The Classic Linux environment has always been, and will continue to be, oriented towards “old-timers” who prefer a command-line computing environment. Thus the classic Linux environment tries to provide useful command-line tools. It's expected that as a user in this environment you don't mind reading online manuals now and then (with the “man” command), and you write, or would some day like to write, shell scripts or procmail recipes.

If you just want a friendly web-hosting environment where you do most operations from a web control panel, please take a look at our DirectAdmin environment.

The Classic Linux environment uses Ubuntu 20.04. This is a Linux distribution that is filled with latest and greatest tools while still providing a stable environment.

To access the Linux shell, ssh into the server aqua-new.rahul.net.

To access the Virtualmin control panel, point your web browser to https://aqua-new.rahul.net:10000/.

After you complete your first Virtualmin login, please change your password to a new long random string following the instructions on this page: Classic Linux password changes.

SSH logins. If your ssh connection attempt times out, please see: Classic Linux SSH restrictions (and hints).

The Virtualmin control panel works reasonably well for adding and removing domains and mail aliases.

However, although Virtualmin will let you rename a domain, it's possible for this to go wrong. Please handle such situations with care. If making complex changes, it's good to first download a recent backup, which you can do from within Virtualmin.

For IMAP and POP, please see Classic Linux ports and protocols.

Point your web browser towards https://aqua-new.rahul.net/roundcube. The login name will be the same as for IMAP and POP above.

Roundcube official documentation can be found at:

• http://docs.roundcube.net/doc/help/1.1/en_US/

Before you send any mail via the Roundcube webmail interface, please go to

• Settings ⇒ Identities

and set your correct reply address as the Email.

Note. There are two places where you can enter your preferred email address: Email and Reply-To.

Email should normally be an email address that resides on our server. It may be of the form USER@rahul.net, or it may be anything in your own domain provided that domain resides on our server. And Reply-To will normally be left empty.

What if Email is an address that resides somewhere else, not on our server? Many sites publish DNS records specifying how mail from their domain should be handled. Depending on these DNS records, mail that you send from our webmail server might be treated as spam by receiving sites. And that may cause your outgoing mail to be delayed, bounced by other sites, end up in a spam folder, or even just completely lost.

For this reason it is best to make Email something that is on our server. And if you want replies to go to some other email address, not on our server, put that email address into Reply-To.

Please see: Plus addressing.

PHP and MySQL are supported when using any domain other than rahul.net.

MySQL databases can be administered from within the Virtualmin control panel or using phpMyAdmin.

From within Virtualmin:

• Virtualmin ⇒ Edit Databases
• Webmin ⇒ Servers ⇒ MySQL Database Server

With phpMyAdmin:

• https://aqua-new.rahul.net/phpmyadmin/

It's easiest to install an application in an automated manner, if possible, because databases will then be automatically created as needed. See below.

Many popular applications used on websites, such as WordPress, MediaWiki, Dokuwiki, phpBB, and numerous others, can be automatically installed, managed, upgraded, and backed up, with just a few clicks of your mouse.

A few are built into Virtualmin:

     Virtualmin ⇒ Install Scripts

Many more can be managed by Installatron:

     Virtualmin ⇒ Services ⇒ Installatron Applications Installer

Installatron will let you choose to have your application automatically upgraded when security fixes and minor bug fixes are released. This is enabled by default unless you switch it off. We recommend keeping this enabled. This will minimize the risk that a security fix might be released but your application might remain forgotten, not upgraded, and subject to getting hacked.

Shared servers are intended for typical use. On a shared server, it's assumed that most people will use more of some services and less of others. For example, some will use more storage, some will use more email, some will have more website traffic, some will use more CPU processing, some will use more I/O (input/output) processing and so on. We call this typical use.

Also, typical use varies with time. For example, a typical user might use a lot of CPU processing at various times, but not all the time. Or a typical user might use a lot of data transfer volume some of the time, but not all the time.

A user who uses many resources close to their limits, or nearly maxes out some resources much of the time, may be considered an atypical user. In that case we may contact you to discuss an account upgrade.

Be sure to follow announcements in https://discourse.rahul.net.

Below is a small selection of useful pages. Please see the sidebar menu for many more.

Some pages reside in a separate Hints menu. It you find yourself there, just follow the Top link to get back to the main menu.

• Billing System (revised for 2020)
• Hints menu
• Classic Linux (revised for 2020)
  • Spam filtering in Classic Linux
  • File layout in Classic Linux
  • Classic Linux password changes
• Mail forwarding
• DirectAdmin (revised for 2020)
• Command-line mail user agent Alpine
• Plus addressing
• SSL certificates
• Classic Linux vs DirectAdmin