Jan 28, 2010

Linux Server setup, start to finish, using Webmin! Please leave a comment.

You can find this how-to and many others, on my webpage, at ...
http://woodel.com/

374 comments:

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Anonymous said...

*that should be https://my external server ip:10000

and

*Does the ssh port continue to run on 22 while telling my router to redirect requests on its public static IP to my internal server running ssh server?

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Thats pretty stupid of them, but i have seen that.

You would need both https and port 22 forwarded and accepted as legit company traffic.

If your company is blocking high ports, their IT staff should go back to school :- )

*get putty working first, then try ssh2 module

-Kev

Anonymous said...

ok, will give it a try. thanks for your help and awesome effort in preparing the documentation

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Anonymous-

Thanks, it was a ton of work. Little over 2 years to type and print-screen all of that.

keep up the good work
-Kev

VWQu33r said...

Kevin, I can't thank you enough for this guide, I'm just doing this for fun, but want to do it so bad, the old PC turned into a linux server. :-) Having said that, I'm stuck(well I actually went on, but am at a place where I have to address this) at the Partitions on local disks, pg 2. Webmin will not see two additonal hard drives I've added. a 500GB sata and a 320GB IDE, but I can't see them through that module. Now on page 3, ready to enable quotas, I'm not seeing any file systems where quotas can be enabled, because of my inability to complete that portion. Any help will be immensely appreciated. Sincerely, a new, but now Huge Linux fan. :-) Nicole

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Nicole-

Thanks! thats awesome.

2 things. Open putty and type this command
fdisk -l

thats -l as in "L"ist, not a one or an eye.

You should see a bunch of devices.

/dev/sda
/dev/sdb
/dev/sdc

and or

/dev/hda
/dev/hdb
/dev/hdc

and it will even show you how big they are, so you can figure out which is which.

if you see all your hard drives there, let me know and i will tell you how to get webmin to see them.

if you cant see them with fdisk -l
that means your bios isnt seeing the hard drives, and you will need to go into your bios and enable the ide and sata ports. (bios is usually f1 or f2 as soon as the computer powers up)

keep up the good work, and thanks again.
-Kev

VWQu33r said...

Kevin, thanks for responding, and I've been trying to do exactly what you said, but alas, now I can't even log on to PuTTY, "network refused connection". I just rebooted my computer(my windows machine) after tweaking some settings, but no dice. I can say however that I've tried the fdisk -l command within Webmin and I do see everything. I even saw all the disks before, just by looking at file manager at /dev/disk/by-id....., and I can tell which is which, I just don't know how to make it so I can do what your goby says I have to do... Frustrated beyond belief, so close, and yet so far.

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

If you can see them in fdisk then here is how you fix it.

Careful, this is a destructive process, it will erase said hard drives and all their data.

Once you determine which on you want to erase, note its dev name (example: /dev/sdc)

then type these, hit enter after each command

you can do this using the ssh2 module or the real keyboard if putty isnt working yet.

------------------
fdisk /dev/sdc

w

fdisk /dev/sdc

d

d

n

p

1

hit enter

hit enter

w

mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdc1
-------------------

substituting sdc for the device your after, and then the "one" in sdc1 means make one large partition, using the whole disk

VWQu33r said...

Kevin, Now I'm getting an error when attempting to connect to the SSH2 Login, and I don't know how this is possible since I clearly did it before. I'm frustrated, and pretty much about to give up. I know I can do this, aka what you are saying I need to do to get the webmin to see the disks, but I don't know what's going on with my new computers security(I think that's where the problem is). I think I may just start over with your guide, and having this last info, perhaps I can get right through it it this time. I sincerely appreciate everything. :-)

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Starting over is a pretty good idea, Putty should never give you problems, its rock solid.

What may have happened is when you were removing the ssh1 module you accidently removed the ssh server.

To test this, plug in the keyboard and type this

apt-get remove ssh

apt-get update

ap-get install ssh

If that doesnt fix it, start all over.

-Kev

VWQu33r said...

Well, I figured out a big part of the problem, the static IP, though it still says static when viewing it through sudo vim /etc/network/interfaces, when i do a simple ifconfig, it's completely different, and to test that, i looked at it by going to my router, and it is somehow back to DHCP and a whole nother IP . I'm now thinking verizon doesn't want me doing this....

VWQu33r said...

I shall not be swayed, if that means starting over, well then... lets go. :-)

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

hey Nicole

3 things

1) email me your /etc/interfaces file and i will take a look. Maybe a typo is causing a dhcp lease. Can you ping the expected ip?

2) verizon has nothing to do with your internal ip address's 192.168.xxx.xxx

3) Starting over with putty problems = great idea, if putty isnt working locally with a static IP something is way wrong.

-kev

Anonymous said...

Hello and thank you in advance for any help you might send my way. I have been trying for a couple of weeks now to get stated on following your Sever setup. I am a "newb" and cannot for the life of me install the "sk98lin driver" for my network card. I have followed the instructions many times and installed all flavors of linux and am now using "debian-503-i386-CD-1.iso". I have installed everything that needs to be (maybe not) and run the ./install script.

It gets to the end and says: Your kernel version is not the same as your header version.

Here is what I have:

uname -r
2.6.26-2-686

In the /usr/src I have these files:

linux -> linux-2.6.26.2/
linux-2.6.26.2
linux-headers-2.6.26-2-686
linux-headers-2.6.26-2-common
linux-kbuild-2.6.26

I don't really understand what is wrong and how to fix it.

Would you be able to point me in the right direction please?

Thanks,
dennis

Anonymous said...

I have another question please. There is also an option to generate a patch for the "sk98lin driver". This does generate a patch but when I try to run "make menuconfig" I get this error:

scripts/kconfig/mconf arch/x86/Kconfig
file drivers/net/arcnet/Kconfig already scanned?
make[1]: *** [menuconfig] error 1
make: *** [menuconfig] Error 2

I haven't a clue what that is trying to tell me.

This is VERY frustrating and I am just about to give up on trying to do this.

Any help on this or the above post would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
dennis

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Dennis
I cant be too much help here, i dont have a good understanding of that myself.

here are something you can try

run this, exactly as its typed (copy\paste it)
apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` psmisc build-essential

I dont know what that command does, so be warned, it may break your system. I ran it once to fix a header error. But im as clueless as you are when it comes to drivers.

You could also try ubuntuforums.com
post your question there, people will help even though its debian.

Or you can do what i did, go buy an intel 1000 or broadcomm 57xx :- )

sorry i cant be more help, and careful with that command above, i dont know what it really does.

thanks
-Kev

Anonymous said...

Hello and thank you for responding. Since this is an old system I do not want to spend any more money on it. I was doing this as a learning experience with Linux.

I will ask on other forums and post the response.

dennis

Anonymous said...

Hi Kevin

This is great work, but I must be some kind of nutter something. I downloaded the Debian from your link, burnt it to a CD but can't boot from it.
Any Ideas

Nev1956

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Nev1956-

Thanks !

It sounds like your just writting the iso file to the CD, instead of burning from the iso image.

Here is a quick guide
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ht/burnisofile.htm

-Kev

Anonymous said...

Thanks Kev
But I found the problem, a faulty Cd burner.

I'm having so much fun.

Also when you mentioned about dns, I checked it out via my CMD on my windows machine and it stated it was the same as my Router 192.169.0.1
Should have I used that, as I want the server to be live.
What should I do?

Nev1956

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Nev1956-

Thats cool, yes your router address should work very very well.

It may get a little confusing if you choose to do page 5, the advanced section, where you turn that linux box into a router. But most people dont have a need for page 5, so you should be all set.
-Kev

Anonymous said...

Thanks Kev
I'm now up to the part in regards to using excel to make a web page, so i made a page in exce saved it as index.html ans saved as a web page.
Went to file manager in webmin var/www and deleted the existing index.html then uploaded the excel file up to var/www using upload and download filled in the infomation in to that screen and all seemed ok.
But when I tried to surf to my server 192.168.0.199 I got this

The webpage cannot be found
HTTP 404
Most likely causes:
•There might be a typing error in the address.
•If you clicked on a link, it may be out of date.

What you can try:
Retype the address.

Go back to the previous page.

Go to and look for the information you want.

More information
But that is the correct address for the server.

Any Ideas

Nev1956

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Nev1956-

All of that sounds right. Two things, try refreshing your browser when your on that page (usually F5)on your keyboard.

And then, if that doesn't work, using the filemanager, check the permissions on that file "index.html" in /var/www

Make sure its 644

Besides that every looks right

-Kev

Anonymous said...

Sorry to say no go.
The permissions are at 644.
I have even tried to open the index.html file from webmin file manager, but when I did this is what i get.

Failed to open /var/www/index_files/sheet001.htm : No such file or directory

But the directory is there.

Nev1956

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Nev1956-
Does that file “sheet001.htm” exist inside the “index_files” folder?

Also If you create a simpler webpage, it wouldn’t have that index_files folder. Its only when you start adding pictures and such that you should see that folder.

Also that index_files folder will need 755 permissions.

Or try making a simpler webpage, where everything is included in the one file “index.html”

You can even save a text document as filename index.html as trouble shooting.

Just make sure its named index.html and not index.html.txt when you rename it.

Also, make sure you didnt skip the apache config part where you set the AllowOveride setting.

Good luck, keep up the good work
-Kev

Anonymous said...

Thanks Kev

That seems to have done it.
What the problem was when I saved the excel file I saved it as index.html and as a web page.
I'm not sure how that affected it biu it did.
So I did what you sugested made a simpel text file in windows note pad and saved it as index.html, uploadeded it shut down exployer started it again, and the page worked.

I have just got work out how to save the excel file.
Many thanks, now on to the next stage
Once I have got this thing working on the Web wit my Wife's art I will have to donate to your work.

Thanks once again

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Nev1956
That’s awesome
And very cool, I love money!!! :- )

For your webpages the trick with the newer versions of excel is to highlight the section you want to save, so it doesn’t save the whole work book.

Here is a quick guide i threw together
Http://woodel.com/webpages_using_excel.pdf

You can also use word, and save-as “web-page filtered” and that will clean up the code for you.

But all this is just for simple webpages, if you want pretty ones, use a wysiwyg editor, you can google that word “wysiwyg” and find a million of them, even google makes one, or here is one that works ok with a free trial.

http://www.virtualmechanics.com/products/spinner/download.html

-Kev

Anonymous said...

Thanks Kev

That Has beeb a great help.
The problem I'm having now is trying to see the web page via the net.
I have a Sagem Modem which is connected to a D-link Router. I have a static Ip address From my IPS.
Do you know how i should set it all up.
I have the The internet ADSL2+, ADSL2+ modem Connected to my D-Link router and then the server and other computers I have setup the server with a static ip of 192.168.0.201
and i have the static Ip provided by my ISP, so how do I do it ?
Sorry for this.
I have tried to point my domain name to the static Ip address with little luck.
If i try to connect to it from one of the computers on our home network I ger the modem, but from a computer outside the network i get no domain found.

Many Thanks Nev1956

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Nev1956-

Cool, you have to setup port forwarding from your router. port 80. see page # 266 of the pdf.

also pages 264 and 265 may help too.

Anonymous said...

Kev
Yes I have done that, but no luck
I have been to My DSN Provider and pointed my domain name to my Static Ip address on the wan side.
If I go to my web brouser and type in my domain name http://zoecox.com.au It takes me to my ADSL modem, and I don't want that.
Do you think it is the modem that is blocking it or have I done something wrong.

Nev1956

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Change your ADSL modem to only allow https, that should stop that.

Or change your linux box apache config to talk on port 8080, and type your webaddress as http://zoecox.com.au:8080

*note, its weird you would be seeing your modem, i would have expected you would see your router.

good luck
-Kevin

Anonymous said...

Hello and a big thank you for putting this together. I am following along and have got up the Samba part but have not started that yet.

I am using Ubuntu 10.04 and everything to this point has worked for me.

A couple of questions please;

1. I use the Free Dyndns and got a domain that I have and pointed it to my server. This works well.
However, when we did the port forward to the sever setup, how secure is this? Is there a way for someone to get into my internal network by using an internal ip address of my server?

2. I also bought a PositiveSSL Certificate and think I have it installed but don't have a clue on how to use it? Is it for the https stuff? How would a user use this?

I have the private key the other keys that were sent to me. I do not have anything called .pem? Do I just use the Certificate file?

PS. I was the one with the ethernet issues. I upgraded the system and now that works.

thank you for the help,

dennis

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Dennis
Cool ! and your very welcome.

Which update worked, that crazy one?
apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` psmisc build-essential

As far as security, im not comfortable with this question, you can never know enough about security, never stop trying to strengthen it. But with that said, you’re pretty safe with allowing ports 22, 443, 10000, and 20000 as these defaults setups are pretty strong to begin with.

I’m not comfortable telling you they are 100% safe, every superhero has its weakness, you will need to eventually take some time and learn everything about them. But the ports listed above, have very very strong default settings. Most of the world uses those 4 above without needing to know much about security. Just keep in mind you can never know too much.

You also asked me about the private ip address of your sever, 192.168.x.x is only available inside your house \ home network. Without writing you a book about security, yes that is safe.

You also asked me about ssl certs. Yes that is for https. You can use it to further secure webmin and usermin, and both those modules have a .pem cert button in there modules configs. Those ssl certs you bought are what makes sure when you access webmin or usermin or an https site, that you are indeed talking to your server. The company you bought your ssl cert from should have some good info, also google.

You’re never going to be 100% safe, but everything in my guide is 99.9999% safe if not safer.
-Kev

Anonymous said...

Hi Kev
I think I have solved the problem with My DNS going to my Modem.
But now when I type in my domain name i get
Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage.
I have 3 users setup in my server and I can access them all from my home network and see what is on them.
So my question is when i pointed my DNS ( www.zoecox.com.au to the static IP address how dose it know what user to go to.

Nev1956

Anonymous said...

Hello Kevin.

---- Which update worked, that crazy one?
apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` psmisc build-essential---

I never did get the Ethernet to work on the old system. I bought a new Asus P8H67-M LE mother broad, 4 gig of ram, and a i3 2105 processor.

However I did discover that Mother boards seems to supply power to the Ethernet even if the power switch is off. I also ran into no Ethernet connection with the new setup. If you turn off the computer, pull the power plug, and wait about 2 minutes, the plug back in and turn on, it resets the Ethernet device and then it works.
Looks like it can get put into an off state and Linux does not seem to know how to restart it. Once it is running again, everything works.

Seems that if I had done that with the old MB, that would have worked to. Oh well, I now have a new and faster machine.

Thanks for the info on security and I plan on learning more as I go along.

I will have to also learn more about the ssl cert thing as it sounds like a good idea for me to use.

Now back to the tutorial.

dennis

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Dennis-
You can turn off wake-on-lan in your BIOS and it will shut the network card all the way off.

Thats an unusual problem, but disabling wake on lan may fix it.
good luck
-Kev

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

NEV1956-

Port forwarding is the answer. Are you able to forward any other ports, like 22 or 10000?

That would be an easy way to see if your ISP is blocking port 80

Anonymous said...

Kev
I can't get any thing through.
So if I was to browse to my static ip https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:10000 I should see WebMin. but I get nothing but Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

Nev1956

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

It's either a port forwarding issue or a firewall issue.

-kev

Anonymous said...

I have followed your tutorial through page 427, just before the wake on lan stuff.
Every thing seems to be working except SSL.

Currently using Ubuntu 10.04 with Apache2.
I have my site setup with Dyndns.
I registered imagicraft.us but but Dyndns is using imagicraft.dyndns. Could that be the issue?

I purchased a "Positive ssl Certificate" from Comodo when I setup the Dyndns.
I followed the instructions for installing the files but it does not work.

Are there other things I need to turn on or configure for this to work?
How do you set it so someone cannot login using http:// but gets an error? Is that possible?

If I type in browser: http://imagicraft.dyndns-web.com/jdoe/
I can login to this account without issues.

If I type in browser: https://imagicraft.dyndns-web.com/jdoe/
I get this message in the browser:

The connection has timed out
The server at imagicraft.dyndns-web.com is taking too long to respond.

I now have these files:

imagicraft_us.ca-bundle
imagicraft_us.crt
myserver.key

I have placed them here:

/etc/ssl/crt/imagicraft_us.crt
/etc/ssl/crt/imagicraft_us.ca-bundle

/etc/ssl/ssl.key/myserver.key

I have modified this file per the instructions "Certificate Installation: Apache & mod_ssl"

/etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl

# SSL Engine Switch:
# Enable/Disable SSL for this virtual host.
SSLEngine on

# A self-signed (snakeoil) certificate can be created by installing
# the ssl-cert package. See
# /usr/share/doc/apache2.2-common/README.Debian.gz for more info.
# If both key and certificate are stored in the same file, only the
# SSLCertificateFile directive is needed.
#SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/crt/imagicraft_us.crt
#SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/ssl.key/myserver.key

# Server Certificate Chain:
# Point SSLCertificateChainFile at a file containing the
# concatenation of PEM encoded CA certificates which form the
# certificate chain for the server certificate. Alternatively
# the referenced file can be the same as SSLCertificateFile
# when the CA certificates are directly appended to the server
# certificate for convinience.
#SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/server-ca.crt
SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/ssl/crt/imagicraft_us.ca-bund

I then restarted Apache2.

I am a real newbie at this and can all the help anyone can provide.
Thank you for your time and help.

dennis

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Dennis-
Congratz, you’re getting really far, way to stick with it.

Your https cert will need to be used with the real domain name, not xxxxxx.dyndns-web.com you can purchase "custom dns" thru dyndns.org and setup the real

domain name without the trailing .dyndns.com stuff at the end.

but...

My guide actually doesn’t walk you through setting up an apache SSL webpage. In my guide your webpages are considered public. It walks you through using SSL

with Webmin\Usermin, but that function works right from jump street. Basically you have many web-servers running on your system, all with different configs.

Getting your normal everyday webpages running on SSL isn’t something my guide covers, just Webmin and Usermin (totally separate \ independent configs from

apache)

You can post your question on www.ubuntuforums.org there are a bunch of smart people over there willing to help, someone will reply and help you setup your

apache with SSL.

My guide doesn’t have you do anything un-secure over the web with apache, you instead use Usermin or Webmin, which already have SSL, and already has a file

manager, and already has usernames \ passwords. You only put public files where apache listens.
You can import your SSL into the security module, under the webmin and usermin module, but that’s just to use your own cert with Usermin and Webmin, so you

don’t get that cert warning, not Apache, not https://hostname/jdoe
Only
https://hostname:10000
https://hostname:20000

Let me know if im making sense. For the most part you wouldn’t need https://hostname/jdoe https is much slower, and over kill for what my guide shows you

(public files, requiring a password to upload) you could instead just give jdoe usermin filemanager access to another folder outside of where apache listens,

if you wanted it to be private, and not exposed to apache, forcing him to use usermin. Meaning make folders like
/mymounts/disk2/usermin_only/jdoe
/mymounts/disk2/usermin_only/jsmith

In this example you don’t even need apache installed.
Go into the file manager module and give them access to those additional directory’s, and that will force them to use usermin to access files. You can even

make “per user modules” a unique copy of the file manager just for user jdoe, and another unique on for jsmith.

-Kev

Anonymous said...

Dear sir,
Why can I not donate less than a hundred dollars?

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

I haven't seen that problem yet, let me take a look, thanks for letting me know.

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

I just tried $35 and it worked. Let me know if you keep having problems.

snobskidoo said...

Been following your how to but am using ubuntu 10.04 LTS server ( I am at the end of page 3) and have noticed that each time I shutdown / reboot the system hangs. The last message I see is:

* Stopping domain name service... bind9
rndc: neither /etc/bind/rndc.conf nor /etc/bind/rndc.key was found

I appear to be unable to stop this service manually or from webmin and I cant uninstall it (as it tries to stop it!). I've been into file manager and those folders don't exist.

Have I gone astray? Should I jump to page 5 and configure bind9?

FYI: This is a bit of a boy-project at home for no serious purpose other than running 2-3 windows machines for a little gaming, media sharing and printer sharing (which I am currently doing with windows). The box I am using is a 1.6GhZ old Pentium with 1Gb ram and a single ethernet card.

Thanks for the great how-to. Have been enjoying myself knocking this together.

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Snobskidoo

thanks!

You wont need bind if your not turning it into a router with 2 nics. try this

sudo -i

apt-get install bind9

apt-get remove bind9

snobskidoo said...

I've mananged to remove it - I stopped it from starting from within webmin then removed it with putty (there was some dpkg error, but it told me how to configure it).

Thanks again - I'm thinking about setting up the two router setup with the server the only machine with internet access and running a separate secured home network - are the advantages as great as one might imagine?

I'd like this to be a mix of wireless and wired - do you recommend a wireless switch - if so which :-) ? As I mentioned before this is purely a hobby thing at home for the 3/4 machines I have and would like others to easily be able to log in with their iphones, etc. Am I making everything too complicated?

I hope you don't mind all the questions!

Thanks again

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Snobskido-

Cool! Great work.

Well, for your router question it depends how deep you want to get your geek on. I would say it the most educational waste of time :- ) you will learn a ton, and you will never have to reboot it, but its not any faster, and a month later you won’t have any more speed \ features.

I will say this, as far as experience, there are those that have, and those than haven’t, and it means a lot.

A great switch is the 8 port giga-bit switch from Netgear.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122141&Tpk=gs608

It’s the only netgear product I have ever used, so I can’t speak on the name, but I have two of these at my house running for the past 4 years with zero problems.

As far as a wireless switch, I would just buy the latest and greatest Linksys wireless router. It becomes a wireless switch (aka access point) by just not using the wan port.

Good luck, the router is a huge thing to tackle. I wouldn’t advise it unless your very passionate about learning routing.

-Kevin

Anonymous said...

Hi Kevin, well, what a great tutorial. It's just what I needed, with the finished product I'll now have a secure system and have remote access when I'm away to download my photos etc to and provide access to view to family members.
You've been very patient with my bumbling around around, and ,after about 4 attempts I believe we've succeeded. Many thanks.
Linux is pretty neat.
John

John Rowe said...

I'd have to re-iterate what A. Wake said, earlier on;
"donate people, donate"

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey John-
Thanks man! Keep up the good work.

PS, i also agree with AWAKE :- )

-Kev

Anonymous said...

Hi I'm working my way slowly through the how to for the second time, really great tutorial, I've actually got a server running for the 1st time, having tried numerous times before.

Anyway as suggested on this run through I wanted to leave SSL in place for usermin. It worked okay until I tried the File Manager, which doesn't load but throws up this error message, in a dialogue box.

Failed to get language list: javax.net.ssl.SSLException ; java.security.AccessControlException: access denied (java.security.AllPermission )

I'm running Ubuntu 11.10 server this time, 32bit.

Any advice as to why this is occurring?

Regards

Wayne

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Thanks Wayne! and congratz on getting so far. Try a different browser, like Chrome.

-Kevin

Anonymous said...

Hi Kevin, Chrome worked fine, also having rebooted the server and my laptop it is working okay now in IE9 and firefox, just a glitch and probably me. Certainly running everything locally, having SSL enabled is still reasonably fast and perfectly usable in my opinion.

Thanks for the advice, but your tutorial is so through, I've managed to follow it with very little reference to the blog and external help. I've even managed this time to use a terminal in Linux and SSH things with the server.

Really great stuff.

Regards

Wayne

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Rock on Wayne.

I have had several complaints about Firefox, none about chrome or IE.

But maybe its Java's fault, who knows.

Keep up the good work. Thanks for the kind words.
-Kevin

indra said...

thanks for the information hopefully can provide value to the many benefits

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Indra-

Thanks!

-Kev

Mad Prof said...

Hi Kev! Happy Holidays! Great stuff on your new and improved website! I come back often because your site is always awesome - you are absolutely the best! Was looking to see if you had a website counter, I thought you had one and I could sneak a view at the code, but maybe you never did. Since I was here, I thought I'd drop you a message. Thanks for all your help in the past!

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Mad Professor!!! Long time no hear. Thanks!

No counter, just the Google plus one thing.

Good to hear from you, hang10

-Kev

John Rowe said...

Kev, merry Christmas.
Thanks so much for being patient with me, over the last couple of months.
Thanks entirely to you I now have my server running brilliantly; plus the icing on the cake, I can now have users using sftp.
A great tutorial for anyone wanting a server.
Probably just the best

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

John-

Thanks! and Merry Christmas

That's a strong setup you have there. You have nothing being uploaded\login sent in plain text, it doesn't get any better than that.

Keep up the good work.
-Kev

Anonymous said...

I don't know if you still monitor this but thanks a bunch. This is the best most detailed tutorial out there hands down. You are very patient and descriptive.
For anyone who is installing Ubuntu server you might run across the same problem I just did.
ethtool: command not found

I simply went back to putty and typed
sudo apt-get install ethtool

it worked then

Thanks again Kevin

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

I do, and thank you!
-Kev

Anonymous said...

Hi Kevin,
Quick question or if anyone else knows the answer.
I just set up FTP per your tutorial. I did the no_auth thing and now i cant login at all through my IP in address bar.

I just put 192.168.1.140/louis

which is the name of the user I created.
Any suggestions?
Do I need to put the complete file path or just the username?
I did both anyways and neither worked.

Anonymous said...

Lol.
Just posted. Nevermind. I had xhomes in the same directory as user. Once I looked at the default apach2 doc I edited I noticed it dropped you right into xhomes except.... I had nothing in there. Now I do. Since I got you attention, what were doing, is this a cloud? If not what is the difference?
I was the one who posted the apt-get recently. I didnt click load more so the last post I saw was from a few years ago. This is so cool that your doing this. I know "donate" I will.
Do you have any other tutorials at all?
Your style is very n00b friendly and I like how you walk through every detail. i would love to see more of your work

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Anonymous-

Thanks for the kind words.

I dont have any other guides other than the ones at woodel.com

If you ask me, its a cloud, but i consider everything you access remotely over an internet connection a cloud. Not everyone will agree with that.

Keep up the good work, have fun, i think your apt-get was included at the bottom of page 1, each page builds off the next.
-Kev

tsavory said...

I can't seem to get libmd5-perl to install off page 57 any suggestions?

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey tsavory-

What version of debian are you using and i will see if i can duplicate that error.

If your using ubuntu go ahead and skip that package (but do the rest of them on that line)

-kev

tsavory said...

in following your guide I have got up to page 353 and when I try to mount the windows smbfs i keep getting this error
mount error(13): Permission denied
Refer to the mount.cifs(8) manual page (e.g. man mount.cifs)

I know the user name and password are correct I have triple checked them. Any ideas?

tsavory said...

I am running the newest stable Debian 6.0.4 and the newest webmin 1.580 I skipped getting the libmd5-per all seems ok other than the smbfs so far page 352

tsavory said...

another dumb question how would I go about getting my hp laserjet 4l printer working though webmin I keep finding answers like use SWAT. I have downloaded and the hplip and tried running the installer it telles me its has 7 missing required dependencies and gcc is one I ran apt-get install gcc and my system says I already have it.
starting to think its time to start this all over again.

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey tsavory-

Your really flying through the guide, great job.

I cant help you with your printer, sorry, that's something outside of my guide, best of luck with that, i suggest just buying a network printer. side note, Are you sure you need to print from the server? when your using webmin you can print anything you want using the computer your remoted in from, not sure why you would want to print from the server?

For your sbmfs question, at the top of the mount screen, where it says "mounted as"

Make sure that folder already exists and is not already a mount point itself. Meaning it should be at least one folder deeper than any mount point in the filesystem.

Make sure the username account your trying exists on the windows machine.

Make sure it has a password, blank passwords are not allowed.

If trying to do c$ then the account on the windows machine needs to be an admin or backup operator.

Make sure your typing it in the format "ip address" not the name, and then the "actual name of the share" in the next box.

You can also try tweaking your username

127.0.0.1\username can sometimes help tell it its a local account

or

domain\username if the windows computer is part of a domain

Make sure the firewall on the windows machine isn't blocking file and printer sharing.

If windows 7 or vista, "UAC" must be turned off

If windows XP then "simple file sharing" must be disabled.

-Kev

tsavory said...

"Hey tsavory-

Your really flying through the guide, great job."

Thanks you have done the best walk though I have seen for setting up a solid server and that is what makes it easy so thank you for your hard work on this
"not sure why you would want to print from the server?"

I have an old black and white laser printer that uses the lpt1 so I only have two computers that it hooks up to. One is a windows 7 machine and I had it working for three of the six other computers but no matter what I seem to never get all 6 to print price you pay for having windows xp though 7 and a windows 8 test. and I was hoping to get this to run as a print server so I could finally get them all to print from it. It is old as all get out but still prints well. oh well I guess its back to drop box for transferring files to be printed. I need a good solution for remote printing as I am on the road a lot more than at home.

For your sbmfs question, at the top of the mount screen, where it says "mounted as"

"If windows 7 or vista, "UAC" must be turned off"

This seem to be where I am running in trouble. don't disabling UAC mess with network folder sharing between vista and windows 7 machines I am sure I had to re enable it when I started sharing the printer.

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey tsavory-

Thanks for the kind words.

Disabling UAC will only help sharing, it wont hurt it, just make sure your using real file sharing, and not the weird "home" share that windows 7 tries to setup for you.

For your print server, you would want to use CUPS. Google search that and im sure someone has i guide, i just cant help you with problems.

also, when you finish the guide, you will have your samba shares all working, so you wouldnt need dropbox to move the print files around anymore.

keep up the good work
-Kev

tsavory said...

I have finished the guide the only thing I did not get working was the printer and I skipped some of the advanced but did read it all.

Also I seem to have broke something with the noip2 since that who my dns service is though.

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey tsavory-

Thats awesome

Here is my latest working ddclient file, hope it helps, you probably have to adjust your protocol and servers sections, enjoy your new server.

#
# Configuration file for ddclient generated by debconf
#
# /etc/ddclient.conf
daemon=300
pid=/var/run/ddclient.pid
cache=/tmp/ddclient.cache
ssl=yes
protocol=dyndns2
use=if, if=eth0
server=members.dyndns.org
login=xxxxxxxxxxxx
password='xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
woodel.com,a.woodel.com,z.woodel.com

tsavory said...

Well it has been a success. I had all but the print server done yesterday after about 13 hrs of fighting with my printer and its drivers LBS headers from the drivers messed debian and had to rebuild parts of it the hard way. I now have the print server working as well even though it is not though the webmin. Great guide and thanks for the help along the way.

tsavory said...

woops sorry it was the LBS headers on the no-ip script that messed it up all debs added after where only partial installs making it a pain since they registered they were installed .

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey T-
Too cool!
Enjoy
-Kev

Anonymous said...

Hi Kevin,
First, Thank You very much for the excellent guide! I'm on my 3rd time through, this time it's a Debian 6 server as a guest under VMWare ESXi 5. The 2 prior were on a standalone server. Everything was perfect until I tried setting up FTP, when I try to copy something (i.e. "stuff") using Windows Explorer, the "paste" option is grayed out, and it can't do it. I've rechecked vsftpd.conf to make sure it matched yours and restarted it, but still nothing. I saw an earlier post in 2010 to Rosalind where you mentioned the nic use "bridged networking", but I can't find that in the ESXi host or guest settings. I can ping it, and the earlier section using http worked fine, just not ftp. Any insight you may have on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!
Don

Anonymous said...

Hi,
Never mind, the problem was within my Windows Explorer settings, I got it to work by dong the following: Go to Control Panel - Internet Options - Advanced tab, need to have the following selected: "Enable FTP folder view (outside of Internet Explorer)" and "Use Passive FTP (for Firewall and DSL modem compatibility)". FTP now works as it should.
Thanks,
Don

Anonymous said...

February 29, 2012


Kevin.

Dear Sir you certainly have put an n excellent and informative package to install a Linux Server using webmin and I have followed it thoroughly. I can connect the Linux 5 Server with Putty but have not been able to connect with webmin and I have manipulated lots files to somehow get it connected to no avail.

Do have some info in regards to webmin connection problems when everything else seems to work well.

I may be contacted at manixsalvador@gmail.com


Thanks again
Regards

Manix

Anonymous said...

sorry e-mail: manuelsalvador@gmail.com

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Don-
Great work, thanks for the kind words.
-Kevin

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Manix-
Try adding these lines to your /etc/rc.local file

#Start Kevins Webmin fix
/etc/init.d/webmin start
ping -c 7 127.0.0.1
/etc/init.d/webmin restart
ping -c 11 127.0.0.1
#End Kevins Webmin fix

Anonymous said...

March 5 , 2011

Thank youfor your replay Kevin.

my /etc/rc.local file looks like this now:

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

exit 0

#Start Kevins Webmin fix
/etc/init.d/webmin start
ping -c 7 127.0.0.1
/etc/init.d/webmin restart
ping -c 11 127.0.0.1
#End Kevins Webmin fix

I can ping weith 0 loss but can not connect using a windows xp pc ..but can connect with putty.

Regards
Manix

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Manix-
All of that needs to appear above "exit 0" or it wont read it.

So make it look like this, where exit 0 only appears at the bottom, then reboot so it will run it.


#Start Kevins Webmin fix
/etc/init.d/webmin start
ping -c 7 127.0.0.1
/etc/init.d/webmin restart
ping -c 11 127.0.0.1
#End Kevins Webmin fix

exit 0

Anonymous said...

Hello Kevin,
First off, fantastic tutorial. I am totally new to Linux and servers but since I believe learning is a lifelong experience I decided to dive in and give this all a try. I am not sure if you still monitor this sight but I figured I would try contacting you anyway. I have read through your entire guide and while I did install the latest version of Debian (6.0.3) everything have been fine up until trying to assign a static IP. I have ATT DSL DHCP with a IP range of 192.168.1.64 to 192.168.1.253. I have another computer on this network besides the server I am trying to set up. The other computer has a static IP of 192.168.1.67 and the gateway is 192.168.1.254. I went into vim /etc/network/interfaces and changed DHCP to Static and then added the following:

address 192.168.1.300
subnet 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.1.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255
gateway 192.168.1.254

I then saved the settings and rebooted. When I ran ifconfig again, the eth0 settings do not show up, only the lo settings do. I can't ping out or in. I think it is probably a setting in my router but I am not sure and since I am TOTALLY new to this, I was wondering if you could help me out. Thanks for your time.
Regards,
Keith

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Keith-
Thanks

The address's end at x.x.x.254

so try changing the ip address address part to 192.168.1.253

Anonymous said...

Hello Kevin,
I thought you said to keep the addresses out of the assigned range. If I can use one inside the assigned range, why not just leave it at what it is already at? I already set it up in the router to have a private pool IP address of 192.168.1.200. Maybe I am not understanding correctly. Sorry, haven't done too much server setup. Did everything else look okay?
Regards,
Keith

Anonymous said...

Update:
So I went ahead and assigned a static IP in the router and then changed all the address information on the server to match. I am confused because I did use an address in the range that is given out. While waiting for feedback, I went ahead and played around with the webmin and it was quite fun. I do have a question which probably relates back to my earlier setup question. I have gotten all the way down to this step:

/etc/resolv.conf (make sure your router is listed as one of the nameservers, and that it’s searching the right local domain)

My router is shows but the local domain and searching are not the diy.lan like I set up. Those two are showing gateway.2wire.net which is my att router. What did I do wrong? Thanks for your time and sorry for the basic questions, I am very green.
Regards,
Keith



When I check

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Keith-
Your right, your ip address should be outside your dhcp pool, the problem is your dhcp pool is way too big.

It should be around 50, maybe a 100 at most. So if it starts at .64 and you want it to be able to hand out 100 of them, then stop the dhcp pool at .164

Then you can use .1 - .63 statically and .165 - .254 statically, leaving the 100 in the middle for dhcp.

Let me know if that makes sense.

For your diy.lan question, it sounds like your server is getting its address from the router, and not statically from your config file. If the router gives it its ip address, its also going to give it its name servers. Is your server setup statically, meaning you typed it in the config file, and not a reserved lease in the router?

keep up the good work.
-Kev

Anonymous said...

Hello Kevin,
Since I am so inexperienced, I am not sure I am explaining things clearly. This is going to be my home server that I am adding to an already existing router. ATT is my ISP and the router/gateway that I use for the DSL line is the one reserving the huge DHCP pool. There appears to be no settings to limit or change this. I have went into /etc/network/interfaces and assigned the server to be static with IP address of 192.168.1.200 but for my router/gateway to recognize it, I have to go into the router, find the machine and then assign the IP address there also. I have set my gateway up in Debian server to be the same as my ISP gateway which is 192.168.1.254. You are correct that gateway.2wire.net is my router address is called by ATT. Let me know where I should go from here. Thanks for all the help!
Regards,
Keith

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Keith-

You have a good understanding of whats going on here, although its weird that you cant edit your router, lets just set your server to statically use 192.168.1.60

and all your other static needs (if any) can use 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.59

let me know if im making sense

-kev

Anonymous said...

Hey Kevin,
I have ATT U-Verse which is a Gateway/Router all in one. I am able to log into the Gateway/Router and I am able to either assign machines on the router a Static IP address from a fixed private pool of 192.168.1.64 to 192.168.1.253 or am able to choose the option to let the router assign a number from the private pool of 192.168.1.0. There is also an option to assign a "public" address using what they are calling WAN mapping and since I am not sure what WAN mapping is, I have not tried that setting. I can go ahead and set the the Debian server to 192.168.1.60 through VIM /etc/network/interfaces but my router will not recognize the machine and I can't ping either direction. The only way it works is if I also go into my router and assign the same IP address there that I am using for the server. I know this works because I am currently using 192.168.1.200 from the private pool and it is working. Am I making sense?
Regards,
Keith

Anonymous said...

Update:
Oh, and I neglected to mention that I have to set an IP address within the range that the router is handing out otherwise I can't get the router to recognize the machine and it keeps me locked down; no ping in or out.
Regards,
Keith

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Keith-
It sounds like there is some kind of "wizard" trying to make configuring your router "easier" i really hate when companies do that.

Good news is you have learned the right way, so its really good you noticed that was wrong, now you know to expect something different if at work, or a friends house, or other networks or something.

I think you can move on, go back into your /etc/network file and change that "static" line back to read "dhcp" and delete all the info you entered manually, then go into your router and reserve .100 for your server. From what you have told me your router will be "smart" enough to never hand out .100 to anyone else but the mac address of your linux box, so even though you have learned that is wrong, it should work just fine.

You should probably skip the part in the guide about setting up a dhcp server (page 5), you should probably skip page 5 all together, and leave your uverse router in charge of the routing. (most people dont need page 5 anyway, page 5 replaces your router)

let me know if im making sense
-Kev

Anonymous said...

Okay Kevin, Thank you. Is there any reason why I HAVE to change the information in the /etc/network/interfaces folder? Basically, when I figure this all out, I would like to use this server as a file/print server, media server, and possibly a minecraft server and a place just to play around with Apache and the like. Basically my own live, learning, playground. I do have one other question if you have time. I am at the point in the guide where we are adding the second drive. Long story, short version...I took this drive out of my old windows machine but there is still information on the drive that I would like to keep, mostly media files and pictures. I have already installed the drive into the Debian server but is there an easy way to copy the drive from the server to my new windows machine? I would just install the drives in the new machine but the new machine is the newer SATA connections and the old drive is not so I can't just install it. Thoughts? Thanks for everything Kevin. Oh, can I still do the dhcp server part?
Regards,
Keith

Anonymous said...

Oh, in case this helps you get an idea of where I am going, I would eventually like to use this as a home media/file/print server that is also capable of handling a small group of minecraft players 5-10 max). I have played around with Mint and Ubuntu in the past solely as a desktop GUI and my experience with them was that were pretty much bulletproof. I can only imagine that Debian is that much better so I would like to eventually put the Debian server up front as a gatekeeper and then put my windows machine behind that if at all possible. Thank you for all your time and for your help.
Regards,
Keith

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Keith-
I believe i already replied about the dhcp server, there isnt any reason for you to do that if your not replacing your router, and since your router is an all-in-one, and since its possibly DSL, you will want to avoid page 5, and can do an "apt-get remove dhcp3-server"

You will still be able to do everything you mentioned, just with your router in charge of the dhcp and dns, you cant replace your router,so just skip dhcp server and page 5. Your router will play a very very small role in what you are thinking, the server will still do all the heavy lifting.

as far as your /etc/network config, it sounds like the router is reserving that ip for you, if thats the case, then you can set the server back to dhcp and it should grab .100 from your router. if not than do it your way.

as far as your data, the server can do what your asking, but at this point in your learning i would just buy one of these, and copy that data off via usb.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3249952&srkey=C184-30504

because if you dont fully understand the steps i would tell you, you would lose everything, so for $25 this is an easy way to plug it into the new windows box via ide to usb adapter. They are very useful to have\own.

-Kevin

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3249952&srkey=C184-30504

Anonymous said...

Again, thank you Kevin. You are truly awesome. Sorry for repeating myself, just wanted to make sure.
I will keep you posted!
Regards,
Keith

P.S. If I am still interested in doing it the "Hard" way, is there a place I can go to read how?

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Keith-

Hard way for your data? or hard way for your dhcp?

Anonymous said...

Data.

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Keith-

Judging by where your at in the guide, your about to learn how to use the mounting functions of the "disk and network file systems" module within webmin.

The same way its going to teach you how to pick ext3 from the drop down menu, you could instead choose ntfs and mount your windows drive.

You could then copy the contents from that drive, to say your /options folder on your linux server.

Or create yet another mount, smbfs, and mount a file share to your new windows box, then copy the ntfs mounting drive to the smbfs mounted network drive.

reading further into the guide will make that all make sense.
-Kevin

Anonymous said...

Hey Kevin,
I have already read that section of your guide, I figured you covered how to access files after the formatting and mounting section, but when I tried mounting the drive I got a "Failed" message. The message said that the drive was already prepared for mounting. I did change the settings to NTFS. This drive is showing up as /dev/sdb1 in /media/usb0. I went to file manager in webmin and tried to look at the files but I couldn't find anything. I then went into putty and did a cd /dev/sdb1 and ls -a and didn't see anything but I KNOW there is media on the drive. Since I am not familiar with command line in Linux, I am assuming I am just doing something wrong. Thoughts?
Regars,
Keith

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Keith-

Is it really usb ?

Try making a folder call /media/keith1

Then open putty and type
umount /dev/sdb1

Then go back to webmin and try doing an ntfs mount to folder /media/keith1

Anonymous said...

Okay, I will try it. And to answer your question, no it isn't USB so I do not know why it is there.
Regars,
Keith

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Keith-
In the mount form you may have to fill in username root is the owner. In theory it should know that, but you might have to help it out.

Anonymous said...

Okay, I was able to get the drive to show up in the filesystem and I am able to see the files. What would be my next move Master Kevin.
:-)
Regards,
Keith

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Keith-
Great work, I think i answered that part already.

You could copy\paste the files using the file manager, to a local folder on the linux box. Like maybe to the /options folder?

Or you can do a second mount, type smbfs, to a windows share on your windows box (this is covered later in the guide)

-Kev

Anonymous said...

Thanks Kev! I will read ahead and I will let you know how it goes.
Regards,
Keith

Igwe said...

Thanks so much Kevin for this great work u have done. I have a question: i want to deploy routing on my LAN for 3 different subnets serving 3 different units. How do i do this since the guide is only for 1 LAN(subnet) and 1 wan using 2 cards. if i want to have 192.168.10.0, 192.168.20.0, and 192.168.30.0 networks on my network, how can i achieve that with 2 network cards on my Linux server. Plz help. Many thanks.

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey igwe-

Thanks!

That’s a pretty advanced question, im not sure I can help you much more than this.

Basically you could setup (3) servers using the guide.
Server 1 (192.168.10.1) would be identical to the guide, handing out dhcp to something like 192.168.10.50 through 192.168.10.200 (leaving 10.200 through 10.254 for anything reserved, like printers and file servers and such)

Server 2 (192.168.20.1) would be identical to the guide except you wouldn’t setup the router\nat\firewall parts of page 5, just having changed the sysctrl.conf file to allow the packets to flow through would be enough. Two nics, both static, nic 1=192.168.10.49, nic 2=192.168.20.1, nic 2 would be your dhcp server nic, handing out 192.168.20.50 through 192.168.20.200 (leaving 20.200 through 20.254 for anything reserved, like printers and file servers and such)

Server 3 (192.168.30.1) would be identical to the guide except you wouldn’t setup the router\nat\firewall parts of page 5, just having changed the sysctrl.conf file to allow the packets to flow through would be enough. Two nics, both static, nic 1=192.168.10.48 , nic 2=192.168.30.1, nic 2 would be your dhcp server nic, handing out 192.168.30.50 through 192.168.30.200 (leaving 30.200 through 30.254 for anything reserved, like printers and file servers and such)

The above scenario would allow all subnets to be 255.255.255.0, which is the easiest to figure out, and would seclude broadcasting to the immediate subnet. While still allowing access to all resources by any node.

Sorry I can’t be more help, it’s an advanced question, with a million different answers \ solutions.

-Kevin

John Rowe said...

Hi Kev,
Well, once again you have guided me through a server setup. This time with proxmox. What a brilliant setup; with your server sitting on it as a VM. I tested a photo website, from my sons place, about 15km's away. It worked flawlessly... and knowing that security that's there - great (the original server on lower specced hardware is great too).
This time round was a bit of a rocky road for me, as I'm working at levels I couldn't have imagined a few months ago.
Thanks for being patient Kev and being there when I needed help.
Your guides have got to be the best.
I cant wait for your next flash of inspiration.
All the best, John.

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Thanks John, this is great to hear.

keep up the good work.

-Kev

Anonymous said...

Lovely work, although i have been lurking around for awhile i have not got around to commenting til now. cheers

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Anonymous, thanks!
-Kevin

hfelton (home website down for now) said...

howdee kevin,

just like everyone else - i want to say THANK YOU for your wonderful guide... i have had an old P3 setup running for awhile now (years?) and it worked great... everything that i wanted/needed and the version i had of your guide was 3.76 fwiw...

anyways - this past week i encountered the inevitable issue you mentioned: I have never had a Linux box fail that wasn’t a hardware problem. and now i am unsure how to proceed... i had, as recommended, made a secondary disk for my data and backups... the power supply failure seems to have killed the OS disk too... i had been doing automatic updates, so the server was probably no longer a reguluar debian 5.04 as it used to be...

my backups are labelled bcf-xxxdatexxx and seem to just be configuration-files that were backed-up as of the first of the month... i found, but could not boot, the original debian-5.04 install disk i had used... my questions are all the semi-obvious ones... 1) CAN i recreate my system again using just these configuration-files ? 2) SHOULD i try to recreate my old system again or just start fresh with the latest guide ? 3) assuming i just start fresh, would my old P3 be able to handle something fancy like a proxmox install with/for virtual-machines ? (i want to setup an ancient win95 vm for a specific reason) 4) how do YOU handle the inevitable hardware failures in your systems ?

i dont remember reading about disaster-recovery in your guide, but if it is there - then please feel free to point me in the correct direction... :)

again, regardless of how i fare thru this hiccup - your guides have been immensely valuable... THANX, h.

hfelton said...

howdee again,

i was just skimming thru the guide and found the section with the bcf-***date*** names on create scheduled backup at the last page (4) of the basic-system setups... it seems to me that by the time i get to there - i wont need the backups anymore... i dont exactly remember all the details i used (altho i mustve followed the guide quite closely) to create my old system and was hoping the backups could save me some reading and/or time...

helpfully, however, that last page answers my question about proxmox (dont bother on my old P3) for VMs... i will have to do a bit more thinking to decide whether to re-create my original box (the psu and hdd are replaced/working now) or upgrade to some other (lying-around) hardware and maybe get more usability and features...

thanx again, h.

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey hfelton-

Thanks for the compliments, that would have been years ago.

Backups of the configuration files can help you get up and running again after a rebuild. Lets say you had a webserver and an ftp server setup, their entire configurations are saved in those backed up files, you can use the info in those files to configure your new server, but a clean install is needed.

Also, if you have backed up webmin "modules" (.wbm) they can be imported onto your new system, saving you even more time in your rebuild.

To answer your question i would start all over with Debian 6.05, as Debian 5 was labeled "end of life" in February.

My answer to this problem is Proxmox, with your server as a virtual machine. Failed operating systems can be fully restored from a snapshot, but as you mentioned, you would need a much more powerful computer to run the virtual machines.

With a P3, you could look into disk imaging (dd, ghost, acronis) or maybe raiding your computer, linux has free disk imaging tools and linux has free raid software, either way you don't have to buy anything except more hard drives, and there are videos on my website about raid, and many tutorials online how to us

dd to image your operating system disk to a file.

Best of luck, cheapest solution = just start over with new hard drives, Debian 6.05

-Kevin

hfelton said...

thanx again for the chat-back... im about to do as you recommended...

1) start over with P3 and new hdd and debian-6.05 following latest guide...

2) will prolly dd backup image (seem to recall OS was pretty minimal sizewise for my minimal needs) either alongside-of or instead-of the configuration files described...

i remember reading thru stuff about raid, but didnt have the spare hdd at the time - altho i seem to remember setting up the lvm-stuff and not finding much of an advantage... since im gonna be starting-over again - on similarly ancient hw - ill prolly not bother with raid this time either... ah well... :)

i grabbed a different/spare (old) P4 box and tried to install proxmox - but (hidden fairly well, it seems to me) theres a requirement for 64-bit chips !!! yeah - i wont be doing that anytime soon... my only 64-bit machine is doing realtime/regular duties... otoh, i tried to bootup into debian-605 (32 bit) and had an obscure video-issue (apparently others have had it, specific to this P4-dell model)... thus, im gonna go back to my trusty-old P3 and get it up-and-running again...

iirc, there were lots of little tweaks that i made along the way - and many of the user-accounts (old roommates) are long-since gone, so it is prolly just-as-well that im starting fresh... the old config-files will help me sort out some of the details, i guess... i dont remember being able to backup the webmin-modules, but it is prolly in the latest guide...

random/last comment tho, the website shows v.3.90 but i think when i went to download the pdf of the guide (http://woodel.com/my-linux-how-to/pdf/), it was v.3.88 (not 3.90)... havent checked the details (are there date-stamps on website-pages somewhere ?) to be sure - but just thought youd like to know... i still have pdf-bookmarks set in the old guide from when i was studying/using it... maybe ill wget the latest-website version and bookmark it instead...

anyways, hopefully the link to my old homestead (hfelton.com) works again sometime soon... thanx, h.

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey hfelton-

I no longer provide .pdf versions. That's why you see no more links on my website.

For imaging you may perfer clonezilla, as dd will make a file the same size as your hard drive, clonezilla can compress it.

Yes, Proxmox requires a beast.

As long as you have a backup of the data and a backup of the conf files, the rebuild should only take a couple hours, best of luck.

-Kevin

Mad Prof said...

Kev,
hate to be such a dunse but tried to do an update on my server Debian 5.0 and it is fetching packages but then it bombs out saying it cannot authenticate the package. Did apt-get upgrade from server directly and webwin ssh module and it happens both times. Do I need to add some kind of keyring somewhere - I searched through these posts and no one has listed anything regarding this - as far as I could tell. I haven't upgraded in a while and maybe procedure changed?

What am I doing wrong???:(

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Whats up Mad Prof!!! long time.

Deb 5 went end of life, you need to upgrade to Deb 6. A google search will show you how.

take care
-Kev

Mad Prof said...

Oops - I guess I am outdated - ouch and again have been relegated to dinosaur status. Thank you and I will get cooking on it before the semester starts.

You are the best as always and thank you for your help!!!

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey MadProf-

My pleasure, keep in touch.

-Kev

hfelton said...

howdee kevin,

finally getting around to redoing the process... hit a snag (typo) and thought id mention it:

the third-line of apt-get from putty refers to libmd5-perl... that causes the whole-line to error-out... i removed that package and it worked... did some googling and tried libdigest-md5-perl instead (http://isp-control.net/ispcp/ticket/2381)... but that just said that my -perl- was already the latest... my guess is that md5 is integrated into default-perl-stuff, so is not used anymore...

hopefully, ill be back up-n-running again in another day or two... retired the p3, using a newer p4 instead...

thanx, h.

hfelton said...

addenda - the next line of wget doesnt seem to resolve correctly after the referrer-process (i think) on both sourceforge and woodel - so i used the actual-ip-address numbers that showed up (for woodel) and it worked... my guess is there is a switch needed for the wget... idk... hth, h.

hfelton said...

howdee again kevin,

really - this is the best guide out there - and i really appreciate all that you do to maintain it... :) ill be sending a donation here soon...

i thought id mention a couple of things that im still struggling with - and maybe they will help others...

1) i found a source for the libmd5-perl digest - namely HERE... in particular, usermin was having all-sorts-of-issues until i gave it this pkg... and tho i was able to sort-of workaround and get usermin working, i could not add something manually (using apt-get) that I find/found useful - ddclient...

2) i had an earlier dns-issue that i had not mentioned, when setting up the timezone stuff - i could not get the 0.us.pool.ntp.org to work... i tried to ping the-usa-pool and/or google a direct-ip-address, and eventually found one... using that, i was able to proceed... my guess is that the wget and this-ntp-issue are related to using the -fake- diy.lan somehow... my simple home-router wants to enforce a different domain which might resolve it... idk - just a thought...

3 - interestingly, i was not able to find my /etc/ddclient.conf file in the BCF-backups... it took a fair amount of poking and prodding to get it working last-time as i recall, and since itd been a couple of years - it took another good-while to work this time... my router doesnt have the fancy dyndns-client screens that some of the newer ones do (like your guide assumes) - so i needed the ddclient-pkg... i have now finally found the correct webmin-module also, altho i had to download/install it manually (due to a php-counter-thingie) from HERE in france...

anyways - i hope some of this babbling is useful to ya (or someone else)... thanx again, h.

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

hfelton-

thanks again

In response to your donation i just setup a new machine (64 bit debian 6.05) and didn't have any problems except that package that isn't available. All i did was remove that package from the copy \ paste, and all was good.

For the ddclient conf, look in /etc/default

Sounds like you might be having some DNS issues, what IP do you get when you ping woodel.com what IP do you get when you ping google.com

best of luck, thanks again

-Kevin

hfelton said...

gah - i think that my problem has to do with the one-other-file i didnt remember to include in the above...


cat /etc/resolv.conf
# domain gateway.2wire.net
# search gateway.2wire.net
domain hfelton.local
search hfelton.local
nameserver 172.16.0.1


which id changed from the dhcp to the static-stuff from the guide... my guess is that i needed to leave things at the 2wire-level (from router hosting dynamic-section of subnet) until i get farther along in the process... idk... h.

hfelton said...

of course, i see the error after posting... sigh... forgot to change the nameserver... :) thx, h.

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

hfelton-

I've cleaned up the webpage a little to include the newest webmin and usermin links, and removed some of those apt-gets that weren't needed.

I've labeled it Version 3.91, thanks for the feedback. Good work on your DNS issue. Thanks again, I've posted you on the donations site as
"hfelton"

-Kevin

Unknown said...

This is an excellent guide. I have a Ubuntu machine acting as a server but would like to change it over to Debian/Webmin. I am also setting up a small server at my parents house for offsite backup. I have a quick question regarding HDD requirements. My Ubuntu server has a 30GB SSD for the boot drive. What is the install size for the server OS?

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Jeff-

thanks !

Your all set, i have setup many with just 8GB for the OS, with room to breath, so yours is more than enough.

-Kev

Unknown said...

@Kevin: Thanks for the details about size. I have another board sitting around with a bootable 8GB CF card.

Visalia said...

Thank you!

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Visalia-
Short and sweet :- ) thanks again
-Kev

cfhs_1 said...

Hello!

I've used your PDF from start to finish a few times now, and I must say it is really complete and a great refrence to look back on when I get confused with my servers! We had a breif run in over at ubuntuforums.org when I first found your PDF here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1612991&page=2

Anyways, on to the point of my comment. I set up RSSH, as per your guide recently, but I cannot get it working to save my life. If I try to connect in putty with my RSSH user, it will connect, ask for password, breifly log in, the immediently kick me back out. Any idea as the cause to this? I tried getting help over on the forums, but no one seems to be replying. We can move this discussion there if you'd like. Here is the link to that:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2091383

Thanks in advance for you insight,
NCB

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey cfhs_1

thanks!

The steps i walk you through for rssh are for use with pscp.exe, as a backup destination for an scp transfer, not putty.exe, not shell access.

-Kev

Assan said...

Hello Kevin,

I have read everything I needed to help me on the first page of your blog. However, I hadn't seen a relation solution using debian. There a related solution for ubuntu. Here goes my question.

There is not file call aliases in the /etc/modeprobe.d/ directory or a file call blacklist in the same directory the only file in that directory is call fbdev-blacklist.conf. I am using debian release

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description: Debian GNU/Linux testing (wheezy)
Release: testing
Codename: wheezy

Can you kindly assist as I am stuck up here. This should correspond to pages 93-96 on version 3.85.

I shall be anticipating your reply.

Thanks
Assan

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Assan-

You would have to use Debian stable, there are links on my webpage (page1)

-Kevin

Assan said...

Hello Kevin,

Thanks for your prompt reply. I'll keep you posted.

Best regards
Assan

Assan said...

Hello Kevin;

Using a stable version of linux fixed my problems. Thank very much for the help.

Best regards
Assan

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Assan-

Very cool!

Keep up the good work.
-Kev

Assan said...

Hello Kevin;

I am progressing smoothly until I am stuck up here:

Help..
Module Config
Disk Quotas Search Docs..

No local filesystems can support quotas.

You can enable quotas for a filesystem in the Disk and Network Filesystems module.

I went to Network Filesystems module. but I do not know how to enable quotas.

Your help as usual will be highly appreciated.

Best regards
Assan

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Assan-

make sure quota is installed
apt-get install quota

make sure its enabled in the mount point, like in the bottom right of this picture

http://woodel.com/page2_files/p2_image055.jpg

if all that is in place, reboot the server and reboot your computer and try again.

-Kevin

Admin said...

Hi Kevin, awesome work! I've been following you for the past 2 years now and managed to build my own home server for all of us to use. Everything was working fine until I decided to replace my old Vista machine with a brand new iMac.

I've tried to find some instructions on how to get this to work from my Mac but since I'm a newbie on Mac, I don't understand some of the language on the web about this.

I've installed Webmin on my Mac but I can't seem to login to the server.

There must be something I'm doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Hercules

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Hercules
Thanks!

I can’t be much help when it comes to apple / MAC products, Sorry. They are over priced so I don’t use them.

I did some searches for you, and it ,looks like people install Google Chrome on their macs to access webmin.

But if you’re just trying to access the samba shares, i know that works, you would just go to GO, Connect to Server, and type
smb://192.168.2.1

Where 192.168.2.1 is the IP of your server.

Sorry I can’t be more help, I don’t use or own anything MAC / Apple.

-Kev

Assan said...

Hello Kevin;

Quota had already been installed as I get this message when I want to install it.

quota is already the newest version.

But I can't see the package under the Disk Quotas module even after I have rebooted the server.

What could be the possible problem?

Best regards
Assan

Assan said...

Hello Kevin;

It works on.

Thanks
Assan

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Assan-

Awesome, glad its working.

-Kevin

Assan said...

Hello Kevin;

I have created files shares for roommate1 to public in samba windows file sharing.

However, I can log into the account roommate1 but I cannot for instance I cannot create a folder in there. Access denied is the error I get. Likewise for the folder public.

Have I missed out something in my samba config?

Best regards
Assan

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Assan-

Sounds like local file\folder permissions.

Read page 3 again, and then use the FileManager module to check permissions, its probably the top folder.

good luck
-Kevin

Zayd Bhyat said...

Awesome tutorial, has helped me out of a lot.

One problem im having is protecting my web directories. Even after following your tutorial and updating webmin i'm unable to create it for the site. I added the AuthConfig to the default file in sites available, restarted apache, installed the module and added the protection to the directory with the users but it doesnt work. Can you please help?

thanks kev :)

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Zayd

Thanks !

What usually causes that is either, the folder doesn't exist yet (the module cant make it), or its not 755 permissions all the way down to the folder.

Meaning if you want to protect folder /var/www/private with /var/www/private/.htacess

and you put the password file in /options/webpass/private/.htpasswd

then the folders, options, webpass, and private must already exist (it wont make them for you)

and they all need to be 755 permissions, so apache can see into them.

Make sure your using Debian stable (6.xx) and not 7

If none of these work, email me your apache conf file.

Keep up the good work, its gets easier the 5th time :- )
-Kevin

Zayd Bhyat said...

Hi Kev,

Sorry I took so long to reply, working two jobs isn't easy. Well my permissions allow sugar(admin for the CRM application i'm running) and zayd to have 755 access to the var/www folder which are also part of the group www-data. The .htaccess file points to the .htpasswd-4-var-www-files with sugar and zayd as registered usernames.
could I grab your email address please?

Thanks
Zayd

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

I hear ya, i have (4)

Its on my website, woodel.com

The world will need read and execute rights to the protected dir and the dir containing the password.

755 on everything, all the way down, for both. If thats in place i will probably see the problem in your apache .conf

What version of Debian are you using? I can only help you with Debian 5 and 6. I cant help you with Debian 7 or Ubuntu 11/12.

-Kev

Erika said...

Many thanks for sharing these and also a number of comment from where i got some nice info.

Daniel said...

I'm having some trouble, I'm on the FTP part, just trying to connect to it from the My Computer window but windows gives a FTP Folder error, saying connection to the server reset.

Im wondering if my router is blocking it? It's a Bt Business hub 3 lol

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Hey Daniel-

Thats most likely not your fault, there is an issue with Debian 7 and VSFTPD, they bumped the security up a notch and i haven't updated my guide yet about it.

Here are your options:

-Stop using ftp and use sftp, its in my "do more" link, and is superior in every way. This is your best option.

-Start over with Debian 6, you wont have this problem with Debian 6, it has the older version of VSFTPD before that security patch thats causing the problem.

-Email me on how to install the old version of VSFTPD on Debian 7.

Or wait a few weeks for me to update my guide for the new VSFTPD fix, which doesnt allow users to own their home directory when chrooted, i will update my guide with these steps, but it will take me awhile. Basically you have to make root the owner of everyones home directory and make them a folder one folder deeper that they can own. example, /home/username/myfiles. You have to make this change for every user on the system if you enable chroot, which we do. And reboot then it will work. If you email me i will let you know when i post the new guide.

You will eventually switch to sftp anyway, so i would go that route. Its better in every single way.

-Kev

Frank said...

Hey, Kevin, awesome tutorial. I'm using 8.6 (It's the only one I saw available) and on page 2 where I login from Windows computer for the first time it doesn't accept my password. I know it's right, I can hook up the key board and login direct, no problem. I even changed the password on Linux and same thing. I can ping both ways and Google. The Linux IP shows up on the router, the Linux computer name shows up in Network folder in Windows. Help!

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

What module or app are you trying to login to and what username are you using?

Frank said...

Sorry, I meant page 1. I'm just trying to logon to server for the first time from windows cmd. Putty comes up with login: and I type root and press enter. I then enter password, but I get access denied. I can use the same password directly on the server's keyboard and it works (yeah, I plugged the KB back in, just till I get it right).

Frank said...

Also, I'm using Debian 8.6 amd64.Everything worked perfect up to this point.

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Ahh, thats not your fault, Debian 8 doesn't allow root to login anymore without doing this small change first. This site explains how, you can use this link until i update my website to reflect this change. https://linuxconfig.org/enable-ssh-root-login-on-debian-linux-server

Frank said...

New situation: I'm starting with a fresh install of debian 8.6. All I want to do with it is make a powerful router out of a pentium 4 3.2 mhz. What installs do I need to start your tutorial for just the router? I really don't want to have to go back thru your whole discourse again and try to figure out what I'm missing. I'm sure you can come up with it pretty fast,,,,,,,please!!!!

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

There are no shortcuts to learning linux and networking. My website represents over 20 years’ experience and I wouldn’t say I’ve come close to knowing 0.1% of either one. If you would still like to fast-track your progress here are two sites that may help you. This is the blog where I learned how to make a linux router https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=926001 . Or this company makes an iso with routing built in you can run on your dedicated hardware https://www.untangle.com/get-untangle/ . Best of luck, I recommend a much slower pace, 20 years later I barely have a grasp on it myself, Google.com is your best resource.

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

I updated the website to version 3.96 which includes the SSH fix as username root (thanks Frank) as well as a brief example on how to use the Nano text editor. You may have to refresh your browser (F5).

Anonymous said...

I would like to say thanks for the great how to start to finish but I have just tried to build a server but it wont let me log in without java and none of the web browsers I have checked on lets you use java anymore.i was just wondering how to go about using webmin without java?? thank you for any info you could give me.

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Webmin itself doesn’t use Java, it uses Perl, so if you’re having problems logging in its not Java related. If you’re having problems with Java it’s likely one of the modules like ssh2 or FileManager. If you update to the latest Webmin the FileManager has been replaced with a new one that doesn’t use Java. And I have stopped using the ssh2 module and use Putty for all my ssh needs.

I’ve also seen some newer Linux builds that are missing the sudo command. I would make sure you can login to Putty as both your username you created during the install and as root, I'm guessing your problem is there, once you can login to putty with your own username and as root, try both of those in Webmin and you should be good.

I did a quick google search and found this command on enabling sudo, just change the “myusername” to the name you created during install. You may want to google search a little deeper and see if this fits your needs.

su - && aptitude install sudo && adduser myusername sudo

Anonymous said...

How do you us webmin to help set this up now that you can`t get ssh2 to work on any of the web browser now? I had used this to set up a server before and it was nice to have the webmin program to help with the set up but I just tried to us webmin a little bit a go and it will not work. Is there something I missing or is there a way to log in with some other program to do what webmin will do to help with setting up the server???

thanks for any help you could give on this

KevinTheComputerGuy said...

Again Webmin is not written using Java, so if you are having problem getting Webmin to work it is not related to Java missing. It’s more likely you’re having problems with a particular module. Modules that need Java will not work.

You’re probably looking for the “Text Login” module under the “Other” category in Webmin, you can click on module configuration and change it to login as root and do most of the stuff ssh2 used to do as it’s written by the same guy. However as mentioned above Putty is what I use and you will find detailed examples of this on page 1 and 2 as well as some examples on using the Nano text editor via Putty.

The new Perl based File Manager covers most of my needs, but if I need deeper access then I use Putty.

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