Debian Howto Start to Finish Using Webmin

8/8/2019 Debian Howto Start to Finish Using Webmin

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Version 3.84

Are you using the most current version of this how-to? Version numbers are located at the top right of this page.

Latest versions are available at my homepage http://woodel.com

Setting up a Linux Server, Start to Finish, using Webmin. By Kevin Elwood

This how-to assumes your looking to setup a Linux Server, not a Linux Desktop. For use without a keyboard, mouse, or GUI

interface. After setup completes you will be remotely managing it, and will not have a need for the monitor and keyboard onceyou have finished the initial setup. This how-to also assumes you are connected to the internet, and have at least (2) computerson the same network. It also assumes you will have at least (2) hard-drives in the server, one for the O.S. and one for the data.Only one network card is needed until the optional \ advanced section.

For every download link, I offer an alternative source (from my server) so that you may follow this how-to exactly, down to thesame versions I used. Newer is better, and youre encouraged to upgrade after you complete this how-to. But for continuity andflow, I provide a link to the same exact versions used in this how-to. Also due to upgrades some versions may no longer beavailable, if you run into this just use the links to my server, this will ensure matching print screens, or go to webmin.com and findthe newer link.

This how-to covers everything from the most basic setup, to a full blown server. You can choose how far to go in this step by stephow-to, even setting your Linux box up as your Router, Samba FileServer, Firewall, DNS, HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, VMWare Server,backup solution, and more.

No table-of-contents, it is assumed you will follow this how-to, step by step, as each page builds off the previous ones. If you skipa page, you could miss an installer or file called for later in the how-to. I hope you will find this how-to helpful. I will try my best torespond via email at [email protected] if you have questions, I will try my best to respond to all of them, butplease try my BLOG first. With any luck that will turn into a knowledge base.

My stuff will always be free for personal use, but if you would still like to contribute, you can donate money towards this, or oneof my other how-to's


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*Special thanks to:

Bill M., Mike J., Julio C., NathanR., Tim R., James M., Melissa E., Peter B., ggaron, till, sammydee, Mad Professor,AdamLis, Mihai Marinof, Lani78, Jordan Sissel, Jerome1232, Drdos2006, and of course Jamie Cameron (Webmin\ Usermin)Putty, Cobian Backup, Debian Linux, Ubuntu Linux,Ubuntuforums.org, and the millions of people that make it possible.

- OK... Lets begin

Although this guide was created using Debian, it will also help Ubuntu users. You will run into some problems with Ubuntus firewall(UFW) and Ubuntus Network Manager. Ubuntus local email and the way Ubuntu restarts services. Ubuntu uses vi not vim. Butthese arent major problems, the work a rounds and differences are fairly minor, you can email me or read my blog for help. For astep-by-step install, please use Debian.

Start by downloading and burning the latest stable Debian .iso from

http://www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp/

Or from my sever(32 bit)

http://t3.woodel.com/my-linux-how-to/debian-503-i386-CD-1.iso

(64 bit)

http://t3.woodel.com/my-linux-how-to/debian-503-amd64-CD-1.iso


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* You only need CD #1 , if there is more than one to choose from

*Due to upgrades some versions may no longer be available, if you run into this just use the links to my server, this will ensurematching print screens. Or go to debian.org and find the newer link.

Before you begin the install Remove any unwanted \ unneeded hardware. Such as zip drives, sound cards, etc

Disable any useless BIOS options, such as com ports, integrated sound cards, etcDisable any Keyboard or Mouse warnings

Disable any power management features


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If your BIOS has an OS option, choose Other

Remove all hard drives except the one youre planning on being the OS drive. This will ensure you do not format the wrong drive, andhelp make this how-to a little smaller and easier to follow.

It is assumed you only have one network card at this point. If you have more than one, you may want to remove or disable them. Thesecond NIC wont be used until the optional \ advanced sections, and can interfere with the eth numbering and firewall setup preoptional \ advanced section.

Boot the computer off the Debian install CD, and choose Install


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Do not choose Graphical Install you dont want that, just choose Install.

Everything in this how-to is case sensitive, so if I use lower-case, then use lower-case.If you see something in capital letters, make sure to use capitals.Basically copy it exactly as you see it.


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Choose a unique name for the computer, I did deb32server1To me that means, Debian, 32bit, Server, first one of several

Think of it as your computers first name, and on the next page we will set the last name.

You can make something up, we will be referring to this computer by its IP address anyway


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So the name is somewhat meaningless, as long as the name is unique, so that you dont have a same name conflict with anothercomputer on your network.

You can even use deb32server1 just like I did

This is private to your network, it doesnt matter if you copy me exactly. It may even help make the how-to a little easier to follow.


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Choose a domain name for the computer, I did diy.lan

Which to me means, Do It Yourself . Local Area Network

You can make something up. Its almost like a last name for your computers.Its totally private to your network. But just like your family, youre going to want to have all the same last name on all yourcomputers.

Which makes this computers full name deb32server1.diy.lan

Which to me means

Debian, 32bit, Server, first one of several, on a custom do it yourself Local Network

We will be referring to this computer by its IP address for now anyway, so this isnt too important at this point.


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Much later on in the how-to, when we setup a Local Dynamic DNS server(which is optional and advanced) you might find it easier to follow the how-to, if you also use diy.lan

It doesnt have to end with .lan you could make something up.I just think it will help the flow of the how-to if you chose something ending in .lan


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Choose your time zone


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Choose Guided use entire disk


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If you removed all the other hard-drives pre install, you should only see one option here.


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Choose All files in one partition


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Choose a password for the account named root (choose a very strong password here)


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Created a second user, so you dont always have to login as root.

Here I used the name wood

You can use anything you want


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I like to keep the username the same as the full name, this can help avoid confusion later on.


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Choose a password for the account you just created(Choose a very strong password here, this user will have more rights than a normal user)


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You should be able to leave this blank, and click ContinueIf you have a proxy, chances are you would know what to do here anyway.


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Using the Space bar on your keyboard, un-check Desktop environment.

Make sure to un-check everything. With the exception ofStandard system

We will install most of these things later in the how-to, dont be tempted to click on them now. And most importantly, do not chooseDesktop environment. This is a server how-to, not a desktop how-to.


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Remove the CD, and press Continue


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Did you see this screen? If not you probably didnt remove the CD.Make sure you are not booting off the CD anymore.


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If everything goes right, you should get a lot of text on the screen and finally a login prompt like this one.

Please ignore that mine says debian-1 at the bottom left. I am just at a different computer today.

If you were expecting that to say; deb32server1 login : you are rightI am just at a different computer today.

Your screen will say your computer name, followed by a login prompt

This wont interrupt the flow of anything at this point


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Login as username root with the password you specified during setup.*Note, if you cant login as root, login as your username, and type sudo before every command


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Type vim /etc/apt/sources.list*Note, if you get an error, some versions of Linux might want you to type vi instead of vim

Then hit the Enter key on your keyboard

(there is always a space after vim)


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* If you dont see anything on the screen (the contents of that file) then you typed something wrong.** When you see the screen above, you know you typed it correctly

Press the insert key on your keyboard to allow you to type inside the file

Use the #symbol to comment out un-wanted lines

Comment out any lines that have cdrom in them


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When you are finished press the Esc key on your keyboard, this will take you out of insert mode and should move your cursor to the

bottom left of the screen

Then press the : key

You should see this symbol on the bottom left of your screen

Then type wq!

So that it reads :wq! In the bottom left corner of the screen

Then press the enter key

It should then save the changes to that file, and exit you back to the command prompt.


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It will say something like filename written

You wont need to use that vim editor very often after we complete the setup. But if youre stuck

on it and cant get it to work. Do a Google search on Linux vi editor there should be somegood examples that will help you on the previous page. Only if youre stuck.

What that did was tell the computer to not use the CD when looking for software.

Now run apt-get update so it will both realize your cd-rom changes, and go look on the internet for the newest softwaresources. This only looks for new sources, it doesnt actually go get them.

(there is always a space after apt-get)


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As long as youre connected to the internet, you should see something like this.

This next step is optional. After an apt-get update you will almost always want todo an apt-get upgrade

Thats the command that actually goes out and installs the newest versions. But if you want your screens to match mine exactly, youmight want to hold off on this step until your further into the setup and more comfortable with the screens.


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I will leave this as optional right now, and rest assured we will perform one later.Newer is better, but doing it now could put you at a version that doesnt match this how-to. Pick your poison :- )

If you have chosen to upgrade now, here is how.

Type apt-get upgrade and it will go get any approved updates that are availablefor your computer.

(there is always a space after apt-get)

If it finds something, you will probably be asked to type Y or YES and hit enter.

Either way, youre ready for the next page.


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Now we are going to install some packages (software)

Type apt-get install samba smbfs ssh dhcp3-server openssl dnsutils apt-show-versions

(there is always a space after apt-get)(there is a space between each installer above)(this is the hard-way, later on in the how-to we will get into copying and pasting)


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Type it word for word

Its going to tell you that you need some additional installers, and it will prompt you to go get them.When asked make sure you type Y for yes and hit enter.

*note, you do not have to specify whether you want 64 or 32 bit installers, apt-get will decide for you based on your system. This is anexcellent feature.


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The install of Samba is going to ask you a few questions on screen. A GUI box will come up, without any mouse support. So use the

TAB key on your keyboard to move around it, and the enter key to choose things like next, continue, and OK.

Enter the same name you did earlier

Im going to use diy.lan


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Choose Yes to this


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The DHCP server software will warn you that its being installed as non-authorative. This is fine. You will also get a warning duringreboots that DHCP Server failed to start. This isn't an error and can be ignored it wont actually load unless we tell it to, so ignore anythoughts you might have about this for now. We will come back to it much later in the how-to.

You are almost ready to remove the keyboard and the monitor. We just need to set a static IP address(or reserve a DHCP one)


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If you type ifconfig and hit enter, it will show your current eth0 (Ethernet) IP address(inet addr) as well as your MAC address (HWadrr)


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You should see something like this.

If youre familiar with setting up DHCP reservations from your router, you just need the MAC address

and you will know what to do from here.

If youre not familiar with how to do that and just want to set a local static IP address, here is how.Note, later on in this how-to its assumed you have a static IP address, so you may want to setup a static address, even if you knowhow to do DHCP reservations.


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First chose an IP address that isnt part of your DHCP scope. For example, if your router is handing out IP addresses in a pool of192.168.2.2 through -192.168.2.100 then you wouldnt want to use any of those available 98 addresss in that pool (.2 through .100)

But you could safely choose anything above that pool, such as 192.168.2.101, 192.168.2.102, etcjust as long as it isnt in the range of the available IP addresses to the DHCP server pool of addresses.

If you dont know how to check what IP range your router is handing out, just add 100 to the IP address you currently have. This issloppy, but will most likely work. For example, if you automatically got an IP address of 192.168.2.72 its probably safe to set a staticaddress of 192.168.2.172, as most address pools are not larger than 100 (100 higher than what you currently have) This is sloppy, butshould work


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If this all sounds French to you. Giving this a lot of extra thought can help with future problems, for example on my network anythingabove a .100 address means its a server or printer of some kind. Anything above .200 means its wireless. Setting up meaning to thesecan be of great importance later on, as your network starts to grow.

If all those numbers look French to you, just remember to make sure you give your Linux box an IP address that is on your samenetwork. For example

If youre on a 192.168.2.xxx network

address 192.168.2.111 (replace 111 with the IP address you want)netmask 255.255.255.0

network 192.168.2.0broadcast 192.168.2.255gateway 192.168.2.1


address 192.168.1.111 (replace 111 with the IP address you want)netmask 255.255.255.0network 192.168.1.0broadcast 192.168.1.255gateway 192.168.1.1


address 192.168.0.111 (replace 111 with the IP address you want)netmask 255.255.255.0network 192.168.0.0broadcast 192.168.0.255gateway 192.168.0.1


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address 10.10.10.111 (replace 111 with the IP address you want)

netmask 255.255.255.0network 10.10.10.0broadcast 10.10.10.255gateway 10.10.10.1

To enter a static IP address type vim /etc/network/interfaces(there is a space after vim)

Y h ld thi lik thi


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You should see something like this

Find the area that saysiface eth0 inet dhcp

Hit the insert button on your keyboard. Change it to say static instead of dhcp and add the following lines

iface eth0 inet staticaddress 192.168.2.111 (the IP address you want)netmask 255.255.255.0network 192.168.2.0broadcast 192.168.2.255gateway 192.168.2.1

Th t it j t h t t ll th dit t it


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Thats it, you just have to tell the editor to save it

Press esc on your keyboard, this should drop your cursor to the bottom left of the screen.

Type :wq!

Press enter on your keyboard

If you did it correctly it should say something like filename written

And return you to the command prompt.

Once you are back at the command prompt, type reboot and hit enter on your keyboard.

Your system should reboot, and load up the new ip address.

After you login again as username root type ifconfig and make sure eth0 is getting


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After you login again as username root , type ifconfig and make sure eth0 is gettingthe IP address you specified.

Now go to different computer, running Windows, and make sure you can ping that IP address.Type ping 192.168.2.111 (or whatever IP address you gave it)

If youre not familiar with ping on a Windows machine Just click on the start button


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If you re not familiar with ping on a Windows machine. Just click on the start button

and type cmd

In the black DOS like window, type ping 192.168.2.111


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Make sure it replies back from the IP youre pinging. If it comes back saying something likeDestination Unreachable go back and figure out whats wrong.

Look for typosMaybe your network card is eth1, and not eth0Dont continue with the how-to until it replies.

Now go back to the Linux box, and make sure youre connected to the internettry to ping www.google.com

It should reply back something like this, the numbers dont really matter, just make sure its replying.


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p y g , y , j p y g

You can hit control + c on your keyboard to make it stop pinging

Thats the Ctrl key and the C key, hold down Ctrl and press the C key

If it replies, youre connected to the internet

If it doesnt reply, check your internet connection.

Make sure in your /etc/network/interfaces file, the IP address of your gateway is the same IP address as your router.


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y y g y y

If you have checked everything, and determined you are having a DNS issue.

And that your Linux box is the only computer having this issue

You can edit the file /etc/resolv.conf by typingvim /etc/resolv.conf

And add some name servers


I got these numbers from dyndns.orghttp://www.dyndns.com/services/dynguide/readme.html


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Look towards the bottom, for DNS servers, and use those IP addresses as

your nameservers in /etc/resolv.conf


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Once you can ping your Linux box, and your Linux box can ping www.google.com

You can go back over to your Linux box and shutdown by typing halt p

It will turn off, and you can remove the monitor and keyboard.

You may want to just remove the keyboard, and leave the monitor plugged in for now. So you can watch it power on \ boot up thefirst time, and make sure your computer isnt complaining that it cant find the keyboard. If it complains about the keyboard, go into

your BIOS and tell it not to warn about missing keyboards or mice.

Once you sure it will boot up without a keyboard, you can go ahead and remove the monitor.

Fight any temptation to plug the monitor and keyboard back in. doing so will hurt your learning experience, as its no longer needed.We will be accessing and managing the computer remotely from here on. So the rest of this how to will be completed remotely, usinga Windows computer.


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Everything else is already configured correctly, just enter the IP address of the Linux box and click Open

The very first time you connect, it will ask you if you want it to remember that you trust this computer you can say yes.

If successful you should get a black box asking you to login. Login as username root.(We will continue to use root until the setup is complete)



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Once logged in, type or copy and paste the following commands

To paste into Putty Window, all you have to do is right-click

Once it is pasted into the Putty window, press the enter key on your keyboard. Your Linux box will now go out to the internet anddownload \ install those software packages above.Say yes if prompted.

Paste in the following command, then press enter.

apt-get install apache2 vsftpd quota bind9 perl libnet-ssleay-perl



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apt-get install libauthen-pam-perl libpam-runtime rssh libio-pty-perl


apt-get install libmd5-perl etherwake ntpdate libio-socket-ssl-perl


apt-get install monit fail2ban libapt-pkg-perl ethtool exim4

This should take awhile to complete, after it finishes

Type the following command

mkdir /options and hit enter on your keyboard


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This stands for make directory and will make a folder called options on the root of the hard drive.We are going to use this folder to download the webmin installer into.

Type cd /options and hit enter on your keyboard

This will put you into the options folder

Next we will use the wget command to download the webmin installer.


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gwget + the full path to the location of a website file, will download that file

Type or paste wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin_1.520_all.deb

and hit enter on your keyboard.

(there is a space after wget)

Or from my serverwget http://t3.woodel.com/my-linux-how-to/webmin_1.520_all.deb

*Due to upgrades some versions may no longer be available, if you run into this just use the links to my serverthis will ensure matching print screens, or go to webmin.com and find the newer link by right-clicking the download link, and viewingits properties.


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Once you have the http path to the Webmin installer, type wget http://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and hit enter


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You should see it start to download the file, and will show you the download progress.


It will download it to the current folder that youre in, so it just downloaded it to the /options folder

When it finishes downloading, type dpkg i webmin_1.520_all.deb and hit enter on your keyboard.

Or dpkg i /options/webmin_1.520_all.deb or dpkg i /options/webmin_x.xxx_all.deb if newer version

That stands for Debian Package Install, and will install the Webmin program packaged for Debian.

If it tells you youre missing something, just typeapt-get install those-things-it-says-your-missing and hit enter on your keyboard.


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It will remember you were trying to install Webmin, and will finish installing it after any missing packagesare installed. You should now have Webmin installed, and can exit out of Putty

by typing exit or logout

To login to Webmin, open Internet Explorer or Firefox and type your IP address, followed by :10000proceeded by https://

https://the-ipaddress-of your-linux-box:10000

For example if your Linux box IP address is 192.168.2.172 you would typehttps://192.168.2.172:10000

*Note, If you have been following along, you probably expect my IP address to be 192.168.2.111or 192.168.2.172 (your right)Im just at a different office and server today.

In the example below, this Linux box is now 192.168.2.1 so I need to typehttps://192.168.2.1:10000


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You would type the same thing, but with your IP address instead.

You will probably get a warning telling you not to trust the webpage. You can ignore this, its completely secure. Its just your using aself signed ssl certificate, and not a paid one. This is still completely secure from within your internal network.

If you have problems with this later on, switch to Firefox. With Firefox you can choose to save the certificate so youre not alwaysprompted. In Internet Explorer you just have to choose Continue to this Webpage every time.



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Its safe, just click continue

You should get to a screen that looks like this


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With all of your management tools are on the left. You can do almost everything from here,

Webmin is an extremely powerful tool.

I like to use a combination of Putty and Webmin to administer my Linux servers. But since this how-to is about doing it allthrough Webmin, we will stop using Putty, and start using the SSH module within Webmin when needed. The copy & pasteworks best in Putty, so if you see me switch back to Putty, its because I want you to copy \ paste a command, simply toavoid a hand cramp or typo.

I just wanted you to have the experience of using Putty, in case you lock yourself out of Webmin, and to hopefully influenceyou to learn Putty, and learn command line later on down the road.


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you to learn Putty, and learn command line later on down the road.

First thing we have to do is remove the current SSH module that came with Webmin, it has outdated ciphers in it, andwill not work. To remove the SSH Webmin Module, click on Webmin in the top left corner and chooseWebmin Configuration

Next click on the icon that says Webmin Modules


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Once inside the Webmin Modules page, click on the delete tab towards the top


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Choose SSH Login and then click on Delete Selected Modules

*Make sure you dont accidently choose SSH Server, its SSH Login you want to click on


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Put a checkbox in the Remove from users and reset control settings and then choose Delete


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If successful, it should say the module was successfully deleted


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Thats it, its uninstalled. Now we have to install the new one.

Click on Webmin in the top left corner and choose Webmin Configuration again


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Click on the icon that says Webmin Modules

Make sure youre in the Install tab of the webpage

And choose from ftp or http URL


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If successful you should see something like this, telling you it put it in your access control list, under the category Others


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Click on the Others category on the left menu and choose SSH2 Login

The SSH2 Module will begin to open

If youre ever prompted to install Java, its talking about the web browser on your Windows PC, not Java for your Linux box. Just goto http://java.com from your Windows PC and run the install if needed. If youre using Firefox, you may need to do this after everytime you upgrade your browser.

Once you see the MindTerm logo below, youre good to go.

Just hit the enter key on your keyboard, and you can login using username root


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If you still dont see SSH2 Login, try hitting the Refresh Modules button at the bottom left, and or looking under Un-used Modules.

If you dont like this single window view, you can click on the Module Config button and tell it to open in separate window.


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Make the following changes

Then Click on Save and the next time you launch the SSH2 Module, it will open in its own little window.


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Here is what it will look like in separate window mode


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Click enter on your keyboard, and login as root


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This should look familiar to you, it works almost the same as Putty.

When youre done, type logout and press enter on your keyboard.

Wait 10 seconds for the logout to happen, then you can hit the X in the right hand corner to close the window.

This will be helpful when you want to run a command, that answers you back, asking a question, like are you sure or hit yes tocontinue

Webmin has a built-in command shell, that works awesome. And most commands have a built in yes option that can answer someprompts. But it doesnt allow you to interact and answer questions the way this SSH2 Module and Putty can. Putty allows you a muchwider copy\paste range than this SSH2 module. So if youre a copy and paster, you will like Putty much more (right-click = paste in

P tt )


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Putty)

Again, I would encourage you to use Putty instead of this, but this particular how-to isnt about that :- )

For the next step we are going to use Webmins built in command shell. Its super convenient when you dont need to interact with theanswer.

Click on Others and click on Command Shell

We are going to execute the command mii-tool

Type mii-tool in the box and then click Execute Command



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The grey area is where it will show you the results of the command.

We need to make sure youre getting a full duplex connection and not half duplex

If yours answers back full duplex then youre all set, and you can skip this part of the how-to.

If it says half duplex then do not skip any pages

If you simply got an error, that means mii-tool doesnt support your network card, this isnt a problem. Just run the command ethtooleth0

Click on Others click on Command Shell and Execute command ethtool eth0

(there is a space after ethtool)(thats eth ZERO, not eth OH)


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If it says Duplex: Full then your good to go, you can skip the commands below.

If it says Duplex: Half then do not skip any parts, you must fix this.

If mii-tool told you that you had a half duplex connection, then the fix is to add the following line to the /etc/rc.local file

mii-tool F 100baseTX-FD eth0

If that doesnt work, try ethtool, ethtool is better for newer network cards anyway.

If you got an error running mii-tool, and or if ethtool eth0 told you that you had a half duplex connection, then add the following lineto the /etc/rc.local file

ethtool s eth0 speed 100 duplex full autoneg off


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Here is how to edit that file the Webmin way, using the File Manager (youre going to like this) It makes everything a lot easier

Click on Others and then Click on File Manager


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Click on the etc folder and then in the right side window, scroll down until you find the file name rc.local

This file is executed at startup, so we can use it to make changes that happen every time the computer restarts.

Single click on the rc.local file (do not double-click) double-click will try to download the file, that isnt what you want.

Single click the file, so that it is highlighted, then using the buttons along the top, choose Edit

A new window should open, and will let you edit the contents of that file.


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You can type directly into that window

If mii-tool told you that you had a half duplex connection, copy and paste thisabove exit 0

mii-tool F 100baseTX-FD eth0

(if you know the card is giga-bit, use 1000base in place of 100 in these commands)

You should have something like this


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Click Save & Close and thats it, the file is edited, all you need to do is reboot, I will show you how to do that on the next couple

pages.

If mii-tool gave you an error and or ethtool eth0 told you that you had a half duplex connection, then edit the rc.local file andcopy\paste this instead



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Click Save & Close and thats it, the file is edited

(if you know the card is giga-bit, use speed 1000 in place of 100 in these commands)

If you have skipped to this page, you missed how to use the Webmin File Manager to edit files.

We are going to do it again so that everyone is on the same page.

Click on Others and then Click on File Manager


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Click on the etc folder and then in the right side window, scroll down until you find the file name rc.local

This file is executed at startup, so we can use it to make changes that happen every time the computer restarts.

Single click on the rc.local file (do not double-click) double-click will try to download the file, that isnt what you want.

Single click the file, so that it is highlighted, then using the buttons along the top, choose Edit

A new window should open, and will let you edit the contents of that file.


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You can type directly into that window

Somewhere above the exit 0, copy and paste this

# hello world

You should have something like this.


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Click Save & Close and thats it, the file is edited

We put a # in front of hello world so that it would ignore that line, Linux ignores lines that start with a #And in most cases, will ignore lines that start with a ;

Now we are going to use Webmins Bootup and Shutdown module to reboot the computer.

Click on System click on Bootup and Shutdown then scroll down to the bottom and click Reboot System


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It will ask you if your sure, tell it to do it, then computer should reboot, at that point your screen will be un-usable while it reboots.Just wait about 5 minutes and you should be able to use Webmin again.

Assuming the reboot went OK, lets go back to the File Manager and edit some more files.


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Change the line

#alias net-pf-10 ipv6

To

alias net-pf-10 off


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Make sure you remove the # from the beginning, or Linux wont read it.

Click on Save and Close

Next lets edit the file /etc/modeprobe.d/blacklist


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Adding the line

blacklist ipv6


So far we have stopped it from loading, and stopped it from coming back after upgrades.

We are done with disabling IPv6, and can move on to something else.

It is good practice to make comments in these files, of the changes you make, like

#Changed by Kevin, from ipv6 to off


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But since you have this how-to to refer back to, there isnt much point in making any comments.

But it is a good habit to get into once you complete the how-to, and start editing files on your own.

This is a good time to mention a few quarks about computer names in Linux.

The Webmin installer probably told you that you can access your machine from https://your computers - name:10000

And you probably found that didnt work.

This isnt a Webmin problem. Anytime you switch from DHCP to static, or switch from one static IP to another, there are a few filesyou need to edit. As these files are expecting to get this information from the DHCP server, but static IPs dont communicate backwith the DHCP server.

/etc/hosts (replace 127.0.1.1 with your Linux boxes static IP address)

*not to be confused with 127.0.0.1, leave that line alone, you want to edit\replace 127.0.1.1


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Then edit/etc/hostname (make sure its right)


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Then edit

/etc/resolv.conf (make sure your router is listed as one of the nameservers, and that its searching the right local domain)


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Click Save and Close

Reboot your Server, and the computer name should now be playing nice with your static IP address. This is just the foundation, itwont actually come into play until we configure Samba later on in the how-to, but you now have the right settings for using names

along with static IP addresses.

Next lets familiarize ourselves with the Upload and Download module for Webmin.

This isnt a very fast way of sending \ receiving files, because of the https encryption Webmin is using. That level of encryption is anawesome thing, and it keeps your passwords very safe from prying eyes. But inside your local network it can be a little over-kill, and

will really slow you down.

But once we cover it we can move on to the faster and more convenient ways like ftp http and Samba file shares


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But once we cover it, we can move on to the faster and more convenient ways, like ftp, http, and Samba file shares.

Inside of Webmin, click on Others and then Click on Upload and Download


This module is pretty easy to use, just make sure you change the

Download to file to directory field to be /options

This will make it much easier to find files that you upload \ download to the Linux box.


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Lets walk through it once, click on the Upload to Server tab at the top

Assuming the file you want to upload is located on your Windows PC. Just make sure to change theDownload to file to directory field to be /options

Then browse to the file you want to upload

Click Upload and it will upload it to the /option folder on your server.

You can then browse to it using the File Manager

Click on Others and then Click on File Manager, and then click on options


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Or if the file you want to upload to the server is located on a the web, and not on your Windows PC

Go back to the Upload and Download module, and choose the Download from Web tab instead.They work the same way, the file will end up in your /options folder.

Just make sure to change theDownload to file to directory field to be /options

And then paste the URL to the website\file you want to downloadInto the URLs to download field


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You wont always know the URL to the file you want, but you should be able to right click on it from your Windows PC, chooseproperties, and copy and paste the URL into the URLs to download field


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Paste it into Webmins Upload and Downloads, URLs to download field


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You probably noticed how very slow that was, thats again due to the encryption, we will speed all that up later on in the how-to

Using the File Manager, you should be able to see your newly uploaded file


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Lets edit some more files

Lets edit the file /etc/ssh/sshd_config (to limit the users who are allowed to SSH)

Make sure there is a d in there, this isnt the same as ssh_config, you dont want that, you want to edit sshd_config


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Somewhere towards the bottom, add the following line

AllowUsers root wood

Replacing wood with whatever username you created during the initial install.

Anyone that can SSH can browse all your folders and list all your files, so it's extremely important to limit that.

Basically dont give anyone but yourself SSH access.

Dont give anyone but yourself Webmin access

Later in the how-to we will cover rssh for users

That stands for Restricted SSH, and does work as promised.

Later in the how-to we will cover UserminThis is a Webmin like interface but can be locked down for users


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This is a Webmin like interface, but can be locked down for users

But basically, dont ever give someone else Webmin or SSH access, it not a good idea until you have mastered Linux and arecomfortable with file permissions and jailing home directories.

We will even be taking access away for root later on in the how-to. That way youre not ever typing that password over the internet.But for now, during the initial setup on your local network, its ok.

Next we are going to install the second hard-drive (the data drive) and use Webmin to mount it.

Everything in Linux is treated like a file or a folder. So when you are adding hard-drives, you go through a mounting process, which

makes that drive appear as a folder amongst the other folders on your system. This can be a little strange at first, but if you do somegood planning on your folder names, it can help with some of the confusion.

Lets start by powering off the Linux box. You do this the same way you restart it using the Bootup and Shutdown module, but justchoose Shutdown System instead of Reboot.


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This how-to assumes you know how to physically install the second hard-drive, go ahead and do that now. When you done, use thecomputers power button to turn it back on.

Wait about 5 minutes then you should be able to get back into Webmin.

Using the File Manager module create a folder called /mymounts


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As you can probably guess by the name, this folder is going to contain drives that you have mounted. The system mounts a lot ofdrives and partitions for you, as well as the CD drive, Floppy drives, etc to help avoid some of the confusion of mount points, youwill know anything inside this folder is actually a separate device (hard drive or partition) that you mounted yourself, this will helprefresh your memory every time you navigate to it.

The forward slash / just tells it to be its own folder, at the root, on the beginning of the drive, and not a subfolder of some otherdeeper folder.


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Just make sure to choose the new folder button, and not new file, and dont be tempted to click on mount, that isnt want you want

You should see something like this when youre done


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Now go inside the mymounts folder and create a folder called d2p1


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You should see something like this when youre done

d2p1 stands for (drive two partition one)Its the second drive in the system, and its the first partition on that drive

So what this folder structure means is. Its something you mounted yourself, because its in the mymounts folder. And its the second

drive inside the computer, and is the first partition on that drive.

(If you had a second partition on the second drive, you would mount that in/mymounts/d2p2) a third drive would be /mymounts/d3p1/ and so on


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We need to format the second hard-drive. We need to so this before mounting it, because when its mounted, its considered in use. Sopre-mounting, lets format it.

Using the Webmin module Partitions on Local Disks

Click on your second hard-drive, if you have followed the how-to exactly, it will be the second one in the list (B)

Click Device B (assuming that is for sure your second hard-drive)



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Click on Number 1(There should be only 1 number, if there is more than 1, click on them and delete them)(Triple check you are on Device B though!)

You should see something that looks like this


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Change the Type to LinuxThen click Save.This will kick you back to the main screen again, where you will have to click on device B again

Click on device B againAnd next to the Create Filesystem button change that to Linux Native(Linux Native = filesystem ext3 as of the date of this writing)

Write down your device file name, on mine its /dev/hdb1This stands for device , hard drive B (B meaning 2

nd) , 1 (meaning first partition)

If you have a newer computer, it will most likely list them beginning with an S (example sdb1)Meaning it thinks it a SCSI or SATA disk.

Then click Create Filesystem



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Dont check for bad blocks, it takes way too long and the webpage will time out

We will talk about how to check for bad blocks later in the how-to

Then click on Create Filesystem



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This can take hours to finish

If it fails, just run it again.

If successful, you should eventually see command complete at the bottom of the screen.


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Now that its installed and formatted, we can mount it.

Using the Webmin module Disk and Network Filesystems


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Change the Type box next to the Add mount button toLinux Native Filesystem ext3


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Then click the Add mount button


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You should see something like this, Make the following changes

In the Mounted As field type /mymounts/d2p1

Change Check Filesystem at boot to Check First


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In the Other Device field, check the button so it knows to use that field, and put the actual device name of the second hard-drive.*If you forgot what is was, refer back to previous section.


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Change Use Quotas to User and Group


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If successful, you should see it listed in the next screen


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Sometimes in this how-to I will have you do things the hard way, or the long way. When it will help you to understand some of themore confusing tasks.

Like for instance you probably already wondering why I didnt have you install Putty much much earlier, so you could have copiedand paste straight from this how-to. But then you wouldnt have learned how to type them correctly.


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Or maybe you saw this window during the format


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But if you would have used that mount button, you wouldnt have seen how to enable the Quotas.

So even if you see a shortcut, try to follow the how-to exactly, because Im going to make assumptions later on in the how-to, thatcertain things are already enabled. And if you skip any of these steps, you could get lost and have to start over.

You done with the mounting part, the second hard drive is now accessible from the File Manager module, under /mymounts/d2p1/


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Just for practice, lets put a file in that folder, this will be an example of putting files on your data drive (hard drive #2)

Using the File Manager, copy and paste a file from the /options folder to the /mymounts/d2p1 folder


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Click the file once to highlight it, then click Copy from the toolbar above

Navigate to the /mymounts/d2p1/ folder, and paste it using the Paste button from the toolbar above

If successful, you should see something like this


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And that would be an example of saving a file to hard-drive number 2

If you ever need to un-mount it.

(You shouldnt ever need to do this) except maybe to re-format it or scandisk it.

Just navigate back to the Disk and Network Filesystems module, and click on /mymounts/d2p1/


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Check the Save option so it keeps a record of it, then click the Unmount option


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Then click Save at the bottom, and it will un-mount the drive.

And because you checked the save option you can easily re-mount it by coming back to this page and choosing Save and mount atboot and mount and then click Save at the bottom.

Thats it for mounting and un-mounting. Again you shouldnt ever need to un-mount it, but you know how if you need it.

Next lets make sure your Linux box has the right time, and set it to automatically sync up with a time server at midnight each night.

Using the System Time module, set the time and date for both fields to be correct. You only have to do this manually once, keepingin mind that its a 24 hour clock.


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We have to do it manually once, because the sync feature doesnt work if the time is off by more than a couple of hours, so we do thisto ensure the time is almost right, so the sync will work and always keep it accurate.

Dont be tempted to use the Set system time to hardware time or the other one, just set each one manually.


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Set the Timeserver hostname or address field to the timeserver closest to your area

1.us.pool.ntp.org

*If youre having DNS issues you can use IP addresses here until you fix that.

Check the box that says Set hardware time too

Check the box that says Yes, at times below

Check the box that says Simple schedule and Daily at midnight

You can ignore all the time tables below, because youre using the simple schedule above.

Click Sync and Apply at the bottom of the screen, and your all set

You should be able to navigate back to the Set time tab at the top, and see that it did in fact set the correct time for both fields.

Youre all done with setting the time.

*If you get errors about the hardware clock not being set, you may have to enable the following at boot time, and then reboot. Only dothis if you are experiencing problems with the hardware clock.


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Navigate to the Bootup and Shutdown module, place a checkmark next to hwclock.sh and click Start Now and on Boot


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Thats about it for the time settings.

Next lets make sure your MTU is set right on your network card. You usually wont see a problem here unless you have multipleNICs, but let make sure anyway.

Using the Command Shell module, run the following commandifconfig eth0 then click the Execute command button


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Using the File Manager module. Edit the file /etc/network/interfaces and make the following edits


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up /sbin/ifconfig eth0 mtu 1500


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The placement of that line is important, make sure you put it under the iface command, and make sure if you have two or more NICsthat you put it on the right line for that particular NIC. (example, eth0, eth1, eth2, etc..) and of course you would change the command

to reflect the NIC number (example : up /sbin/ifconfig ethx mtu 1500)

Again, this is a more advanced problem, make sure you have exhausted other easier fixes first.

Thats it for MTU

Now we are going to talk about an optional install, called md or mdadm


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If you have decided you want to, here is how. If not, you can skip this section.

Using the SSH2 Module, or Putty (preferred) run the following command

apt-get install mdadm


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It will probably ask you to say Y or Yes


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Once you have the word none types in there, tab down to OK and press enter on your keyboard.


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If your cursor is giving you a hard time, it might help to type noneeeeeeeee in the field, and then backspace the extra eeeeeee until it

reads just noneThen it will ask you if you want the raid config to start automatically, tab over to YES and hit enter. This will cause an error at bootup, but its ok, its just telling us we havent configured it yet (we will do that later in Webmin)


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Once you answer yes, it will take a couple minutes to setup. Then you should eventually get back to the normal SSH2 Module screen,where you can type halt p to shutdown the computer.


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Once the computer shuts off you can physically install the additional hard-drives.

Using the Partitions on Local Disks module, format any of the new drives to ext3, just like you did on previous section.

If the second hard-drive you install earlier in this how-to is going to be part of this RAID configuration, then you have to un-mount itfirst. Navigate to the Disk and Network Filesystems module and un-mount it. And this time, tell it to not remember the configuration.This will make it available for RAID.

Once you have them all physically installed, formatted, and un-mounted (if needed) then your ready to configure the RAID usingWebmins Linux RAID module.

If you do not see the Linux RAID module under other, try hitting Refresh Modules at the bottom left of the screen.


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It will look for a couple minutes


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And the next time you click on the Hardware tab, it should be there.

Enable Monitoring, Enable sending notifications, Send them to yourname@localhostand click Save

Choose a RAID configuration, in the drop down menu next to theCreate RAID device level of button.


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Again, for a fake software raid, I would only recommend RAID 1, or J.B.O.D. (Concatenated Linear) unless you have some incrediblyfast SATA or SCSI drives, then RAID 5 would be the highest I would go with the fake software raid.

Chose whichever one will work for your situation, and click the Create RAID device level of button.

All these RAIDs do work awesomely, Im just saying limit your expectations down to what your hardware can handle.

You should see something like this (this is an example of Concatenated Linear)

We are joining a 40GB and a 20GB disk together to act like a single 60GB disk.


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Set Force initialization of RAID to yes

And in the Partitions in RAID field, you have to select the participating disks. They appear to be selected, but they are not. You haveto click on them with your mouse. In order to select the second disk, just hold down the control key on your keyboard when selectingthe second disk.

Click the Create button, and it will create the RAID for you.This can take a very long time. If youre doing Terabyte disks, go to sleep :- )

As you can see its going to treat it as /dev/md0

And earlier in this how-to, you learned how to mount /dev/xxx into folders, so you already know how to mount this virtual raid into afolder for use on your system.

You should eventually be returned to a screen that looks like this, if it shows your correct RAID configuration, and then youre readyto format it.


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Click on the device name, /dev/md0



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Change the drop down box to ext3, and click Create filesystem of type button

This should take a long time, and do not be tempted to use the Mount RAID on button you see above. If you do that you will miss a

few important options that are only available by doing it the long way that we covered earlier.



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Dont chose check for bad blocks, it will take forever, and the webpage could time out.


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You just have to mount it now, as Linux ext3, using the Disk and Network Filesystems module like you did earlier.

A good folder name to use would be /mymounts/vraidThat name lets you know you mounted it, and that its a virtual or fake raid.

You want to use the File Manager module to create that /mymounts/vraid folder first, before you attempt to mountit using the Disk and Network Filesystems module.


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Here is what it should look like, make the following changes.


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Then hit the Create button

If successful, it will look like this, and be accessible as a folder in /mymounts/vraid with almost 60GB free space(40GB harddrive + 20GB harddrive)


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This is a very small example, I have done multiple Terabyte raids, and they work great. Just make sure you really need it, and aregetting a good use out of it.

For those of you that skipped to this page, I created a new data drive, in a RAID configuration. Im no longer using /mymounts/d2p1as my data drive.

Im using my virtual raid setup of /mymounts/vraid

The how-to will continue to reference the /mymounts/vraid folder as my data drive. Whereas on your system, if you skipped the raidhow-to, you will need to be thinking /mymounts/d2p1/

This shouldnt interrupt the flow of the how-to, we are still talking about that same thing, a folder, that is really a second hard drivemount point, that contains our data.

Thats it for the data drive, now lets configure the web server (Apache)

The web server is already running and functioning, if you type the IP address of your Linux box into a browser window, you shouldsee it displaying something like this.


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By default the web server listens in folder /var/www/ and looks for a file called index.html

There is already a file called index.html in that folder, that file has the words It works!Inside of it, thats why you see that on your screen.

If you were to delete that file, and replace it with your own index.html file, it would display that instead.

So lets use the File Manager module to delete the contents of the /var/www/ so we can replace it with our own index.html file, forour own custom website.


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Next you need to create your own index.html file. There are countless ways to do this, in this how-to we are going to use MicrosoftExcel to make the webpage file and save it as filename index.html. But if you Google html editor, you will find millions of other ways

to achieve this.

Launch Excel, and put some words and colors on there.


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Choose File Webpage Preview to see a preview of what it will look like.

Then if you like it, choose File Save as Webpage when you done


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And save it as file name index.html


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Then click the Upload button


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Thats it, it will upload the file to the directory, Apache is listening in that folder, and will read that file the next time you visit yourwebsite.

To see it, just open a browser window and type your IP address again, and viola, your own custom webpage running on your very own

web server, for free.


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Which looks like this from your File Manager view


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Or, you could have both a webpage and the file download view by making a deeper subfolder called files and putting the files youwant available for download in there.

Just put your index.html file back in /var/www/

So when people go to your IP address, they see your webpage file


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But when they go to you IP address /files (http://192.168.2.1/files) they see this


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Which would look like this from your File Manager view

Thats pretty much it for a basic Apache web server setup, it works right out of the box. If you want to be able to setup passwords, sothat people cannot get to certain websites or folders without a password, here is how.


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Right click on the link that says htaccess-htpasswd.wbm.gz and choose Properties


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This will give you the URL you need


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Highlight and Copy that URL


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Now go to the Webmin Configuration module


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Make sure youre in the Install tab of the module page.

And choose from ftp or http URL

And paste the following URL into the box to the right

http://download.webmin.com/download/modules/htaccess-htpasswd.wbm.gz

Or from my server http://t3.woodel.com/my-linux-how-to/htaccess-htpasswd.wbm.gz

*Due to upgrades some versions may no longer be available, if you run into this just use the links to my server, this will ensurematching print screens,or go to webmin.com and find the newer link.


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Click on Install Module and Webmin will go get the module file, and install it

If successful you should see something like this, telling you it put it in your access control list, under the category Others


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Click on it, you should see something like this


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But we arent ready to use it just yet.

We have to make a change to our Apache configuration file, before it will allow password files to be used.

Using the File Manager module, edit the following file.

/etc/apache2/sites-available/default


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Change the following two lines from AllowOverride None to

AllowOverride AuthConfig


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Click the Save and Close button.

Then use the Bootup and Shutdown module to restart Apache (called apache2)


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Click Restart

*Advanced* If you know youre not going to use apple-talk on your network, you can disable it on this pageBy putting a checkmark next to netatalk and choose Disable Now and On Boot

If you know you dont need it, this will speed up the boot time and free up some resources

Once its been restarted, navigate back to the Protected Web Directories module


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And click on Add protection for a new directory

Directory meaning folder

In this example we will password protect the files folder on your website

After you click on Add protection for a new directory

You should see something like this, make the following changes.


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In the Directory path type /var/www/files

Because that is the directory we are wanting to password protect

Set the File containing users button to selected file

In the selected file field type /options/.htpasswd-4-var-www-files

Notice there is a dot in that filename. Thats important, it means hidden.

Its going to create this file for you, but it wont create folders for you. So make sure your specifying a directory that already exists,like /options


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In the Authentication realm type Restricted Area

Usually you would name the file containing users .htpasswd

Thats the industry standard.

But we named it .htpasswd-4-var-www-files

Or

/options/.htpasswd-4-var-www-files

Meaning to me, its in the /options folder


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I like to name it more descriptive then just .htpasswd, because I tend to have three or four of these files protecting different directoriesand with different passwords.

In Linux the leading period or dot in front of a filename means its a hidden file

So when I see the filename .htpasswd-4-var-www-files we know its a hidden password file, protecting the folder /var/www/files

So if I were going to protect a second folder, something like/var/www/photos/wedding

I would name the file containing users .htpasswd-4-var-www-photos-wedding

Or /options/.htpasswd-4-var-www-photos-wedding

Meaning the answer to the password for that directory is in the /options folder

Once you have it all filled out, click the create button


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So the structure is all there, now you just have to add usernames and passwords to it.

Click on Add a new user



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Here you can add as many usernames and passwords that you want. These arent real accounts on your server. You can makesomething up here, these are just password prompts on your websites.

For instance, maybe you had family photos in that files folder, and you only wanted your family members and your friend Ed to seethem. You could add a username and password like

Username: myPassword: family

And another one like

Username: edPassword: 12345

Whenever someone tries to your website, it works just fine.


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But if they try to go any deeper into your website, or are sent a deeper link. like / files. Then they are prompted for a password


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And if they enter the right username and password here, they will be able to see the files inside the files folder (directory)Its a good idea to use made-up usernames and passwords for these websites. By made-up I mean not actual usernames and passwordsthat youre using as accounts on the server.

These website passwords are sent over the network and internet in plain text, meaning its easy for a hacker to see the username andpassword that youre typing, so dont use a username and password here that actually has an account on the server.

This isnt a huge deal because (at this point) you shouldnt be exposing files to the internet that you dont want people to see. Not overan http website anyway. If you doing really private information make sure youre using the Webmin File Manager module, orsomething else that uses ssl (https) or ssh.

Youre not going to provide Webmin access to your users, so later on in the how-to we will cover how to allow your users to securelytransfer files using https. The s stands for secure and will secure the transfer using ssl.


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These http (non s) website passwords above will keep 95% of people out, but you would be putting yourself at a huge risk if you putanything confidential on a non https website. And as a rule of thumb, dont expose anything confidential to the internet. And nevertype your password on a website that isnt https. And never type your password on a website you dont know, trust, and recognize.Without the s your sending them in plain text. So a hacker would see your typing just as you see the words in this sentence.

Later on we will cover how to do it securely, but at this point dont put any confidential files on your web server, and dont typeusernames and passwords that matter, over a non https connection.

No worries about Webmin and Putty, they are safe, Im mainly talking about http and ftp sites.

And if you ever want to remove the passwords permanently, you can use the Protected Web Directories module, and click the Un-protect and Remove Files button


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Apache is very powerful and can do a million more things. Later on in this how-to we will change its listening directory from/var/www/ to our data drive, so that files on our data drive can be accessible over the web.

Later on in this how-to we will also create users whose home directories are on the data drive, so they will be able to upload anddownload their files, over the web, all residing on the data drive.

You can probably see where this is going. Your users will have a home directory on the web. Often referred to as web space. But witha lot more functionality. They will be able to FTP, build websites, use the secure https File Manager, change their passwords, seegraphs on how much space is available, have disk space Quotas, etc all over a webpage.

Lets configure the FTP server (vsftp)

Using the File Manager module, edit the file /etc/vsftpd.conf


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You need to make the following changes to it

Change line 23 from anonymous_enable =YES to anonymous_enable =NO

Uncomment line 26 by removing the # so that it reads local_enable=YES

Uncomment line 29 by removing the # so that it reads write_enable=YES

Uncomment line 33 by removing the # so that it reads local_umask=022

On or around line 34, add the following entry file_open_mode=0755

Uncomment line 94 by removing the # and change the Welcome string to something custom of your own

Uncomment line 105 by removing the # so that it reads chroot_local_user=YES


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You should eventually see something like thisWhen you have made all the changes, click save and close


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The next time the computer is restarted, the FTP server will read the new changes, and will be ready to use. We havent added any

users for it yet, we will get to that later, but we are done as far as its configuration.

If you dont want to reboot, you can just restart the vsftp service instead.

Using the Bootup and Shutdown module, find vsftpd


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Put a check in the box next to vsftpd and click the Restart button

This will restart the FTP service, without restart your computer. Either way is fine. Now you have a fully functional FTP server. Wewill test it later, when we add some more users with less important passwords. Much like HTTP, passwords sent over FTP are alsosent in plain text, thats why I dont want you to test it right now with your important accounts and important passwords.

Thats it for FTP for now


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And to check the syslog, use the System Logs module


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You can also find useful information in the View Module Logs module


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A lot of the time the answer to your problems will be in one of those (3) places

And the homepage (also called the System Information module) does a good job of showing you your current usages.


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As we can see above, even with everything we have added to the computer, its still only using 34MB of ram, 0MB of the Pagefile,and 0.02 of the processor. *** note, this particular computer is a only a P3 \ 450Mhz a paper-weight at best. Isnt Linuxamazing?

These awesomely low numbers are because we are using the command line version of Linux, and not a GUI Operating System.

You can also see your Uptime and OS version, Disk-Space, and other important information.

Next lets add some user accounts, these would be people you would give access to your server and its resources.

We will create the accounts, and setup their home directories to be on the data drive, and exposed to the network\internet.

Using the Users and Groups module


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We are going to get a lot of use out of this module. It will allow us to make users, groups, set passwords, set home directories, andeven setup their shell, where we can further restrict them if needed.

Click on Create a new user

You should see something like this, make the following changes


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With the username jdoe and the real name jdoe.

I like to keep the username and the real name the same, but the only important one is the username, that will be the actual login name.You could set the real name to Mr. John Doe, or something more descriptive if you like. I personally like to keep them the same.

Un-check Automatic and set the Home directory to/mymounts/vraid/users/xhomes/jdoe

If you arent using raid, and are using d2p1, you would type/mymounts/d2p1/users/xhomes/jdoe

What these descriptive folder structures tell us is-Its a drive I mounted

-What drive its on-Its user data-Its and exposed home directory xhomes-Its user jdoe


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By exposed home directory, I mean that directory is exposed to the network or the internet. A constant reminder to me about securityand confidentiality of what goes in there

We are later going to change the web server (Apache) to listen in those directories, so these home directories will be folders that areexposed and viewable over the network or internet.

Thats on purpose, to give them web space.

After you have set the username and home directory, choose normal password and lets type in the password jdabc123

Set the Group to New Group With Same Name As User

Then click the Create button



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Little advice, careful if you ever click on a user, it will go into Edit User mode, and will try to reset the password.

Of course it wont do it unless you hit apply

But try not to edit your users once they start using it, unless you know their password.


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You probably noticed I didnt have you put jdoe in a group, but instead created a group with the same name of jdoe. Groups areawesome, so thats a good question. We will cover groups later, but for now lets focus on users.

In this scenario you really dont need groups, because your users will be accessing their own home directories. And the entireoperating system is kind of built around that idea, and gets the right settings and permissions by default.

Its when you venture outside the home directories that you will find yourself overwhelmed with permissions, and then groups are awonderful thing. Also if you want yo

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