Webmin, Virtualmin and APT for Ubuntu and Debian

I often use Webmin and Virtualmin to manage basic stuff on Linux servers, mostly so because others sometime need to change minor settings on these servers, and they may or may not be very familiar with doing things from the CLI.

You can, of course, update Webmin and Virtualmin manually, from within Webmin. But if you’re using APT, there is an automated, better, way of keeping these lovely software packages up to date.

Webmin

Create a file in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ like webmin.list

Add the following line to that file:

deb https://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib

Add Jamie Cameron’s GPG key for the repository like so:

cd /root
wget https://download.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc
apt-key add jcameron-key.asc

Finalize everything with

apt-get install apt-transport-https
apt-get update

You may now install/update Webmin with via APT (apt-get, aptitude, etc).

Virtualmin

Create a file in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ like virtualmin.list

For Ubuntu 18.04.LTS (“Xenial”), add the following to that file:

deb http://software.virtualmin.com/vm/6/gpl/apt virtualmin-xenial main
deb http://software.virtualmin.com/vm/6/gpl/apt virtualmin-universal main

There are, of course, sources available for other distributions too. Simply replace xenial above, with the name of the distribution you’re running. You can find a list of the Debian based distributions here: software.virtualmin.com/vm/6/gpl/apt/dists/

Add the virtualmin GPG key for the repository like so:

cd /root
wget http://software.virtualmin.com/lib/RPM-GPG-KEY-virtualmin-6
apt-key add RPM-GPG-KEY-virtualmin-6

Finalize everything with

apt-get update

You may now install/update Virtualmin via APT (apt-get, aptitude, etc). You can find some more information about this in relation to Virtualmin on the Virtualmin forum.

8 thoughts on “Webmin, Virtualmin and APT for Ubuntu and Debian”

  1. I need to do this on Ubuntu 18.04. By mistake I installed virtualmin 3.922 and lost all my configuration. I cannot believe how incredibly difficult it is to find a tutorial on how to update virtualmin. It should be the first thing coming up, when you search in the Virtualmin documentation. But no mention of it anywhere…. Do you have any tips please??

    Reply
    • Ouch, that doesn’t sound like fun.

      Did you run the Virtualmin installer? I think I’ve made that mistake once too.

      What is it that you need tips for? I don’t think there’s any way to “undo” the Virtualmin installation that you may have run. My post simply outlines how to add Webmin and Virtualmin repositories to your distribution so that you can update them by means of using APT or APTITUDE.

      Reply
      • I was looking at your link for other distributions but couldn’t find ubuntu.
        I’m simply looking for a way to update my virtualmin installation to the latstest version. That should not be so difficult, but I cannot find any guide that works. That’s why I ended up downgrading instead of upgrading, someone had posted the wrong information…

        Reply
        • 1. How did you install the current Virtualmin you’re using?
          2. How did you install the current Webmin you’re using?
          3. What distribution (and version) are you using?

          Reply
  2. 1. if my notes are correct, I followed this tutorial to install webmin and virtualmin:
    https://www.webmin.com/deb.html
    but I had to change some steps to make it for Ubuntu.
    2. same as above. apt list –installed shows:
    webmin/stable,stable,now 1.970 all [installed]
    but no mention of virtualmin
    3. Ubuntu 18.04

    Reply

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