Kindle Terminal app (sort of)

[lrizzo]

One way to run a shell on a kindle is to use the browser as the user interface, and a server side process that forks the shells and talks to the browser.

There are several such options around. Ajaxterm is one that seemed reasonably simple and well designed, though the original version had the server implemented in Python (so a bit too heavyweight for the Kindle).

At http://info.iet.unipi.it/~luigi/kindle/ you can find a rewrite of AjaxTerm which is suitable for operation on the Kindle (but not only there). The server side has been completely rewritten in C (single source file, approx 900 lines), and the client side is only about 400 lines of javascript and no external framework or libraries.

Consider the current version as a proof of concept, but it is already in reasonable shape and shouldn't take much work to add the missing features.

cheers
luigi

[Polvo]

Good work Luigi. Have you seen Neftaly's hack? It it the beginning of a bookmarklet manager for the k3 browser. It runs a BusyBox server to do some of its magic though https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=101705

[centaurian]

Hi. Is there way how to login with private key? I have dropbear in "K3_WIFI" mode and password for root is unknown. Or how to get root password without changing it?

[NiLuJe]

@centaurian: Yes, check the latest usbnet README & badbob001's post.

[centaurian]

Yes, with Putty and WinSCP it works great over Wifi with private key. Problem is how to use this tool and have usbnet with Wifi option enabled. Any idea how to do that without changing root password? I actually have last usbnet (28).

Possible solutions:
1/ change root password and login with that (that is not really what I want)
2/ find right root password (impossible?)
3/ reprogram AjaxTerm to login with private key
4/ reprogram dropbear to allow login from localhost without checking password
5/ set K3_WIFI="false" (that is not really what I want)
6/ some other way :-)

[NiLuJe]

@centaurian: Oh, you mean a passwordless login *on the Kindle* via the aforementioned AjaxTerm?

In that case, if it currently does require the root password, err, yeah, sorry, since I don't use it, I can't say much more than what you already thought about .

I'd go with switching the root password, because tweaking usbnet to make dropbear allow passwordless logins over WiFi is a *very bad* idea .

Bear in mind, I haven't tried this: but why would you ssh to localhost in the first place? Doesn't AjaxTerm already drops you in a local root shell?

[centaurian]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@centaurian: Oh, you mean a passwordless login *on the Kindle* via the aforementioned AjaxTerm?

Yes. It's exactly what I want to.

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

In that case, if it currently does require the root password, err, yeah, sorry, since I don't use it, I can't say much more than what you already thought about .

I'd go with switching the root password, because tweaking usbnet to make dropbear allow passwordless logins over WiFi is a *very bad* idea .

I agree. Open acces via WIFI is not good on public wifi:-). I asked to It's posible to allow passwordless logins only via localhost.

Something like:
if (ipaddr='127.0.0.1')
do_not_check;
else
check;

I have another idea:
6/Use launchpad for switch dropbear config and run ajaxterm. On second run of script kill ajaxterm and switch config back to allow WIFI mode. (Restarting dropbear to apply changed config is needed :-))

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Bear in mind, I haven't tried this: but why would you ssh to localhost in the first place? Doesn't AjaxTerm already drops you in a local root shell?

AjaxTerm seems to use ssh to localhost - it need login to access it.

[NiLuJe]

@centaurian: Huh.

Will patch dropbear to bypass auth when connecting from localhost in the next USBNetwork release.

[centaurian]

That will by fine. Thank you. ;-)

[NiLuJe]

@centaurian: Done. Given the fact that I probably won't be able to release it properly for a few days, here's the updated dropbear binary. (Just overwrite the one in usbnet/bin with this one, and restart sshd [by switching usbnet off/on]).

It'll also be useful to check that my patch indeed works as intended, and that I didn't break anything . (ie. still auth properly over wifi when not connecting from localhost ^^)

[centaurian]

I tested it. From WIFI it still needs key file, from localhost not (by "ssh localhost" - that good). But AjaxTerm still refuses me to connect with "Login Incorrect". So I am looking at AjaxTerm sources, how it really works...

Edit:
I was wrong. It don't use ssh.

[lrizzo]

Ajaxterm does not use ssh, just calls login.
I have put up an updated version which lets you just drop into a shell by running the server side as
myts --cmd sh

(or whatever other command you want to run)

http://info.iet.unipi.it/~luigi/kind...m-20101107.tgz

I have not had time to test the kindle binary, it works on the host though
so hopefully it should work there too.

cheers
luigi

[centaurian]

Now it works :-).


I made run script for launchpad. On first run it runs AjaxTerm from /mnt/us/local/terminal/ directory. On second run it kills it.

Run it with:

/mnt/us/local/terminal/terminal.sh > /dev/null

[lrizzo]

i believe it would be good to keep a web server always on (hopefully it doesn't consume too much power) from which we could enable/disable/modify the various features (usbnetwork, launchpad configurations etc.).

[NiLuJe]

@lrizzo/centaurian: Okay, good to know .

FYI, the login applet of the busybox binary shipped with usbnetwork will skip password auth and drop you in a full root login shell.