BeagleBone Black web server

Michael_Thompson2 · June 7, 2014, 5:07am

I flashed Debian to the eMMC and it seems to be working fine. My plan is to host a small web page using Apache. I installed Apache and using the IP address the BeagleBone 101 loads fine from outside my network.

So, my question is, in what directory do I save my index.html file in order to see it as the default page served by Apache? There are no files in the /var/www/ directory so I am confused. On my Linux Mint (Debian edition) all I had to do was save my index file in the www directory.

Anyone know where I am going wrong?

Thanks!!

Eric_Fort · June 7, 2014, 10:05am

Where does httpd.conf say your files should go?

Jay_Nugent · June 7, 2014, 11:02am

Greetings,

Where does httpd.conf say your files should go?

I flashed Debian to the eMMC and it seems to be working fine. My plan is
to host a small web page using Apache. I installed Apache and using the IP
address the BeagleBone 101 loads fine from outside my network.

So, my question is, in what directory do I save my index.html file in
order to see it as the default page served by Apache? There are no files in
the /var/www/ directory so I am confused. On my Linux Mint (Debian edition)
all I had to do was save my index file in the www directory.

Typically /var/www/html/<user-name>/index.html

...which can be reached with http://hostname.domain.tld/user-name

-or-

/home/user-name/public_html/index.html

...which can be reached with http://hostname.domain.tld/~user-name

--- Jay Nugent WB8TKL
Ypsilanti, Michigan

Michael_Thompson2 · June 7, 2014, 9:50pm

I don’t know where the httpd.conf file is located

Jay_Nugent · June 7, 2014, 9:59pm

Greetings,

Michael_Thompson2 · June 7, 2014, 10:38pm

I spent a long time digging around in a bunch of directories. I couldn’t find httpd.conf in any apache directories, the one you mentioned included. I also don’t even have an /etc/httpd directory. And the find command (which I didn’t know about, so thank you!) returned nothing.

I am thoroughly confused at the point.

Janek1 · June 8, 2014, 5:26am

Hi,

Don’t know about Debian, but if with default Angstrom image, you have to either stop the nodejs webserver or
use a different port (192.168.7.2:port, where port is your port number) if you use another webserver as well.

Jan

William_Hermans · June 8, 2014, 7:20pm

https://www.google.com/#q=where+is+httpd.conf

The first hit for me ( stackoverflow ) shows you how to search your system to find a file.

William_Hermans · June 8, 2014, 7:23pm

Micheal while you’re at it, try . …

# which apache

And let us know what your shell outputs. Just incase there is any confusion, the above command is issued as root, or regular user using sudo.

Michael_Thompson2 · June 17, 2014, 12:57am

So I gave up on my Debian install and downloaded a Ubuntu image and installed that. Upon startup I found the image does not have a GUI so I decided to not even mess with that either (I’ll get there someday) so I downloaded a new Debian ISO and was hoping that a fresh install would fix my previous issue. But now my MD5SUM doesn’t match what is on the latest images page. Dang!

I’m going to start a new thread that is relevant to this new issue!

Thanks for all the ideas, guys

crazybucket1 · June 17, 2014, 4:54am

You do use the /var/www directory for apache. The problem, as someone else mentioned, is that there is another webserver running on it out of the box, so you need to disable it and the associated mess with systemctl:

systemctl disable cloud9.service
systemctl disable gateone.service
systemctl disable bonescript.service
systemctl disable bonescript.socket
systemctl disable bonescript-autorun.service
systemctl disable avahi-daemon.service
systemctl disable gdm.service
systemctl disable mpd.service

Now we can use the beaglebone more like a headless linux machine. Last time I played with it, apache was already installed (!) but running on an alternate port. So lets fix that - open /etc/apache2/ports.conf and change this:

NameVirtualHost *:8080 
Listen 8080

to this:

NameVirtualHost *:80
Listen 80

Save it and restart apache:

apachectl graceful

Then you should see the “It works!” page by navigating to the beaglebone’s IP address. Apache runs just fine on the beaglebone - much faster than the pentium II that I used to to learned linux on…

Michael_Thompson2 · June 17, 2014, 3:15pm

This didn’t work either. I am losing all hope that I will ever get this thing to work. I guess I will try again later today and maybe some magic will happen.

William_Hermans · June 17, 2014, 3:19pm

It might be helpful if you told us why it does not work.

Michael_Thompson2 · June 17, 2014, 3:24pm

Yeah, that’s why I am going to retry it later today. I followed the last instructions before I left for work and didn’t keep notes on which steps failed and why. I am going to start from a fresh install this afternoon and keep track of what happens so that I will be able to give more detail instead of just posting a dejected “Nothing works!!” reply. Sorry for being whiney, I’m just getting frustrated

William_Hermans · June 17, 2014, 3:44pm

Micheal,

The best solution IMHO would be to start with a minimal or bare filesystem, and install only the packages that you need. But this means you’re going to have to take time and learn how to do so. Using these instructions: http://eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/BeagleBone+Black You would skip anything related to compiling / copying over the kernel or u-boot and do something like the following
. . .

remove the rootfs partition on the sdcard.
create a new partition on the sdcard.
extract the barefs rootfs image onto this new partition.
follow the directions for modifying configuration file on the newly extracted rootfs so Debian knows how to behave.
once logged into the new system su to root, and apt-get install what you need.

NOW do keep in mind it is rather early for me ( have not had my morning coffee so to speak ), and I have not personally tested, or given this much thought aside from the occasional musing. So I may not have remembered EVERYTHING. However this is the gist of how to achieve what I propose.

Eventually though, you’re going to have to get your hands dirty and learn this stuff. Maybe not for this project, but perhaps for another. You may as well start learning now.

Michael_Thompson2 · June 17, 2014, 4:05pm

Hi William, I have actually been reading about how to do a netinstall all morning. Never a better time than now to learn something useful, right? I think I may give this a go in the next few days. Thanks for the advice

Wilfredo_Nieves · June 17, 2014, 11:45pm

In all honesty I don’t think you have to disable the default web server. A few months back I picked up a my book live nas and cracked it open to find that the hardware was similar to BBB. So I decided to see if I could do something similar with the BBB and I got it working but I don’t remember having to disable the default web server. I may be wrong though as I did not take notes on the procedure because I figured it was a one time deal and did it just to see if it could be done. Any ways all I remember doing was following a guide to install open cloud on debian. So you may want to look at some of those guides and see if you can get your web server working.

Wilfredo_Nieves · June 18, 2014, 12:01am

Correction it was OwnCloud not open cloud.

mark · November 8, 2015, 8:44am

I too was looking where to simply put my html so my BBB would be a web server. I didn’t want to have to install a new server or anything and have to disable the old one. Turns out, for me at least, it’s quite simple.

have a rev C Beaglebone Black with “Debian Image 2015-03-01” “using linux kernel 3.8.13-bone70”

I put index.html in :/var/www and I can see it on my laptop by browsing to http://192.168.7.2:8080/