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2015-09-11

KeyHelp® 14.5.0 – Support for Ubuntu 14.04 and more!

by Alexander Mahr

With this KeyHelp update to version 14.5.0 the operating system Ubuntu 14.04 is now fully supported, furthermore, the panel interface has been improved and numerous bug fixes for stability and security have been implemented.

This update will be installed automatically on your server during the 38th calendar week.

Some selected changes in version 14.5.0:

  • Support for Ubuntu 14.04
  • Default database now MariaDB 10
  • Complete redesigned, user-friendly installer
  • Free database name / database user name selection
  • Comprehensive refactoring of various program components for better performance, reliability and maintainability
  • Several security enhancements through new file permissions for sensitive files
  • KeyHelp now no longer needs the "root" database user
  • For clean separation between "admin" server-user-account and KeyHelp-relevant data, KeyHelp now runs under its own user
  • Changes of various configuration files including bug fixes, standardization of filenames and paths

A complete overview of all the changes in this release can be found here!

Please note the following important information:

If you run KeyHelp on a server with Ubuntu 12.02, please do NOT run the command "apt-get dist-upgrade" by yourself, because you will damage your server / your KeyHelp installation thus.

We will provide a script soon, which let you easily update from Ubuntu 12.04 to 14.04.

Once this script is ready to release, we will inform you via KeyHelp news.

Upgrade from MySQL 5.5 to MariaDB 10:

MariaDB offers many advantages compared to MySQL. However, to give you the choice between the two systems, MariaDB 10 is not automatically installed on your system.

As part of this KeyHelp update you receive a shell script, which offer a simple solution to upgrade your database from MySQL 5.5 to MariaDB 10.

To perform the upgrade, call the script with the following command:

php /home/keyhelp/www/keyhelp/bin/upgrade_mysql_5.5_to_mariadb_10.0.php

Usually, this upgrade is not a problem, but we recommend you to perform a backup of your data before!


Changes in configuration files / server settings

During the update several configuration files are renamed:

  • "/etc/logrotate.d/keyhelp_logrotate" → "/etc/logrotate.d/keyhelp"
  • "/etc/apache2/keyhelp_vhosts.conf" → "/etc/apache2/keyhelp.conf"

Because of this, the following change is required to the file "/etc/apache2/apache2.conf":

from version 14.5.0

#Include KeyHelp vHosts
Include keyhelp.conf

from version 14.4.1

# Include Keyhelp vHosts
Include keyhelp_vhosts.conf

The KeyHelp update routine take care of this, even if you have protected this file with “chattr +i”.


With this release, a dedicated system user for KeyHelp will be created (formerly "admin"). All required KeyHelp® data / supplied tools will henceforth be stored in its home directory "/home/keyhelp/".

Please refrain from store private data in this directory because they can be overwritten by future updates.

In the configuration files

  • "/etc/php5/fpm/pool.d/keyhelp.conf"
  • "/etc/apache2/keyhelp.conf"

the old user name "admin" will be replaced with the new name "keyhelp"

The KeyHelp update routine take care of this, even if you have protected this file with “chattr +i”.


If you protected the file "/etc/apache2/keyhelp_vhosts.conf" with “chattr +i”, you have to manually modify the file to apply the following change.

Add the following lines ...

for Ubuntu 12.04 / Apache 2.2:

<Directory "/home/keyhelp/www/keyhelp/bin/\">
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
</Directory>

for Ubuntu 14.04 / Apache 2.4:

<Directory "/home/keyhelp/www/keyhelp/bin/\">
Require all denied
</Directory>

... right below this block ...

<Directory "/home/keyhelp/www/keyhelp\">
...
</Directory>

... and run the command “service apache2 reload”.


The file “/etc/sudoers”, edited by previous KeyHelp® installation will be reset to original state. The additions made by KeyHelp will now be saved as separat file in “/etc/sudoers.d/”.


The files "/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf" and "/etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf" will be completely overwritten. Your optionally existing "/etc/dovecot/additional_custom.conf" remains unaffected.


Until this update, the KeyHelp cronjob used the "root crontab". As Part of the update, a separat file "/etc/cron.d/keyhelp" will be created for it . The "root crontab" entry for KeyHelp® will be removed. If you have made manual changes in the “root crontab”, if necessary, you should check this again after the update.