Right, great. That’s interesting. It seems safer to use just the install script as the apt system update comes up with all sorts of interesting questions about updating SSH setting file with multiple options, as well as other cases.
hey @Michael_Z_Freeman , normally you would download latest os - install it, log in to it, and do update then upgrade command, perform usual server setup, reboot and then install virtualmin, finish configuration via web ui and then thats it. you would not need to touch on that server install.sh ever again. While you run your operations as normal / usual, you just from time to time run update && upgrade command and sometimes reboot the server - I am lucky that I run on debian so I do reboot only if kernel is updated otherwise I am not bothered - in my case ubuntu - I do not really know as my experience with ubuntu on servers is / was not so great (desktop used to be perfect back in times, server setup never worked for me - im sorry), but I think reboot every kernel updates would not do any harm or at least once a 6 months. I would recommend once you set virtualmin and everything works - delete that downloaded install.sh script from server so you will never run it again, besides that install scripts updates for each release so, if you ever would upgrade your os and in need to reinstall virtualmin freshly on new fresh os install - download it again - but never use that old or new install.sh script to do updates of virtualmin and surely do not use it for os updates - that is just bad.
This is telling you to not run the install script again later to update Virtualmin. That isn’t what it’s for, but we’ve had a lot of people try to do that over the years. It is not an update script. It is an installation script. Use it to install Virtualmin. It happens to update your system packages in the process (if you weren’t already up to date), but that’s not at all what we’re talking about.
Run the install script one time to install Virtualmin. If you ever find yourself running it again to try to fix or update Virtualmin, you’re doing something wrong.
Unnecessary. The install script will update if you didn’t already. We’re trying to make it as few steps as possible, because every extra step multiplies the number of people who have problems or simply don’t even try because it seems too complicated.
perhaps this has been rehashed in other posts several times … but here goes …
with the OP having this issue, should the instructions on various pages (and some of the dialog displayed by the script itself) be updated once again to make things more clear?
or, with no offense to the OP, is this a one-off misunderstanding and the current instructions and installation description is OK the way it is ?
I don’t know. It’s already very wordy. We’re just trying to stop people from thinking it’s anything other than an install script. But, the language in the script itself has gotten a bit weird, so I’ll take a stab at updating it.
don’t lose too much sleep over it. just how often is it used (as a first time user) beyond that day one learning experience? does it really create that much grief?
It would appear that some think that reinstalling is the silver bullet when in reality it’s not. Perhaps virtualmin should add a lock file somewhere so if the install script is rerun and a lock file is present just fail with a message, perhaps saying "virtualmin is installed if it’s not working reach out for help reinstalling does nothing bar perhaps more problems’, then exit the script. It is true that a sysadmin could remove the lock file and allow the script to run, but most wouldn’t do that. It could be also said that the lock file could be just the existence of a directory or a physical file somewhere
No. The install script has detected an existing installation for years, since some time around Virtualmin 6. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but the install script will warn you if you are trying to run it again, and will force you to confirm you really want to do it, even though it is potentially dangerous.
Yes, I know, and we talked about it. And if you remember, we also discussed that some people still run it despite the confirmations. Later, I’ve come up with a better way to block it:
It won’t be that easy anymore, but if someone still wants to do it, they could use the --force-reinstall flag, which they’d still need to get from help:
root@rocky9-pro:~# sh virtualmin-install.sh -h
Usage: virtualmin-install.sh [options]
If called without arguments, installs Virtualmin with default options.
--bundle|-b <LAMP|LEMP> bundle to install (default: LAMP)
--type|-t <full|mini> install type (default: full)
--branch|-B <stable|unstable|prerelease>
install branch (default: stable)
--os-grade|-g <A|B> operating system support grade (default: A)
--module|-o load custom module in post-install phase
--hostname|-n force hostname during install
--no-package-updates|-x skip package updates during install
--setup|-s reconfigure repos without installing
--connect|-C <ipv4|ipv6> test connectivity without installing
--insecure-downloads|-i skip SSL certificate check for downloads
--uninstall|-u remove all packages and dependencies
--force|-f|--yes|-y assume "yes" to all prompts
--force-reinstall|-fr force complete reinstall (not recommended)
--no-banner|-nb suppress installation messages and warnings
--verbose|-v enable verbose mode
--version|-V show installer version
--help|-h show this help
“It does not fit” is weird language, “It is not fit” would be better, but it sounds like it’s saying the installer is broken for doing those things…it’s not a bug that it doesn’t do those things, it’s literally not supposed to do those things.
Better to say, “It is not for updating Virtualmin or making license changes.”
How does it know the installation was successful? (I mean, we can know there has been an installation through a variety of tests, but successful is a pretty high bar. Though I guess if it wasn’t successful running it again is probably not going to do anything good without understanding what broke, in which case, they probably can just run the right virtualmin config-system command(s) to complete the install.)
Thank you, you’re right. It sounded awkward. I have fixed it, though, with slightly different wording, as I want all the letters to fit the width equally.
It’s very simple. If the installation is done using the new installer and completes without errors, we create a file in /etc/webmin/virtual-server/installed-auto and later test against it. No complicated tests.
