40.2. The ProFTPD Server Module
The ProFTPD Server module icon can be found in Webmin under the Servers tab on the main menu. When you click on it, the module's main page will appear as shown in Figure 40.1, assuming that you actually have the server installed. If the main page displays an error message like The ProFTPD server /usr/sbin/proftpd could not be found on your system instead, then the server is probably not installed and thus the module cannot be used. Most Linux distributions include a ProFTPD package on their CD or website, so use the Software Packages module (covered in Chapter 12) to install it. If no package exists, download the source code from www.proftpd.org, compile, and install it. If you already have some other FTP server installed, it should be removed first so that the two programs do not clash.
Figure 40.1. The ProFTPD Server module.
Another error that the main page might display is The program /usr/sbin/ftpd does not appear to be the ProFTPD server error. This will occur if Webmin detects that some other FTP server is installed instead—if so, you will need to remove it and install ProFTPD.
ProFTPD can be run in two different modes—either as a standalone daemon process that listens for FTP connections, or from a super server like inetd or xinetd. The former accepts connections faster, but at the cost of more memory being used up by a process that is running all the time. The latter is better for systems that do not expect to receive a lot of FTP traffic, as the ProFTPD program is run only when it is needed.
Because the standalone mode is easier to set up and because memory is plentiful on most systems, this chapter assumes that you will be running it in that mode. To start the ProFTPD server process, follow these steps:
1. | In the Internet Services and Protocols module (covered in Chapter 15), make sure that any existing service named ftp has Program disabled or No program assigned selected. This ensures that no FTP service will be run by inetd. If you disable a service, make sure to hit the Apply Changes button on that module's main page to activate your changes. |
2. | In the Extended Internet Services module, make sure that any services with ftp in their names (such as wu-ftpd, proftpd, or vsftpd) have their Service enabled? field set to No. Again, you will need to hit the module's Apply Changes button to activate any changes. |
3. | Back in the ProFTPD Server module, click on the Networking Options icon. |
4. | Select Standalone daemon from the Server type menu. |
5. | Click the Save button at the bottom of the page. |
6. | Back on the module's main page, a button labeled Start Server should appear at the bottom. Click it to start the ProFTPD daemon. |
7. | If you want the daemon to be restarted at boot time, use the Bootup and Shutdown module to create an action called proftpd that runs the command /usr/sbin/proftpd at boot time. The actual path may be /usr/local/sbin/proftpd or /usr/sbin/in.proftpd, depending on which Linux distribution you are running or if you compiled and installed the program yourself instead of using a package. Also, some ProFTPD packages may include a bootup script like this already, which you may just have to enable. |
Once ProFTPD has been started, you can test it by using the command line UNIX FTP client to connect to your own system. Just run ftp localhost, and make sure that you can log in as some user other than root. You can verify that the server really is ProFTPD by checking the version displayed by the ftp command just before it prompts for a username, unless it has been configured by default not to display version information.