Inconsistencies on various program installations - why do they happen?

[tankman1989]

I usually install Webmin on my Linux servers, usually debian based. I have found that there are A LOT of inconsistencies in the installation process. I can repeat a process 10 times with success, and then the 11th time it won't work. I always use the same ISO for the base install and then run the updates/upgrade, so that is the only variable. The webmin package is the same 1.60 so that shouldn't be causing a problem.

The latest example is the following. I used my tutorial here:
http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?p=350511#post350511 and when I get to the last step

dpkg –I webmin_1.620_all.deb

This was the result:

root@Serv1:/home/username# dpkg -I webmin_1.620_all.deb
new debian package, version 2.0.
size 21023860 bytes: control archive= 60835 bytes.
211167 bytes, 3784 lines changelog
37 bytes, 2 lines conffiles
1624 bytes, 16 lines control
1810 bytes, 38 lines copyright
2292 bytes, 89 lines * postinst #!/bin/sh
284 bytes, 9 lines * postrm #!/bin/sh
868 bytes, 33 lines * preinst #!/bin/sh
518 bytes, 14 lines * prerm #!/bin/sh
Package: webmin
Version: 1.620
Section: admin
Priority: optional
Architecture: all
Depends: perl, libnet-ssleay-perl, openssl, libauthen-pam-perl, libpam-runtime, libio-pty-perl, apt-show-versions, python
Pre-Depends: perl
Installed-Size: 130940
Maintainer: Jamie Cameron <jcameron@webmin.com>
Provides: webmin
Replaces: webmin-adsl, webmin-apache, webmin-bandwidth, webmin-bind, webmin-burner, webmin-cfengine, webmin-cluster, webmin-core, webmin-cpan, webmin-dhcpd, webmin-exim, webmin-exports, webmin-fetchmail, webmin-firewall, webmin-freeswan, webmin-frox, webmin-fsdump, webmin-grub, webmin-heartbeat, webmin-htaccess, webmin-inetd, webmin-jabber, webmin-ldap-netgroups, webmin-ldap-user-simple, webmin-ldap-useradmin, webmin-lilo, webmin-logrotate, webmin-lpadmin, webmin-lvm, webmin-mailboxes, webmin-mon, webmin-mysql, webmin-nis, webmin-openslp, webmin-postfix, webmin-postgresql, webmin-ppp, webmin-pptp-client, webmin-pptp-server, webmin-procmail, webmin-proftpd, webmin-pserver, webmin-quota, webmin-samba, webmin-sarg, webmin-sendmail, webmin-shorewall, webmin-slbackup, webmin-smart-status, webmin-snort, webmin-software, webmin-spamassassin, webmin-squid, webmin-sshd, webmin-status, webmin-stunnel, webmin-updown, webmin-usermin, webmin-vgetty, webmin-webalizer, webmin-wuftpd, webmin-wvdial, webmin-xinetd
Description: web-based administration interface for Unix systems
Using Webmin you can configure DNS, Samba, NFS, local/remote filesystems
and more using your web browser. After installation, enter the URL
https://localhost:10000/ into your browser and login as root with your root
password.

It didn't say it installed and it didn't say it failed, but going to the URL to access it, failed. So I looked for some other examples and came up with this:

dpkg --install web*

Which isn't really different than the previous command which I tried a variant of

dpkg -I web*

which didn't work either. I don't know why the -I and --install have changed as the -I worked for about 6 months of my use. The following is the result of the last bit of code I tried.

root@Serv1:/home/username# dpkg --install web*
Selecting previously unselected package webmin.
(Reading database ... 51043 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking webmin (from webmin_1.620_all.deb) ...
Setting up webmin (1.620) ...
Webmin install complete. You can now login to https://Serv1:10000/
as root with your root password, or as any user who can use sudo
to run commands as root.
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
root@Serv1:/home/username#

I tried the URL this time and it worked. I have found about 15 tutorials of various ways to install webmin and the author all claim that they have worked for them, but when I try them myself they don't. They were all for the same version of Ubuntu 12.04.1 then running the upgrade. Some can just run

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install webmin

and it works for them! It seems so simple for some, but others have to take 5-15 steps. I just can't make sense of it, and I can't understand how my original tutorial worked for so many tries and then just stopped working.

Does anyone have any insight on this. This is one of the major issues stopping me from using Linux as my main OS.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Is the webmin service running? Just because the service is installed doesn't mean it is started. I'm betting you skipped a step.

 

[codegreen]

It's dpkg -i to install a package. dpkg -I just gives you information about the package. Remember kids: *NIX is case-sensitive!

 

[tankman1989]

It's dpkg -i to install a package. dpkg -I just gives you information about the package. Remember kids: *NIX is case-sensitive!

Thanks. I know it is case sensitive but didn't know that the -I was for info. That makes a lot of sense as to the result of the code.

Now for another strange bit of info. When I copy the code:

dpkg –I webmin_1.620_all.deb

and paste it into my terminal window, I get

dpkg .I webmin_1.620_all.deb

. The difference is the -I and .I . IDK where the translation error is occuring. When I wrote the tutorial I did it in Word and then pasted it into the vBulletin thread window. I don't know how the i was translated into I, and how the "-" is translated into a "." when copying from the tutorial to the terminal.

I still am confused by all the different tutorials for installing different packages, some work for some people while it has errors for others, and all using the same version of Linux (ex 12.04.1). Could this be due to the repositories that are installed or "turned on" and or the packages previously installed?

I know that when I install Ubuntu 12.04 with VMplayer, it goes through an automated install process that does not ask what server packages you want installed (you may be able to toggle these on some way but by default it is a base install). I know that when I go to install Webmin with the VMplayer base install, my tutorial does not seem to work, but when I do an install were I manually go through the install process and select packages: LAMP, Samba, SSH-server & DNS - my tutorial works. I guess that this might have to do with some dependencies installed with those packages that also work with Webmin.

When I do a base install and then try to install webmin, even with webmin's official guide, I get errors with dependencies especially with the libmd5-perl package. I'm trying to learn how all these dependencies and libraries work together but it just seems that things changes from install to install.

 

[nlinecomputers]

your problem is dependencies. Webmin is written in Perl. So if your don't have Perl on the system it will fail.

You need to add this to your install routine BEFORE installing webmin

sudo apt-get install perl libnet-ssleay-perl openssl libauthen-pam-perl libpam-runtime libio-pty-perl libmd5-perl