Browser and localhost

[alethiophile]

So since someone now has Python on the Kindle, I had a shot at getting some of my Python ebook utils to work natively. It appears that they quite nicely do. However, since I haven't found a decent terminal emulator that works on Paperwhite and the options for user interface on the device itself are otherwise quite limited, I thought to fiddle an HTTPD and run through the browser on the device in order to be able to run things via CGI. HTTPD runs fine, and using elinks over SSH works perfectly. However, it appears that the Paperwhite experimental browser won't connect to localhost--it gives me the "unsupported file type for download" dialog. (I connected to the same HTTPD setup on another machine in my local network and it worked fine, so I know it's not a problem on that end.) Does anyone know how to get around this, or in general much about the Paperwhite browser? Google is not being particularly helpful.

[aditya3098]

Try 0.0.0.0 instead of localhost

[knc1]

Originally Posted by aditya3098

Try 0.0.0.0 instead of localhost

The "any address, any interface" setting?

Why not just use the primary address of one of the machine's interfaces? The kernel stack will recognize that as "local" and send it over the "localhost" path even though it isn't 127.0.0.1

[alethiophile]

Okay, it appears that 0.0.0.0 works. Addresses of interfaces don't; it doesn't give me the popup, just hangs and refuses to load. Thanks for the help.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by alethiophile

Okay, it appears that 0.0.0.0 works. Addresses of interfaces don't; it doesn't give me the popup, just hangs and refuses to load. Thanks for the help.

Once that connection is made -
Then list the open sockets and see what address/interface it is using - then use that setting.

Using just 0.0.0.0 will result in some other interesting problems with other things that "hang" after your application claims their address.

[alethiophile]

Unfortunately, it appears that the address it's using (per netstat) is 127.0.0.1, which's failure was the original reason for this post. I think that the browser is special-casing on that to disallow, well, this. If there's a better idea available, I'm open to suggestions.

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by alethiophile

Unfortunately, it appears that the address it's using (per netstat) is 127.0.0.1, which's failure was the original reason for this post. I think that the browser is special-casing on that to disallow, well, this. If there's a better idea available, I'm open to suggestions.

Correct. The browser has hard-coded instructions which disallow access to 127.0.0.1.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by ixtab

Correct. The browser has hard-coded instructions which disallow access to 127.0.0.1.

1)
Ah, but is it coded to disallow the entire 127.0.0.0/8 address range that is localhost?
Try some of the other 2^24 (-3) addresses on lo if there is any chance they don't special case the entire range.

2)
Do you have the network bridging available?
Put up a single destination bridge to somewhere in 127.0.0.0/8
Assign an address to the bridge outside of 127.0.0.0/8
Try that.

3)
Do you have the dummy interface available?
Put that up, give it an address outside of 127.0.0.0/8
Try that.

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by knc1

1)
Ah, but is it coded to disallow the entire 127.0.0.0/8 address range that is localhost?
Try some of the other 2^24 (-3) addresses on lo if there is any chance they don't special case the entire range.

You could try with some other IP (like 127.0.0.2), but you will need to change the iptables configuration first, because by default, the firewall will reject such packets.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by ixtab

You could try with some other IP (like 127.0.0.2), but you will need to change the iptables configuration first, because by default, the firewall will reject such packets.

I haven't looked at the iptables entries (yet).
But in general, 127.0.0.0/8 should be allowed, not just one address.

I have an "iptables day" in my near future to fill out the other choice not yet described in my "exploring a new Kpw" thread.

PS: ixtab - if you want to move these communication controls posts out of your thread and into mine (where they better belong) - go for it!