Windows 7, Virtualbox, can't connect to sage server with Chrome

[scott.h]

Hi all, I've googled but I'm too inexperienced with this vm stuff to
make much sense of what I'm reading. My problem is this:

-Downloaded and installed a sage windows installer (Virtualbox + sage
all in one)
-Got it up and running, I can access sage and run the notebook from
within virtualbox
-However, when I try to access the notebook server from Chrome in
windows (http://localhost:8000) I get a connection rejected message.

I'm not sure what of this (if any) information is relevant but in
Virtualbox the network settings are:

-bridged adapter
-promiscuous mode is set to deny (I tried VM as well but that didn't
fix the problem)
-cable connected is unchecked because (a) it didn't work when it was,
and (b) I'm on wireless.

The problem isn't critical, because I can still use sage in
Virtualbox, but it's small and the mouse is a little jerky, I'd much
rather access it from my windows browser. Any help would be much
appreciated!

[Keshav Kini]

Are you running the notebook with the option interface=""? If you don't, it will only accept connections from within the VM.

-Keshav

----
Join us in #sagemath on irc.freenode.net !

[Volker Braun]

In the VirtualBox Network settings

Adapter1

Attached to: NAT

Check cable connected (virtual cable in the virtual machine)

Click on Port Forwarding and add a rule

TCP / Host IP = 127.0.0.1 / Host Port = 8000 / Guest IP = empty / Guest port = 8000

[scott.h]

Hi Keshav, thanks for the response. I wasn't doing that before, but
have since tried it and I'm still getting the connection refused
error.
scott

[scott.h]

That did the trick, thank you very much!
scott

[emil]

Hey, first report about the combined VBox/Sage installer - great!

About the jerky mouse - try to disable "mouspointer integration",
You will need to use right ctrl-key (or Alt-Tab) to leave the VM
window afterwards, but at least it gives a usable mouse.

Volker thank you about the NAT/portforwarding network settings...

If you want to use the multiuser "sage server" and access it from
other computers on the LAN then you need "bridged adapter" and connect
to the IP of the VM (there should be a green splash window on the
bottom with the IP adress)
cheers
emil

[Volker Braun]

On Sunday, February 12, 2012 10:56:35 PM UTC-8, emil wrote:

If you want to use the multiuser "sage server" and access it from
other computers on the LAN then you need "bridged adapter" and connect
to the IP of the VM (there should be a green splash window on the
bottom with the IP adress) 

But before you ever set the network adapter to "bridged" you must change all passwords for all accounts in the virtual machine. Emil, are all logins disabled in your VM? 

[emil]

Well, I did quite some thinking how to handle this when made it.
Right at the moment loggins are not disabled but all servers (ssh,
ftp) are off by default. Passwords for the accounts are not published
(my defaults are like strong 20 char passwords). sshd is started
together with the sage server and at this same moment a new set of
encryption keys is generated (so it would be no use for some cracker
to sniff the keys from the published iso).
It is stated in the docs of the VM, that one should change passwords
before using the sage server. The sage admin password is also not set
and is asked for at first run of the notebook or the server. So if the
password is not changed one still would have to crack those unknown
strong passwords to gain ssh access.

So I am no security expert, and if anyone points out a loophole to me
I am thankful. Please bear in mind that this was like a first attempt
to provide all that functionality in that 500 MB download and there
will be rough edges (I am really no pro sysadmin, most of it is my
first contact with this stuff). When creating it I studied the docs by
Dan Drake and Jason Grout in detail and tried to implement it the best
I could.

[Jason Grout]

On 2/13/12 2:42 AM, emil wrote:
> When creating it I studied the docs by
> Dan Drake and Jason Grout in detail and tried to implement it the best
> I could.

I should point out that I'm also no pro sys admin, but I try to be
careful and read a lot about it.

Jason

[Dan Drake]

Same here!

Dan

--
--- Dan Drake
----- http://mathsci.kaist.ac.kr/~drake
-------

[Volker Braun]

On Monday, February 13, 2012 12:42:14 AM UTC-8, emil wrote:

Right at the moment loggins are not disabled but all servers (ssh,
ftp) are off by default. Passwords for the accounts are not published
(my defaults are like strong 20 char passwords).

Thats fine as long as you don't use MD5 for password hashes (no distribution past ~2008, I guess). But its security relies on you never handing out the password to anybody, so I don't understand why you don't disable logins directly if you want to make the VM a sealed box.

 

It is stated in the docs of the VM, that one should change passwords
before using the sage server.

Well if you don't hand out the password then that would be difficult to do, non? Of course you can always modify a VM that is running on your computer but its not exactly a friendly process for new users ;-)

 

[emil]

On 13 Feb., 23:19, Volker Braun <vbraun.n...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Monday, February 13, 2012 12:42:14 AM UTC-8, emil wrote:
>
> > Right at the moment loggins are not disabled but all servers (ssh,
> > ftp) are off by default. Passwords for the accounts are not published
> > (my defaults are like strong 20 char passwords).
>
> Thats fine as long as you don't use MD5 for password hashes (no
> distribution past ~2008, I guess). But its security relies on you never
> handing out the password to anybody, so I don't understand why you don't
> disable logins directly if you want to make the VM a sealed box.

No, I don't know which algorithm, but clearly not MD5
I published this system as beta, so I thought for easy solutions for
some features.
Sure, one could disable logins. But then there should the possibility
of a remote access to the VM via ssh. For a testing system I thought
it is easier to type passwd than to explain how to edit sshd
configuration file or host.deny/host.allow files.

>
> > It is stated in the docs of the VM, that one should change passwords
> > before using the sage server.
>

Well, this was a bad formulation by me. You have to change passwords
to make remote logins to the VM via ssh. You need not change passwords
to use the sage server. However if you are very paranoid you can of
course change the passwords anyway. This is the complete docs:
http://boxen.math.washington.edu/home/emil/doc/html/en/relase-notes-slvms-b.htm.htm
I think I got it right there...

> Well if you don't hand out the password then that would be difficult to do,
> non?

To change passwords is easy since you have a root desktop from the vm.

> course you can always modify a VM that is running on your computer
> but its not exactly a friendly process for new users ;-)

Have you ever run it?
I allow to disagree, even if it "would" be necessary to set passwords
for using the server - which it is not. A click on a launch icon is
EXTREMLY userfriendly compared to setting up such a sage server from
scratch. Lots of what I put into it is MORE userfriendly than other
available systems.