INLS 183 Project 10: Comanche 3.0b3

Introduction to Comanche

Comanche, which stands for “configuration manager for Apache” is an open-source, a la GPL, graphical user interface (GUI) for Apache. Comanche is part of the Apache GUI project, and is sponsored by Covalent, a company the provides commercial services and add-ons for the Apache webserver.

In looking for a final installation, I turned to Apache, which throughout my installations has played various roles, often anchoring other installations like PHP, MySQL, and mod_ssl. I visited the Apache related projects page to see if there were any similar programs that I could pursue. Comanche stuck out, so I decided to give it a whirl. As always, I was expecting a pretty smooth installation, but various unforeseen issues cropped up along the way. In the end I succeeded in getting Comanche to work both with a vanilla installation of Apache 1.3.14, as well as with Apache plus mod_ssl.

Note: I realized later that I installed the most recent beta version, 3.0b3. For those looking for Samba support, I am told one should go with version 2, until 3 is done.

Comanche Prerequisite: Apache

Download and install the latest version of Apache:

# lynx http://httpd.apache.org/dist/apache_1.3.14.tar.gz
# tar zxf apache_1.3.14.tar.gz
# cd apache_1.3.14
# ./configure --enable-module=so --prefix=/usr/local/apache_1.3.14
# make
# make install
# /usr/local/apache_1.3.14/bin/apachectl start

For more comprehensive instructions, see my previous Apache installations:
Project 2: Apache_1.3.12 & PHP-4.0.2
Project 6: Apache_1.3.14 & mod_ssl-2.7.1-1.3.14
Project 8: Web Database Tutorial

Comanche Installation

As I've done throughout the course, I downloaded the Comanche source and read the installation docs. Unfortunately, Comanche didn't appear to be a very friendly package to build, requiring TCL/TK among other things. Since the docs were sparse, I decided to install their binary, precompiled version for Linux (with glibc2):

Download Linux glibc2 Intel binary

Since it detars/gunzips in it's final directory, I decided to move it to /usr/local with the Apache installations and detar it there:

# tar zxf comanche3.0b3-x86-linux-glibc2.tar.gz

From this point on, I simply needed to set my display variable and run Comanche, configuring it via my X-server. To document the process, I took various screen shots.

# export DISPLAY=152.2.14.152:0
# cd /usr/local/comanche3-0b3/
# ./comanche3.0b3

Screenshot 1: First window with a button that starts Comanche

Screenshot 2: First glimpse of Comanche without any Apache servers

Screenshot 3: New Apache Installation - Name Apache Installation

Screenshot 4: New Apache Installation - Specify Path to Apache

Screenshot 5: New Apache Installation - Apache Successfully Added

Note: The first Apache installation I tried to add to Comanche was the one running on my machine since my last Apache installation: Apache with mod_ssl. For whatever, Comanche just wouldn't take it, instead giving me errors in my terminal window like this:

Error trying to add Apache installation /usr/local/comanche3-0b3/comanche/../plugins/manager/../apmanager/configurations/1/apache.conf: Unknown choice: . Known choices: startup startup connect connect

I didn't know what was going on, and I couldn't find any info online related to this error. Fearing the mod_ssl was somehow bucking the process, I tried to add a vanilla installation of Apache 1.3.12. It worked perfectly:

Screenshot 6: Comanche loading for the first time with an Apache Installation

Screenshot 7: The Comanche GUI with Apache 1.3.12

Comanche and Apache with mod_ssl

At this point my Comanche installation was successful, but I was peeved that I couldn't get Comanche to work with Apache and mod_ssl. So, I decided to run through a vanilla installation of Apache 1.3.14, which worked fine with Comanche. Then I freshly installed Apache with mod_ssl, and again, Comanche just wouldn’t take it. This lack of success led me to look for some other configurators/GUIs like Linuxconf, but I found them vastly unsatisfactory. Finally at some point, upon going back over the Covalent/Comanche website I read this very clear message:
If your Apache version includes support for modssl (i.e. The one included with Suse), you may encounter the following error:

Error trying to add Apache installation /[myinstalldirectory]/comanche3-0b3/comanche/..plugins/manager../apmanager/configurations/[configuration number]/apache.conf: Unknown choice: . Know choices: startup startup connect connect

To avoid it, delete the raven directory:

rm -rf /path/to/comanche/plugins/apache/modules/raven*

This will be fixed in the next release.

That was it exactly! I don't know why "modssl" didn't catch my eye before, probably because of the mention of Suse--anyway, this appeared to be my problem (and solution) exactly, so I went ahead and deleted the files in the raven directory. Without fail, I was able to add the Apache 1.3.14 + mod_ssl installation to Comanche:

Screenshot 8: Comanche with both Apache 1.3.14 + mod_ssl and plain Apache 1.3.14

INLS 183 Project 10: Comanche 3.0b3 script file