Upgrading Usermin

SYSTEM INFORMATION
OS type and version Ubuntu 22.04.4
Virtualmin version n/a
Webmin version 2.200
Usermin version 2.004

I’m curious about upgrading Usermin.

In the past I think there used to be a section in Webmin > Usermin Configuration called Upgrade Usermin where you could upload a file or enter a url or choose to upgrade from www.usermin.com
I don’t see the “Upgrade Usermin” module box in the Usermin Configuration area anymore.

So what is the way to upgrade?

I’ve downloaded the .deb of v2.010 and I’ve also thought about using apt.
apt search shows v2.010 but apt upgrade doesn’t upgrade to it.

So what should I do?

If you installed using the Virtualmin installer, Webmin does not offer upgrades (and it shouldn’t, you should get your upgrades using your OS package manager, and Virtualmin will notify you of available updates in the dashboard).

Generally, that’s true even if you didn’t install using the Virtualmin installer.

This is the thought you should settle on as the right one. Installing packages using your OS standard package manager is always the best choice, when possible. There’s package manager support in Webmin, as well, so I’m not saying you need to use the CLI, just that the OS package manager is the right way to install packages.

You should figure out why that is. Did you actually install from a deb package the first time? Check with dpkg -l usermin

If you did install from a deb package, what happens when you do apt install usermin? (If you didn’t install from a deb package, you can’t entirely safely do this, so I don’t recommend it.)

1 Like

Joe,

First, I’m not on Virtualmin, just Webmin (and I think Usermin either came with?)

Installed many years ago and last year you helped me decide to not try to install Virtualmin and just keep my current setup/config.

here’s my dpkg output:

$ sudo dpkg -l usermin
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name           Version      Architecture Description
+++-==============-============-============-=================================
in  usermin        <none>       all          (no description available)

I’m guessing that this means it wasn’t installed by .deb?

here’s the same for webmin:

$ sudo dpkg -l webmin
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name           Version      Architecture Description
+++-==============-============-============-===================================================
ii  webmin         2.200        all          web-based administration interface for Unix systems

Usually I get prompts in the Webmin dashboard to upgrade Usermin.
When I noticed that there was a newer version but it wasn’t being offered … well that’s when I started looking about and then decided to post here before doing anything that might mess things up.

TYIA

in means…installation was requested, but it’s not installed. I don’t quite understand why you’re end up in that state.

What happens when you run:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

And, then, if no errors:

sudo apt install --reinstall usermin
chris@server:~$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
chris@server:~$ sudo apt install --reinstall usermin
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  libalgorithm-c3-perl libb-hooks-endofscope-perl libb-hooks-op-check-perl
  libclass-c3-perl libclass-c3-xs-perl libclass-data-inheritable-perl
  libclass-inspector-perl libclass-method-modifiers-perl libclass-singleton-perl
  libclass-xsaccessor-perl libdata-optlist-perl libdatetime-locale-perl libdatetime-perl
  libdatetime-timezone-perl libdevel-callchecker-perl libdevel-caller-perl
  libdevel-lexalias-perl libdevel-stacktrace-perl libdynaloader-functions-perl
  libencode-detect-perl libeval-closure-perl libexception-class-perl
  libfile-sharedir-perl libmodule-implementation-perl libmodule-runtime-perl
  libmro-compat-perl libnamespace-autoclean-perl libnamespace-clean-perl
  libpackage-stash-perl libpackage-stash-xs-perl libpadwalker-perl
  libparams-classify-perl libparams-util-perl libparams-validationcompiler-perl
  libqrencode4 libreadonly-perl libref-util-perl libref-util-xs-perl librole-tiny-perl
  libspecio-perl libsub-exporter-perl libsub-exporter-progressive-perl
  libsub-identify-perl libsub-install-perl libsub-name-perl libsub-quote-perl
  libtry-tiny-perl libvariable-magic-perl libxstring-perl lynx lynx-common qrencode
Suggested packages:
  libscalar-number-perl libtest-fatal-perl
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libalgorithm-c3-perl libb-hooks-endofscope-perl libb-hooks-op-check-perl
  libclass-c3-perl libclass-c3-xs-perl libclass-data-inheritable-perl
  libclass-inspector-perl libclass-method-modifiers-perl libclass-singleton-perl
  libclass-xsaccessor-perl libdata-optlist-perl libdatetime-locale-perl libdatetime-perl
  libdatetime-timezone-perl libdevel-callchecker-perl libdevel-caller-perl
  libdevel-lexalias-perl libdevel-stacktrace-perl libdynaloader-functions-perl
  libencode-detect-perl libeval-closure-perl libexception-class-perl
  libfile-sharedir-perl libmodule-implementation-perl libmodule-runtime-perl
  libmro-compat-perl libnamespace-autoclean-perl libnamespace-clean-perl
  libpackage-stash-perl libpackage-stash-xs-perl libpadwalker-perl
  libparams-classify-perl libparams-util-perl libparams-validationcompiler-perl
  libqrencode4 libreadonly-perl libref-util-perl libref-util-xs-perl librole-tiny-perl
  libspecio-perl libsub-exporter-perl libsub-exporter-progressive-perl
  libsub-identify-perl libsub-install-perl libsub-name-perl libsub-quote-perl
  libtry-tiny-perl libvariable-magic-perl libxstring-perl lynx lynx-common qrencode
  usermin
0 upgraded, 53 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 17.7 MB of archives.
After this operation, 122 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

Doesn’t seem like usermin was installed via apt since it wants to install all these other packages.
Should I proceed?

Those are not Usermin dependencies, though, at least not in our package. I don’t know why it’d be pulling all those.

Check /usr/share/webmin/install-type

$ cat /usr/share/webmin/install-type 
deb