Installing Plesk in Debain

Debian 4.0 has been released. It is recommended that you upgrade the system to latest version.

Step # 1: Verify current system

File /etc/debian_version stores current Debian version number :

In our case $ cat /etc/debian_version

Output:

3.1

Find out kernel version
$ uname -mrs
Output:

Linux 2.6.8-3-386 i686

Step #2: Update package list

Use apt-get command:
# apt-get update

Step #3 : Update distribution

Pass dist-upgrade option to apt-get command. This will upgrade Sarge to Etch. dist-upgrade' in addition to performing the function of upgrade, also intelligently handles changing dependencies with new versions of packages; apt-get has a "smart" conflict resolution system, and it will attempt to upgrade the most important packages at the expense of less important ones if necessary.
# apt-get dist-upgrade

Step #4 : Update /etc/apt/sources.list file

There seems to be a small bug in upgrade procedure. You need to manually update Debian security source line. You will see an error as follows:
W: Conflicting distribution: http://security.debian.org stable/updates Release (expected stable but got sarge)
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems

Just open /etc/apt/sources.list file:
# vi /etc/apt/sources.list
Find line that read as follows:
deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib
Replace with :
deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib non-free

Save and close the file. Now type the following command:
# apt-get update

You will encounter many errors. In this case try this

# apt-get -f install

One the common error which we get is

Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Inorder to tackle this

# lsof /var/cache/debconf/config.dat

# kill -9 21531


After that you will have to start the upgrade again.

# apt-get dist-upgrade

Now you will get a graphical window if everything went correctly.

Follow the on screen instruction. We have to configure the server with the new settings.

After this your server has become version 4.0

$ cat /etc/debian_version

Output:

4.0

Now we can install Plesk.

Check the server architecture and download the autoinstaller

In this case:
wget http://download1.parallels.com/Plesk/Plesk8.6/Debian4.0/parallels_installer_v3.3.2_build080710.09_os_Debian_4.0_i386

After installation gets complete you can get the plesk password from cat /etc/psa/.psa.shadow.