AdminBolt 1.2.1: BoltTerminal and Native CloudLinux SSH

·adminbolt team·3 min read

1.2.0 brought CloudLinux into the panel as a first-class platform. 1.2.1 follows through on that by making shell access on CloudLinux native too. This release introduces BoltTerminal, a rebuilt SSH module designed for CloudLinux servers, wires hosting-account SSH and cron straight into CageFS, and clears a handful of fixes, including a LiteSpeed trial-key activation that used to fail with a 500.

If you run plain Apache servers, nothing here changes for you. If you run CloudLinux, this is the release that lets you offer isolated SSH and cron without a separate wrapper.

BoltTerminal: SSH built for CloudLinux

BoltSSH has been renamed and rebuilt as BoltTerminal, with its own installer, health check, and module seeder.

The important part is what it's built on. BoltTerminal is designed for CloudLinux, where user isolation is handled natively by CageFS rather than by a bolt-on layer. The installer is deliberate about that: it requires CloudLinux, and it will not install alongside a running SecureBox, since both manage SSH access and you only want one in charge. On servers that aren't running CloudLinux, SecureBox remains the way to provide isolated SSH access, so nothing regresses there.

One small touch: root login sessions now show a Bolt greeting, installed via /root/.bash_profile on both new installs and upgrades, so you can tell at a glance which box you've landed on.

Native SSH and cron on hosting accounts

With BoltTerminal in place, toggling SSH access on a CloudLinux hosting account now uses CloudLinux natively. The panel drives a new agent endpoint that enables CageFS and a per-user sshd configuration, instead of routing through SecureBox. Any leftover SecureBox setup for that user is cleaned up automatically, so accounts created before the upgrade end up on the same path as new ones.

Cron follows the same model. Hosting accounts on CloudLinux can now manage cron jobs whenever SSH access is enabled, and cron commands run through plain bash under CageFS isolation rather than the SecureBox wrapper. Error handling on cron creation has been tightened up as well.

To keep existing servers consistent, CloudLinux boxes get a one-time CageFS force-update during the panel upgrade, so user cages stay in step with the new SSH and cron paths.

Fixes worth calling out

A few bug fixes in 1.2.1 are worth naming because you'd have felt them:

  • LiteSpeed trial key: activating LiteSpeed with Use Trial Key no longer fails with a 500. The trial request is now sent to the agent as an explicit trial activation, instead of being registered as an invalid license serial.
  • Custom hostname SSL: the SSL certificate for a custom hostname domain could break after a panel update. It's now re-issued automatically when its CN/SAN no longer matches the configured hostname.
  • Update screen freezing: the update screen could freeze on a stale modal during a panel update. Progress is now displayed correctly through the whole update.

Upgrading is one click

If you're on 1.2.0, upgrading is done entirely from the panel. Open the Updates screen in the admin UI and apply 1.2.1. The one-click updater shows live progress, runs the version-specific upgrade steps for you, including the CageFS refresh mentioned above, and reports when it's done. Take a backup first (the built-in backup or JetBackup both work), and expect only a brief interruption on a typical VPS.

Running CloudLinux, or thinking about it? This is the release that brings native shell access into the same panel. Tell us how it goes on Discord, the community forum, or via the contact form.

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