mailman web UI on localhost with apache2

Question

I'm interested only in running mailman on localhost and would like access to the web interface, as per https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Mailman, but am getting 404, after following Michaels suggestions:

root@dur:/etc/mailman# 
root@dur:/etc/mailman# ll /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 27 16:01 ./
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Aug 27 15:59 ../
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   26 Aug 27 15:58 000-default -> ../sites-available/default
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   24 Aug 27 16:01 mailman -> /etc/mailman/apache.conf
root@dur:/etc/mailman# 
root@dur:/etc/mailman# cat apache.conf
# Sample configuration for Debian mailman with Apache

# We can find mailman here:
#ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/mailman/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/
# And the public archives:
Alias /pipermail/ /var/lib/mailman/archives/public/
# Logos:
Alias /images/mailman/ /usr/share/images/mailman/

# Use this if you don't want the "cgi-bin" component in your URL:
# In case you want to access mailman through a shorter URL you should enable
# this:
ScriptAlias /mailman/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/
# In this case you need to set the DEFAULT_URL_PATTERN in
# /etc/mailman/mm_cfg.py to http://%s/mailman/ for the cookie
# authentication code to work.  Note that you need to change the base
# URL for all the already-created lists as well.

<Directory /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/>
    AllowOverride None
    Options ExecCGI
    AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>
<Directory /var/lib/mailman/archives/public/>
    Options FollowSymlinks
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>
<Directory /usr/share/images/mailman/>
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>


## The following describes how to configure mailman on
## a dedicated virtual host, courtesy Marco d'Itri.

# Add these lines in /etc/mailman/mm_cfg.py:
#DEFAULT_EMAIL_HOST = 'lists.example.net'
#DEFAULT_URL_HOST = 'lists.example.net'
#DEFAULT_URL_PATTERN = 'http://%s/'

#<VirtualHost *>
#ServerName lists.example.net
#DocumentRoot /var/www/lists
#ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/lists-error.log
#CustomLog /var/log/apache2/lists-access.log combined
#
#<Directory /var/lib/mailman/archives/>
#    Options FollowSymLinks
#    AllowOverride None
#</Directory>
#
#Alias /pipermail/ /var/lib/mailman/archives/public/
#Alias /images/mailman/ /usr/share/images/mailman/
#ScriptAlias /admin /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/admin
#ScriptAlias /admindb /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/admindb
#ScriptAlias /confirm /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/confirm
#ScriptAlias /create /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/create
#ScriptAlias /edithtml /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/edithtml
#ScriptAlias /listinfo /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo
#ScriptAlias /options /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/options
#ScriptAlias /private /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/private
#ScriptAlias /rmlist /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/rmlist
#ScriptAlias /roster /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/roster
#ScriptAlias /subscribe /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/subscribe
#ScriptAlias /mailman/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/
#</VirtualHost>

root@dur:/etc/mailman# 
root@dur:/etc/mailman# cat mm_cfg.py
# -*- python -*-

# Copyright (C) 1998,1999,2000 by the Free Software Foundation, Inc.
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
# as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
# of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
# 
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
# 
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software 
# Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
# 02110-1301 USA


"""This is the module which takes your site-specific settings.

From a raw distribution it should be copied to mm_cfg.py.  If you
already have an mm_cfg.py, be careful to add in only the new settings
you want.  The complete set of distributed defaults, with annotation,
are in ./Defaults.  In mm_cfg, override only those you want to
change, after the

  from Defaults import *

line (see below).

Note that these are just default settings - many can be overridden via the
admin and user interfaces on a per-list or per-user basis.

Note also that some of the settings are resolved against the active list
setting by using the value as a format string against the
list-instance-object's dictionary - see the distributed value of
DEFAULT_MSG_FOOTER for an example."""


#######################################################
#    Here's where we get the distributed defaults.    #

from Defaults import *

##############################################################
# Put YOUR site-specific configuration below, in mm_cfg.py . #
# See Defaults.py for explanations of the values.            #

#-------------------------------------------------------------
# The name of the list Mailman uses to send password reminders
# and similar. Don't change if you want mailman-owner to be
# a valid local part.
MAILMAN_SITE_LIST = 'mailman'

#-------------------------------------------------------------
# If you change these, you have to configure your http server
# accordingly (Alias and ScriptAlias directives in most httpds)
DEFAULT_URL_PATTERN = 'http://%s/mailman/'
PRIVATE_ARCHIVE_URL = '/cgi-bin/mailman/private'
IMAGE_LOGOS         = '/images/mailman/'

#-------------------------------------------------------------
# Default domain for email addresses of newly created MLs
DEFAULT_EMAIL_HOST = 'dur.bounceme.net'
#-------------------------------------------------------------
# Default host for web interface of newly created MLs
DEFAULT_URL_HOST   = 'dur.bounceme.net'
#-------------------------------------------------------------
# Required when setting any of its arguments.
add_virtualhost(DEFAULT_URL_HOST, DEFAULT_EMAIL_HOST)

#-------------------------------------------------------------
# The default language for this server.
DEFAULT_SERVER_LANGUAGE = 'en'

#-------------------------------------------------------------
# Iirc this was used in pre 2.1, leave it for now
USE_ENVELOPE_SENDER    = 0              # Still used?

#-------------------------------------------------------------
# Unset send_reminders on newly created lists
DEFAULT_SEND_REMINDERS = 0

#-------------------------------------------------------------
# Uncomment this if you configured your MTA such that it
# automatically recognizes newly created lists.
# (see /usr/share/doc/mailman/README.Exim4.Debian or
# /usr/share/mailman/postfix-to-mailman.py)
# MTA=None   # Misnomer, suppresses alias output on newlist

#-------------------------------------------------------------
# Uncomment if you use Postfix virtual domains (but not
# postfix-to-mailman.py), but be sure to see
# /usr/share/doc/mailman/README.Debian first.
# MTA='Postfix'

#-------------------------------------------------------------
# Uncomment if you want to filter mail with SpamAssassin. For
# more information please visit this website:
# http://www.jamesh.id.au/articles/mailman-spamassassin/
# GLOBAL_PIPELINE.insert(1, 'SpamAssassin')

# Note - if you're looking for something that is imported from mm_cfg, but you
# didn't find it above, it's probably in /usr/lib/mailman/Mailman/Defaults.py.
root@dur:/etc/mailman#

It's still the same error I believe:

root@dur:~# 
root@dur:~# tail /var/log/apache2/error.log 
[Mon Aug 27 19:16:41 2012] [notice] caught SIGTERM, shutting down
[Mon Aug 27 19:16:42 2012] [notice] Apache/2.2.22 (Ubuntu) configured -- resuming normal operations
[Mon Aug 27 19:16:48 2012] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] File does not exist: /var/www/favicon.ico
[Mon Aug 27 19:16:48 2012] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] File does not exist: /var/www/favicon.ico
[Mon Aug 27 19:16:54 2012] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] File does not exist: /var/www/mailman
[Mon Aug 27 19:20:55 2012] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] File does not exist: /var/www/sites-available
[Mon Aug 27 19:25:05 2012] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] attempt to invoke directory as script: /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/, referer: http://serverfault.com/questions/421756/mailman-web-ui-on-localhost-with-apache2
[Mon Aug 27 19:28:45 2012] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] File does not exist: /var/www/mailman
[Mon Aug 27 19:29:01 2012] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] File does not exist: /var/www/mailman
[Mon Aug 27 19:29:21 2012] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] File does not exist: /var/www/mailman
root@dur:~#

looks like http://www.list.org/mailman-install/node10.html is the fine manual page on this. — Thufir, Aug 27 '12 at 20:24
@MichaelHampton I updated the question a bit. I think the problem is with the symbolic link. maybe an alias would be easier? Not sure how to use an alias here. — Thufir, Aug 27 '12 at 20:41
Yes, but you didn't update the question with the requested information. — Michael Hampton, Aug 27 '12 at 21:09
@MichaelHampton do you mean where apache is located? /etc/apache2/ — Thufir, Aug 27 '12 at 23:22

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 27 '12 at 20:27

1

use following guide Linux Help - Mailman Setup Guide

answered Aug 27 '12 at 20:27

alexus

13,112
32
117
174

beyond "Now you will have to set your default adminstrator password for the MailMan web interface." there wasn't much at that guide about apache. – Thufir Aug 27 '12 at 20:51
what about part of apache's configuration??? – alexus Aug 27 '12 at 20:53
I did: `root@dur:/etc/mailman# /usr/sbin/mmsitepass thisisabadpassword Password changed. root@dur:/etc/mailman# ` pardon, maybe I'm blind, I don't see anything else relating to apache2. – Thufir Aug 27 '12 at 20:56
omg, open page and then use search for httpd.conf and you'll see ScriptAlias, Direcotry and Alias directives (that's apache config that you're missing) – alexus Aug 27 '12 at 21:02
you are right, since I installed apache with aptitude and it's running, I wasn't looking at the section where apache is installed. My httpd.conf file is empty, zero bytes. not sure whether that's normal for Ubuntu or is problematic. – Thufir Aug 27 '12 at 22:47

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 27 '12 at 23:57

The problem is that Apache in Debian's default configuration (and yours, as posted) is expecting Mailman to be served from /cgi-bin/mailman whereas you want to use /mailman instead.

The offending line is in your /etc/mailman/apache.conf file:

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/mailman/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/

Comment this by adding a # sign in front of it.

Further down in the comments you will see the following explanation:

# Use this if you don't want the "cgi-bin" component in your URL:
# In case you want to access mailman through a shorter URL you should enable
# this:
#ScriptAlias /mailman/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/
# In this case you need to set the DEFAULT_URL_PATTERN in
# /etc/mailman/mm_cfg.py to http://%s/mailman/ for the cookie
# authentication code to work.  Note that you need to change the base
# URL for all the already-created lists as well.

Remove the # sign in front of ScriptAlias in this section to enable it. Then make the edit to /etc/mailman/mm_cfg.py that it specifies.

OK, I think that I have done those edits, which make sense, and have restarted Apache, but still get a 404 from http://localhost/mailman/ — Thufir, Aug 28 '12 at 02:24

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 28 '12 at 05:19

0

I went back to:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Mailman

and eventually navigated to

http://dur.bounceme.net/cgi-bin/mailman/admin

Which, for my purposes, works.

answered Aug 28 '12 at 05:19

Thufir

229
7
18

mailman web UI on localhost with apache2

3 Answers3