Webmin
Webmin is the must-have GUI environemnt for Mac OS X open-source system administration. I have suggested that it be first MacPorts installation, as many of the MacPorts installations can be later configured to be managed in Webmin. Comprehensive documentation for Webmin is freely available online, including The Book of Webmin.
Webmin is written entirely in PERL, so you are encouraged to install an up-to-date MacPorts PERL environment before installing Webmin. To install PERL, just execute the following from a command line (you may be required to enter a Mac OS X administrative password):
After this PERL installation, the
/opt/local/bin directory has perl and perl5.8.8, compared to the
default Mac OS X /usr/bin directory with perl and perl5.8.6. A log of the
PERL installation can be
found here.
Before installing Webmin, it is also good to install ssleay as support for SSL. This can be done
by executing the following
from a command line (you may be required to enter a Mac OS X administrative password again):
A log of the SSLeay installation can be
found here.
To install Webmin, first download the latest tar.gz package, either using a browser from
http://webmin.com/download.html. You
can then double-click on the tar.gz file to expand the file into a Webmin directory. Alternatively,
you can do the download and installation entirely from the command line:
curl -O http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/webadmin/webmin-1.470.tar.gz
gnutar zxf webmin-1.470.tar.gz
Regardless of browser or command line, you will then need to run the install shell script from the command line:
sudo ./setup.sh /opt/local/webmin
This instruction starts a shell script which installs Webmin using a number of default responses. We want to change many of those default responses so that Webmin is installed in the MacPorts opt directory. The following is a transcript of the installation shell script, with the required responses:
Installing Webmin from /webmin-1.370 to /opt/local/webmin ...
*********************************************************************** Webmin uses separate directories for configuration files and log files. Unless you want to run multiple versions of Webmin at the same time you can just accept the defaults.
Config file directory [/etc/webmin]: /opt/local/etc/webmin
Log file directory [/var/webmin]: /opt/local/var/webmin
*********************************************************************** Webmin is written entirely in Perl. Please enter the full path to the Perl 5 interpreter on your system.
Full path to perl (default /usr/bin/perl): /opt/local/bin/perl
Testing Perl ... Perl seems to be installed ok
*********************************************************************** Operating system name: Mac OS X
Operating system version: 10.4
*********************************************************************** Webmin uses its own password protected web server to provide access to the administration programs. The setup script needs to know :
- What port to run the web server on. There must not be another
web server already using this port.
- The login name required to access the web server.
- The password required to access the web server.
- If the webserver should use SSL (if your system supports it).
- Whether to start webmin at boot time.
Web server port (default 10000):
Login name (default admin):
Login password:
Password again:
Use SSL (y/n): y
Start Webmin at boot time (y/n): y
*********************************************************************** Copying files to /opt/local/webmin ..
..done
Creating web server config files..
..done
Creating access control file..
..done
Inserting path to perl into scripts..
..done
Creating start and stop scripts..
..done
Copying config files..
..done
Configuring Webmin to start at boot time..
..done
Creating uninstall script /opt/local/etc/webmin/uninstall.sh ..
..done
Changing ownership and permissions ..
..done
Running postinstall scripts ..
..done
Attempting to start Webmin mini web server..
Starting Webmin server in /opt/local/webmin ..done
*********************************************************************** Webmin has been installed and started successfully. Use your web
browser to go to
http://localhost:10000/
and login with the name and password you entered previously.
Because Webmin uses SSL for encryption only, the certificate it uses is not signed by one of the recognized CAs such as Verisign. When you first connect to the Webmin server, your browser will ask you if you want to accept the certificate presented, as it does not recognize the CA. Say yes.
