Whats the best Distro for Virtualmin? + my usage patterns

Virtualmin
1

Whats the best distro to run virtualmin under?

Latest Ubuntu server 14.04 has a few things missing like awstats and I noticed other little things about ubuntu.

Then there’s Centos I believe would be considered the best for this but don’t know.

At the same time on the box I want to run download torrents and in Ubuntu I can run LXDE for 1 download manager that you can’t run from commandline and need to constantly monitor for inputting capturas it JDownloader2

Though I tried that quickly under Centos Gnome2 and seemed too slow on my Microsever, if only you could put in LXDE or a lightweight GUI on Centos instead of Gnome.

Anyway so two questions:

1 what GUI is the best for virtualmin regardless of my other needs.
2 what is the best distro taking into account my needs.

Thanks

2

Howdy,

Any of the Grade A distros here should work well for you:

https://www.virtualmin.com/os-support

Ubuntu 14.04 support is the newest, and it’s possible that there may be some issues with it, though most of those should be minor.

If awstats isn’t installed, you can always install that manually using apt-get.

That said, the install.sh script should install awstats and the related Virtualmin module for that. If it’s not installed, how long ago did you download the Virtualmin install.sh script? If you’re not using the most recent one, that could be the cause of the problem you’re seeing.

If you’re able to post your /root/virtualmin-install.log file, that would be helpful in determining what’s going on there.

Regarding GUI’s – we typically recommend not using a GUI on a server. If you do require a GUI for some reason, I unfortunately don’t have a recommendation on what direction to go… my personal thoughts are that I would search until I found an alternate tool that didn’t require a GUI, if such a thing existed. But if that doesn’t work, perhaps someone else will have input on what GUI they’d recommend for running your tool :slight_smile:

-Eric

3

Install was yesterday the new version 4.08 on a fresh Ubuntu Server 14.04 install from the official ISO with nothing else added apart from a apt-get upgrade done first, I always wget the install script first on every install from SSH/HP-KVM etc its the easiest way straight out of install to run 1 command download then append that command to chmod +x the file and append again to install.

I also made sure to reboot after each set of actions and also after installing virtualmin before logging in.

The virtualmin-install.log file is attached to this post, if you need it quoted let me know as I don’t know if the attaching works well, for images I know you can’t attach and then use them in the message.

All I see in the virtualmin feature is ones with the source of CORE nothing listed as Source Plugin such as DAV AWstats Git, Subversion etc they’re all missing in the Features and Plugins list though the directories are there. Mailman also throws up a message on boot that until a list is created it cannot be enabled.

Attached is a screenshot of that features list as it was straight out of install and is now, please note spam and virus I manually turned off, it seems the folders like awstats are there on the hdd but the links etc in features and setup with virtualmin isn’t.

In Centos when I did a install everything was fine and the list was more populated even menus in both virtualmin and webmin, but decided to retry ubuntu to test lxde etc and as such looking around for the best distro for my overall needs.

Mainly though my main issue is email which is in the newbie forum on here and should probably be moved or started new here, which is really getting to me and my thread kinda feels dead with only me posting in it now, as no matter what I try and research over the last 2-3 days I cannot seem to get it right or understand and I’m reading similar stuff to what I need and want to do and is one of the reasons why I’m trying and looking around at fresh installs to get the most complete working stable setup, I’m kinda now willing to donate alittle something to someone who can work out the solution for me with email and let them in via the web and SSH.

At this rate I may have to give up my whole hosting idea which is meant to be for a support site for anime/gamers/cosplayers/japanese fans that need support, love and caring from others as im seeing more infighting and hurt and more of a need for a site specific and tailored like this for this type of community.

4

I think I see what may have been causing the issues with installing some of the Virtualmin modules – that issue has been corrected in the latest version of the install.sh script.

If you attempt the installation again on Ubuntu 14.04, let us know if that works properly for you.

In the meantime, it’s no problem to just manually install the modules you want.

Regarding your email issue – it doesn’t matter so much what topic it’s placed under, folks will notice it.

If you aren’t hearing anything back, it may mean it’s complicated topic that folks don’t know the answer to at the moment. It also may just be an issue of it being the weekend, folks spend less time browsing the forums on the weekends.

-Eric

5

Just re-installed to check your updates to the script.

When doing the post install wizard This happens now:

The status of your system is being checked to ensure that all enabled features are available, that the mail server is properly configured, and that quotas are active .. Your system has 7.80 GB of memory, which is at or above the Virtualmin recommended minimum of 256 MB. BIND DNS server is installed, and the system is configured to use it.

Mail server Postfix is installed and configured.

Postfix can support per-domain outgoing IP addresses, but is not currently configured to do so. This can be setup in the Postfix Mailserver module.

Apache is installed.

The following PHP versions are available : 5.5.9 (/usr/bin/php5-cgi)

Webalizer is installed.

Apache is configured to host SSL websites.

MySQL is installed and running.

ProFTPd is installed.

Logrotate is installed.

SpamAssassin and Procmail are installed and configured for use.

ClamAV is installed and running.

Plugin AWstats reporting is installed OK.

The mailman queue processor /var/lib/mailman/bin/qrunner is not running on your system. It can be started in the Bootup and Shutdown module.

… your system is not ready for use by Virtualmin.

My process to get to this is as follows and will always be the same:

  • Start to install Install Ubuntu server clean
  • - press back when it finds DHCP and do the manual network config as follows.
  • - IP: 192.168.1.1
  • - Mask: 255.255.255.0
  • - Gateway: 192.168.1.254
  • - DNS: 192.168.1.1 serverdnsip1 serverdnsip2
  • - hostname and domain: server / revnet (each has its own screen)
  • - User details: RealName: myname / account: server / password: password (each has its own screen)
  • - Select only OpenSSH in the servers selection.
  • (Note: Everything below is run as 'sudo' or 'sudo su' due to ubuntu permissions)
  • Run 'apt-get update' and then 'apt-get upgrade'
  • Reboot to apply changes.
  • Run 'wget http://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/scripts/install.sh'
  • Run 'chmod +x install.sh' then './install.sh' to start the install
  • Press 'y' when asked to continue.
  • Watch the install scroll until it completes.
  • Reboot
  • Load the new virtualmin/webmin install in browser follow the onscreen prompts.
  • - Preload virtualmin libraries, no spam assassin, skip at hostname as it can't resolve a internal lan name etc.
  • Click yellow bar recheck config after running the post install.

In the ubuntu boot log its saying mailman has no list and cannot start until one is created same in webmin.

Executing /etc/init.d/mailman start ..
  • Site list for mailman missing (looking for list named ‘mailman’).
  • Please create it; until then, mailman will refuse to start.

Unticking use mailman in the features list and rechecking config I get the same error system isn’t ready for use for virtualmin.

In features and stats 3 plugins now are listed as well as the CORE list:

  • - AWstats reporting v4.9
  • - Mailman v6.2
  • - Protected Web Directories V2.6
No other plugins have been installed like DAV which were I did install another distro.

Attached is a new install.log file.

I installed the system and wgetted the install script just a before this post date/time.

I hope this has been valuable info and will dedicate my server system etc for now on testing and giving feedback on ubuntu server 14.04 installs is its beneficial to you me testing like this and helping to fix issues.

I am now going to setup another system or a VM for hopefully testing and comparing installs between Centos the prefered distro I think as you run it on your demo cloud system, and Ubuntu.

I hope I and stuff like this can help get Ubuntu 14.01 working properly.

6

Here is a update on my findings.

After testing Centos 6.5 Minimal and a few packages I am confident enough to say I’ll be using this distro as Virtualmin itself is hosted on the distro.

Some of my concerns were lack of packages etc but I have learned I can use the EPEL repository for a few of them.

With the GUI I have found I can use Xvfb virtual frame buffer natively in the Centos repo to run JDownloader2 under it only when needed under a very minimal fluxbox install, which should take care of bloat etc and by starting and stopping Xvfb only when I want to run JDownloader2 should keep things abit safer.

andreychek while I do appreciate and know that not using a GUI at all, is the reconmended way to go about things, I am running this as a home server which also does downloads on JDownloader2 (This and alternatives all need a GUI as these for file share sites such as ryushare and uploaded.to as well as youtube downloads and needs clipboard and captcha input support) and downloads will also be done on Transmission which fortantly does have a daemon backend with a frontend to install on client pc’s.

This has taken me a week or so of testing and learning with Centos to come to the conclusion of.

It also makes sense going Centos, as Virtualmin themselves use it as well as proper web hosting companies.

I will still Ubuntu use and test 14.04 on a spate pc if needed, but the script being kinda broken in a couple areas and the general ubuntu bugginess level, also the amount of small updates they push out, especially ones that need restarts etc has turned me off using it for my server. It would be better for them to push updates out as a block once every couple weeks unless its a critical security update not as soon as they can making you restart every day or two.