webdm is installed, now what?

[Syd (Sydney) Logan]

Hi,

I'm pretty new to Ubuntu Core (like, I started yesterday :-). My understanding is that the UI for Ubuntu Core is provided via web apps written for webdm.

There is a terse web page hosted by canonical that shows how to install webdm, and then point an external web browser via the device's IP address at port 4200. https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/snappy/guides/webdm/. I followed the directions, webdm installed using snappy, and webdm started up, as we can see from the output of systemctl list-units:

(amd64)ubuntu at localhost:/var$ sudo systemctl list-units | grep webdm
  webdm_avahi_0.5.service                                                                                          loaded active running   Avahi daemon

(amd64)ubuntu at localhost:/var$ uname -a
Linux localhost.localdomain 3.16.0-29-generic #39 SMP Tue Feb 24 07:55:53 PST 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

When I try to connect at port 4200, I get basically a connection refused (http or https), using device's ivp4 address.

Note that netstat actually doesn't show anything listening on 4200. Or under the name webdm:

(amd64)ubuntu at localhost:/var$ sudo netstat -anp | grep 4200
(amd64)ubuntu at localhost:/var$ sudo netstat -anp | grep webdm

I would get output on a classic Ubuntu host for apache that shows it is on port 80:

$ sudo netstat -anp | grep apache
tcp6       0      0 :::80                   :::*                    LISTEN      2903/apache2
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     10213    2903/apache2        /var/run/apache2.2903.0.1.sock

So, here are the questions:

1) Is webdm what I think it is, the web server part of what would amount to the lamp stack for Ubuntu Core?
2) If so, how do I develop apps for it that can invoke code and get responses (I need to issue calls to another service, calling python scripts that know how do that and reading their stdout would work fine, at some point I need to call a binary external to the web browser to do.) php popen-like functionality, or system if necessary?
3) If not, then what constitutes a GUI app for this platform, and how do I develop it?
4) Perhaps more important for now, when I follow the directions  I get the service to start but it is not listening on 4200?
5) Where do the web pages go for this thing? What is a "hello world" app and how would I go about implementing it?

Thanks,

syd

Syd Logan
Broadcom Corporation

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