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**tsoh** · 10-15-2010, 06:20 PM

Right off the start, installing Virtualmin on CentOS results in a ClamAV error, then temp directory error, among others things. Although CentOS is recommended by Virtualmin.

I know a lot of people recommend CentOS for hosting, but for the heck of it I decided to reload my VPS with Debian.

No error whatsoever.

However some of the setup steps are different like it doesn't automatically detect the venet0 setting which was an easy fix.

I noticed that CSF on Debian has about half LESS security checks, though (33 vs 62 for centos). Does that mean it is a less secure distro or more secure that CSF doesn't have to check more things.

Also I'm wondering if anyone knows which distro is better suited for use with Virtualmin? Better suited as in it doesn't result in errors here and there.

After some digging it seems CentOS is recommended for CPanel. But Virtualmin's site mentions CentOS as a recommended distro too so I'm puzzled why it doesn't work out of the box.

My host supports CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, and Gentoo as far as reloads go.

**Nnyan** · 10-15-2010, 07:09 PM

I never did run into any errors but then I haven't done a huge number of web/virtualmin installs. I can tell you that not every template a host uses for an OS (for ex: CentOS 5.5) is the same. That right there can give you issues. EX: On some of my CentOS 5.5 VPS's things install fine while on others I'll have dependency issues.

**ControlVM** · 10-15-2010, 07:30 PM

CentOS is production grade OS which commonly used in the hosting industry. Most of the scripts or program design based on CentOS as well.

**vj1q2** · 10-16-2010, 03:46 AM

It 'should' work with CentOS.

Try with ubuntu-server. I've installed it successfully a couple of time, no issues whatsoever.

a lot of folks swear by centOS, yeah its "similar" to RHEL.. but the main thing with RHEL is support, so if you're not getting that might as well try something else. *wink*. I like ubuntu-server.

**Jatinder** · 10-16-2010, 04:03 AM

Debian and CentOS are both great OS. Of course if you need cPanel than you have to stick to CentOS. Other that that both are stable server platforms and the choice really depends on what you are familiar with.

**SwellJoe** · 10-16-2010, 02:32 PM

Originally Posted by tsoh

Right off the start, installing Virtualmin on CentOS results in a ClamAV error, then temp directory error, among others things. Although CentOS is recommended by Virtualmin.

It's just the most popular and best-tested. Debian 5.0 is also a good choice. We (I'm one of the Virtualmin developers) know the most about CentOS because it's what ~85% of our users are running.

The ClamAV error is just ClamAV being user hostile, as usual. Every time they roll a new version, they put in a big warning to scare users into upgrading to it. It's annoying as hell, and updates come out far too fast for a small staff of packagers to keep up with (I'm unaware of any distro that is able to keep pace with the updates, so you'll see warnings in Debian soon enough, if you didn't see it during install).

I don't know what you mean about a tmp directory error. The install script will refuse to run if /tmp is mounted noexec, since it puts all of its libraries and such into /tmp during the install (this is probably bug-like and I probably ought to fix it, but there is no other place that is universally available on all systems, and...they are temporary files, so it seems like they ought to be happiest in /tmp).

However some of the setup steps are different like it doesn't automatically detect the venet0 setting which was an easy fix.

Have you filed a ticket about it? Normally, Virtualmin does detect venet type interfaces, and we try to make it aware of most types of VPS install, but there are so many differences, it's hard to keep up without users helping us with information.

I noticed that CSF on Debian has about half LESS security checks, though (33 vs 62 for centos). Does that mean it is a less secure distro or more secure that CSF doesn't have to check more things.

I'm unfamiliar with CSF, but I'd bet it's because fewer people use and develop for Debian, so it's gotten less attention. CentOS has a lot more eyeballs looking at it than Debian, so I'd bet on it being more secure.

Our functional tests and our configuration check does a better job testing Virtualmin functionality on CentOS than it does on Debian, because we've gotten more bug reports about CentOS. So, the lower number of checks on Debian means that it is probably less predictable for Virtualmin, not more.

Oh, yeah, I'm betting you ran CSF on CentOS before you installed Virtualmin. That would explain the tmp directory errors, if it sets /tmp to noexec. Virtualmin should be the first thing you install, because it has to touch so many parts of the system. Once installed, you can make whatever other changes you want. The install uses standard RPM packages and yum to perform the installation, so it's not doing anything funny, it just expects the system to be in a pristine state when you run it.

Also I'm wondering if anyone knows which distro is better suited for use with Virtualmin? Better suited as in it doesn't result in errors here and there.

CentOS is the best tested and used by ~85% of users. That's a lot of users banging on it.

The ClamAV error you saw happens on every OS eventually. It's just the nature of the beast. It will happen on Debian, it will happen on Ubuntu, it will happen on CentOS. There's nothing we can do about it; though on CentOS, we do provide the ClamAV packages, and I try to update it every few weeks, when I have time. It probably happens less on CentOS than on Debian and Ubuntu.

After some digging it seems CentOS is recommended for CPanel. But Virtualmin's site mentions CentOS as a recommended distro too so I'm puzzled why it doesn't work out of the box.

What, specifically didn't work?

The ClamAV error is a warning. It is not fatal.

You haven't specified what /tmp directory error you got.

My host supports CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, and Gentoo as far as reloads go.

CentOS and Debian and Ubuntu LTS are the only systems suitable for web hosting, in my opinion. I love Fedora on the desktop, but it's insane to be forced to upgrade your server OS every year. Gentoo is a fun tinkers OS, but if you need a predictable and reliable system that system administrators can understand at a glance, it's not the right choice (no two Gentoo systems look the same).

Regardless of all of that, you should use whichever of our Grade A supported operating systems you are most familiar with. If you are most familiar with CentOS, you should use it. If you run into problems, ask about those specific problems in our forums (or search our site; lots of questions have come up already numerous times, like the ClamAV and tmp noexec issues), rather than reinstalling your OS over and over until some magical perfect installation happens. These are complex systems with hundreds of interrelating pieces. When it works exactly right, it's a miracle (or you have a truly pristine OS install and it hasn't been mucked up too much with odd changes by your hosting provider).

We have very active forums over at Virtualmin.com. We're happy to help when you provide a good problem description.

**tsoh** · 10-16-2010, 04:25 PM

Thanks for the very informative and helpful response SwellJoe.

First I want to thank Virtualmin developers like yourself for this excellent software.

There isn't anything specially wrong with Virtualmin, issue is that I am not a Linux administrator, so I was hoping to find a way to use Virtualmin with the least possible issues occurring. So this seems to be an unrealistic wish due to the complexity of all software involved.

The temp directory error occurred when I was refreshing the Virtualmin system info, if I recall correctly it showed the ClamAV error and then below that it said cannot write to temporary directory. I'm not sure if it's related or not.

I did a bit of googling and found the chmod +1777 /tmp command, did that, didn't work. Restarted, still didn't work. The ClamAV config file was also missing to see where the temporary directory was set to exactly.

I installed Debian and didn't get any such issues, but today I noticed that some services were down for some reason.

I guess I'll go back to CentOS since it's that popular and start over. Hopefully I'll have better luck.

I'll be sure to ask around the Virtualmin forum next time, thank you.

**SwellJoe** · 10-16-2010, 05:00 PM

Originally Posted by tsoh

First I want to thank Virtualmin developers like yourself for this excellent software.

You're welcome. We're happy folks find it useful.

The temp directory error occurred when I was refreshing the Virtualmin system info, if I recall correctly it showed the ClamAV error and then below that it said cannot write to temporary directory. I'm not sure if it's related or not.

Sounds like something is poorly configured in this particular image. It's not related to CentOS, at all.

Being unable to write to /tmp could be any number of things. Disk space, incorrect permissions on /tmp, selinux being too strict (we actually disable selinux, by default, because there are so many restrictions that break virtual hosting; things like suexec running things out of /home, logging to various home directories, etc. it's a minefield of gotchas trying to run a full-feature hosting system with SELinux enabled).

Also, there are a bunch of "hardening" scripts that will break /tmp in weird ways as a "security" measure. I'm highly suspicious of most such scripts, and recommend folks avoid them if they don't understand everything they do. I've seen way too many cases of people running a hardening script, finding that it broke some of their applications and then they undo the "hardened" stuff in ways that are even less secure than the default on the system. For some unfathomable reason, we still see people running "chmod 777" on their CGI and PHP applications, as though that's ever been a sane or rational thing to do (and on a stock Virtualmin system those apps will refuse to run, because suexec protects people from this kind of stupidity).

Best of luck with your deployment.

**mugo** · 10-17-2010, 02:09 AM

I run lots of virtualmin driven hosting on CentOS, including migrating whole installs / sites w/ mail to other servers. Never had this problem. I'd start looking under the hood a bit more.
You using 32 or 64bit image?

**tsoh** · 10-17-2010, 02:35 PM

I run lots of virtualmin driven hosting on CentOS, including migrating whole installs / sites w/ mail to other servers. Never had this problem. I'd start looking under the hood a bit more. You using 32 or 64bit image?

I was using 32 bit CentOS 5.5.

My VPS account has only 512MB of RAM. I think 64 bit would just use up more memory without any added benefit right?

Tempat Mencatat

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Any better distro than CentOS for Webmin/Virtualmin?

Any better distro than CentOS for Webmin/Virtualmin?