installing and using Webmin
mid-2008

Webmin: (docs: homepage; article: OnLamp)

Webmin allows point-and-click configuration of many services. However, I've stopped using it because:

  1. as with most web applications, if the screen is not refreshed after a change is made somehow in the background (eg. via SSH), the screen will show information which is no longer correct, this is confusing and dangerous
  2. using a point-and-click interface stops me learning the correct commandlines, which I think are important to know
  3. increased dependency and security issues

So I no longer install it, and don't particularly recommend you use the instructions below (although they work fine).

Before installing, do this (may be required on 6.x and below only):

  1. vi /etc/make.conf
  2. add this line: X11BASE=${LOCALBASE}
  3. save the changes and exit the editor
  4. vi /etc/rc.conf
  5. add this line: webmin_enable="YES"
  6. save the changes and exit the editor

To install webmin:

  1. cd /usr/ports/sysutils/webmin
  2. make install clean

To configure or reconfigure webmin, run the following command: /usr/local/lib/webmin/setup.sh

Notes on webmin configuration:

To start and stop webmin, use these commands:

/usr/local/etc/webmin/start
/usr/local/etc/webmin/stop

To access webmin on a machine on the LAN, use an address like this: http://hostname:port/ or http://IP.address.in.use:port/

To access webmin on a machine at the other end of an SSH tunnel, use an address like this: http://localhost:3001/

Notes: