Webmin is a system administration tool that enables you to manage a web server without the command-line interface (CLI). A popular free cPanel alternative, Webmin can complete a long list of sysadmin features natively and with installable modules:
- File, database, and user management
- Language and theme customization
- Scheduled backup configuration
- Resource monitoring
- Server hardening
- DNS Settings
- Manage email
- And much more…
Install Webmin on Ubuntu with APT
This guide was tested on Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04.
- Log into SSH as root.
- Edit your APT sources file:
nano /etc/apt/sources.list
- Add Webmin to the file:
deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib
- Download the developer’s GPG key which signed the repo:
wget https://download.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc
- Add it to your list of trusted keys:
apt-key add jcameron-key.asc
- Update your package lists:
apt-get update
- Install Webmin:
apt-get install webmin
- If applicable, open port 10000 on your server firewall. If you don’t have one installed already, we recommend ConfigServer Security & Firewall (CSF) or Firewalld for managing iptables firewall rules.
- Set a password for the root Webmin user:
/usr/share/webmin/changepass.pl /etc/webmin/ root NewStrongPassword
Add a space before the command to prevent it (and your new password) from being saved in your bash history.
You’ll receive the following notification: “Password for Webmin user root updated successfully.”
Afterwards, log into https://YourServerHostname:10000 or https://YourServerIP:10000 with your Webmin user credentials.
Can’t locate ./acl/md5-lib.pl/ ?
If you receive the “Can’t locate ./acl/md5-lib.pl…” error, try the following steps.
- Navigate to the Webmin directory:
cd /usr/share/webmin
- Rerun the password reset script or try this variation of the command:
./changepass.pl /etc/webmin/ root NewStrongPassword
If you prefer a one-liner to complete the two steps above you can use the following:
cd /usr/share/webmin/ && ./changepass.pl /etc/webmin/ root NewStrongPassword
Fix the Self-signed SSL Certificate Error
You should address the self-signed SSL issue immediately after installing Webmin for better server security. We recommend installing an SSL certificate with Certbot.
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