Webmin installation on Ubuntu - Install Webmin in Ubuntu 10.10

Install Webmin

The standard installation of Webmin fails in Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.4. You have to install manually as described here.

Log in to your Ubuntu machine. Open a browser to the following Webmin download page. If you select the link on this page, it will open in a new window.
http://www.webmin.com/download.html.

Down the bottom of the download page you will see the following line and link. Place the mouse over the link, right click, and select Copy Link Location.
Debian package suitable for Debian, Ubuntu or other derived Linux
http://www.webmin.com/download/deb/webmin-current.deb

Select Applications then Accessories then Terminal. Terminal is a 1950s DOS/Unix/Linux command line box. Terminal should open in your home directory. You should be able to get to the downloads directory by typing cd Downloads then pressing enter. Make sure you use the capital D because Linux and Unix think D is different to d when used in a name.

Type wget and make sure there is a space after the wget. Go to the Terminal menu and select Edit then Paste. Press enter. A program named wget will download webmin-current.deb to your downloads directory.

Windows users will be used to Ctrl-v to paste text. Terminal lets you use Ctrl-Shift-v to paste text.

The following command is the finished command. You can copy the command from this page and paste into Terminal.
wget http://www.webmin.com/download/deb/webmin-current.deb

Now type sudo dpkg -i webmin-current.deb and press enter. You can copy the command from this page and paste into Terminal.

Terminal may ask for your password. Type your password and press enter.

Error messages

You may get messages about missing prerequisite software. i no longer get the error with Webmin on Ubuntu 11.4. Here are steps to fix up what Webmin mixed up.

Go to Applications and start Ubuntu Software Centre. Ubuntu Software Centre will complain about an error and suggest a repair. Repair.

Type sudo dpkg -i webmin-current.deb and press enter. Parts of Webmin are installed out of sequence and will be there the second time you run the installation command.

Log in

The installation messages end with a message about logging in. Log in. I get the following message on my example computer.

You can now login to https://example:10000/ as root with your root password, or as any user who can use sudo to run commands as root.

Copy the URL, similar to https://example:10000/, into the address box in your Web browser and press enter. Webmin will appear in your Web browser.

Password problem

This error may occur when you first login to Webmin in Ubuntu 11.4. The Webmin user is set to root with a mystery password. Your user id is not set up for login. you have to type the following command into the ancient Terminal. Replace example-password with the password you use to authenticate when you perform system administration work, which will be your password from when you installed Ubuntu.
sudo /usr/share/webmin/changepass.pl /etc/webmin root example-password

After the login, go to Webmin, Webmin Users, then Create a new Webmin user. Use your user name. Set the password to Unix authentication. Go to Permissions for all modules, select all, then save the change. Log out. Log in as yourself.