#4804 Webmin install keeps failing at "Setting up webmin (1.810)"

[Owkaye Go]

I've been running webmin on my localhost server for years without a problem. Yesterday I tried to login but never received the login page from miniserv.pl. I had no idea how to fix this problem, so I tried to reinstall webmin, but the install script got stuck at:

Setting up webmin (1.810)

After 8-10 hours (overnight) it was still stuck in the same place, so I closed the Terminal window and rebooted, then I ran this command:

sudo apt-get update

And I got these warnings/errors:

W: There is no public key available for the following key IDs: 1397BC53640DB551

E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.

I ran this command as instructed:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

But all this did was get me stuck here again:

Setting up webmin (1.810)

So this time I opened a second Terminal window and tried to puge webmin via this command:

sudo dpkg -P webmin

But instead of purging webmin I got this error:

dpkg: error: dpkg status database is locked by another process

I realized that the webmin install script had apparently locked the dpkg status database, and I did not know how to resolve this issue other than to reboot, so I rebooted, then I ran these commands:

sudo dpkg -P webmin
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Then I got this warning again:

W: There is no public key available for the following key IDs: 1397BC53640DB551

I'm not sure if this warning is related to webmin, but the upgrade went smoothly. However webmin still is not installed, and I do not know how to proceed. Everything I have tried so far seems to get me to a point in the install script where it freezes.

Can you help me?

[Jamie Cameron]

If you run the pstree -l command, can you see any webmin-related processes running, perhaps launched by dpkg ?

[Owkaye Go]

Before the successful purge I used System Monitor to see that miniserv.pl was running while the install script was stuck, but it would not respond to my https://localhost:10000 request.

After the purge there is/was nothing related to webmin running at all.

[Jamie Cameron]

You should at the very least be able to get it re-started by running :

/etc/webmin/stop ; /etc/webmin/start

[Owkaye Go]

After purging there was nothing to start or stop, but this time I was able to install from the repository, and now it's working properly again. I still have no idea why it stopped working on me in the first place, or why I was unable to upgrade from the repository the first time I tried, but all that matters now is that I can use it again. I will keep your start and stop commands in my notes so I can try them the next time this happens. Thanks for the support, I sincerely appreciate it.

[Jamie Cameron]

Ok, that's good news. I have no idea what was happening the first time, sorry..

[Pete_C]

posted new ticket.