-VirtualBox.

toreskev · May 20, 2021, 3:44am

But, why? When you install Virtualmin it also installs Webmin, and AFAIK the Vmin repos have a different version of Webmin than the Webmin repos, at least Joe mentioned something about that in a thread regarding Deb/Ubuntu. You might cause a small conflict there…

edwardsmarkf · May 20, 2021, 5:28am

interesting - honestly i never knew this. probably when i first was using webmin/virtualmin i picked this up from the installation instructions as the time.

i will try doing this again but this time only install the virtualmin, and let virtualmin install webmin.

thanks for sharing.

Joe · May 20, 2021, 8:03am

That’s never been the recommended way to install Virtualmin; since the install script was released in 2006, the recommended process for installing Virtualmin was “run the install script on a freshly installed supported OS”. But, it still somehow comes up all the time. So, to be clear: There is literally no reason to preinstall Webmin. Just follow the instructions on the download page (i.e. run install.sh on a freshly installed supported OS).

Aside from the installation question, I also recommend you use only one repo for Webmin. If you’re using Virtualmin, it should be the Virtualmin repo. We often hold back releases of Webmin when we find bugs that specifically effect Virtualmin during testing. It’s usually harmless, but if you’re using Virtualmin, just let the install script set it all up for you in the way we believe is best. Who knows better than us?

edwardsmarkf · May 20, 2021, 3:40pm

Wow, i have no idea why i thought webmin needed to be preinstalled. No doubt i misread the documentation a decade ago. sorry, my mistake.

my new working (and tested) installation script: (95% shorter)

#! /bin/bash -w
## new installation script written from: Downloading and Installing Virtualmin – Virtualmin
#
dnf --assumeyes install wget ;
wget http://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/scripts/install.sh ;
chmod 700 ./install.sh ;
./install.sh ;

my only other steps (probably yet another mistake on my part) is to do the following: since webmin is probably now running, however it was not started using the systemctl command:

ps -ef | grep webmin | grep perl ; # observe process number
kill ###### ; ## process number from previous step
systemctl enable webmin ;
systemctl start webmin ;
systemctl status webmin ; # optional

i have learned the HARDEST WAY imaginable to let Webmin/Virtualmin install PHP and MariaDB.
Then later upgrade MariaDb to the latest release:

dnf --assumeyes remove mariadb-connector-c-devel ; ## this may be required.
systemctl stop mariadb.service ;
dnf --assumeyes remove mariadb-server ;
curl -LsS https://downloads.mariadb.com/MariaDB/mariadb_repo_setup | sudo bash ;
dnf --assumeyes install MariaDB-server MariaDB-client ;
systemctl start mariadb.service ;
systemctl --no-pager status mariadb.service ;
/bin/mysql -V;

but STAY with whatever PHP version was installed by Webmin per Joe Cooper a year or so ago.

i totally and unequivocally completely agree!

calport · May 20, 2021, 4:29pm

Well, if you can, you should.

But are you saying that with Rocky Linux it is not quite safe to install other versions of PHP by following the official documentation at Multiple PHP Versions – Virtualmin

edwardsmarkf · May 20, 2021, 4:31pm

ah well after what has happened in the past, i now stick with whatever PHP that Webmin likes during the initial installation.

also, its pretty rare that i really truly need to upgrade PHP, except if PHP is just too old (eg: php5). it seems like just having one PHP sure keeps things simpler.

calport · May 20, 2021, 4:34pm

Amen to that

edwardsmarkf · May 20, 2021, 4:53pm

sorry i should also explain that this “experiment” is really just for google-vm. however, i am thrilled to learn the correct way to install. i cannot help but wonder how many mistakes i made over the past decade by not following this simple improvement.

one thing on Google-vm is that i never was able to figure out how to open up port 10000 (or any other ports for that matter), but since google-vm is/was just an experiment, i am not pursuing it any further. WebMin did respond with Telnet ran locally, so i figure that’s good enough for me.

the goal is to run Webmin/Virtualmin on Rocky-Linux hosted by Interserver. i have been with Interserver for years now and have had outstanding support.

drewament · May 24, 2021, 4:13pm

You can do via the GUI in GCloud (VPC Network > Firewall > Create) or use this command in gcloud command line

gcloud compute --project=project-name firewall-rules create allow-vm --direction=INGRESS --priority=1000 --network=default --action=ALLOW --rules=tcp:10000 --source-ranges=0.0.0.0/0

project= << needs to be your project name
source-ranges= << you can open to all 0.0.0.0/0 or just allow certain IPs

KitchM · May 27, 2021, 3:19pm

Stay away from Google like the plague. It is the source of too many problems.

edwardsmarkf · May 27, 2021, 7:21pm

ooooh so NOW he tell me…! actually i was only playing around with google-vm anyways.

currently, i am installing RL on InterServer, and my first package will be VirtualMin/WebMin.

Joe · May 27, 2021, 9:59pm

Google Cloud is fine. It has limitations and costs a fortune, relatively speaking, but it is a perfectly reasonable choice for many deployments.

edwardsmarkf · May 28, 2021, 3:39pm

update: , i installed Virtualmin/Webmin on Rocky-Linux at Interserver, and the installation went flawlessly.

For that matter, i have probably installed Webmin/Virtualmin a dozen times over the past 15 years, and this installation was best/easiest one by a magnitude. this is probably because Ilam and Joe Cooper recommended the correct installation method of installing Virtualmin and allowing the Virtualmin installation to install Webmin, PHP, and MariaDB.

And so far, Rocky-Linux and Webmin/Virtualmin appear to be working perfectly together.

This should be welcome news for the people caught up in the Centos-RedHat-IBM fiasco.

system · June 5, 2021, 3:39pm

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