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[Idea] Gentoox Loader : Web Server

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:21 am
by BigBowser
Hey Shallax!

After the release of GxL v6.03c, I saw that it seems to be pretty easy to make a real Native web server on a xbox (without loading any Linux thing, except the Loader itself).

So I thought that a good idea can be a new Gentoox Loader (GL:WS for Web Server), loading from .bin or .xbe, but without the intention of booting any Linux OS (FatX, Native, Web, Net...). It will only read a config file (i.e. E:\glweb.cfg on FatX), registering all paths (as public_html on E:\glweb\public_html\, or modules places...) and starting serving these files over a DHCP or Static network connection.

This is a solution for having the lightest webserver as possible, a very low cost apache alternative in ressources, and it doesn't force you to erase xbox partitions.

On the screen, you'll be able for instance to :Start, Stop, Restart Web service / see people conected... etc

And maybe in next releases support for php, multi domain, virtual hosts...

Think about it, I'm sure you can make it real :D
-BigBowser

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:26 am
by orochi
That would be quite an ordeal in itself, if it could even fit in the bios. Since I found this post rather late at night, ill play devil's advocate ;D Suppose you were able to get a httpd server running from the loader, how would you get more files to the hard drive to serve? So now were serving httpd&ftpd from the loader.bin

Why reinvent the wheel? Slap GentooX Pro on your box, and emerge yourself a webserver of choice, yes it does take some regular maintence vs your proposed solution.

Dont get me wrong im not shooting down your idea, i would just go a different way with it ;D You could write a ".b0x" or even your own ebuild to make a simple webserver setup with downloading and executing a very small script.

Sounds neat tho.

Anyways, off to bed.

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 3:12 pm
by BigBowser
:? I was sure that somebody may say I can use a sort of Resctoox
But I doesn't matter, the goal is not to have Linux loaded (kernel and initrd) but an executable (the .xbe), only this.

To make thing clearer: I would like finding a way to have a lil' webserver without any big work or modification, I don't want to have to mount initrd as a loopback FS and all the rest.. Just a simple repository where files are stored. Or, we can tell Resctoox mounting E: and searching for files to publish.. But a problem stays, Linux eats RAM, and xbox doesn't have more than just 64megs.. The bios (or xbe) was an idea to limit the use of RAM.

Anyway thanks for your answer orochi, i'll try to make a homebrew initrd with webserver. :wink:

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 6:46 pm
by BigBowser
Done :D

Gentoox Loader: WS v1.0 based on Resctoox is now ready, starting at boot, it shows index.html in E:\gentooxws\public_html\, links are fully working, cgi must also, ssl is working... I will put it here in a few hours (I want to finish it).

I'm going to add php support if I can, config file function..
Shallax, are you interested in publishing this Resctoox remake?

Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 5:30 pm
by ShALLaX
Doing it from Gentoox Loader is a pretty bad idea. Cromwell isnt a great stable platform. Inventing a webserver that is concurrent and bugproof would be very hard (Cromwell isn't at all threaded)... ugh, it's just a nightmare.