Jump to content

morleypotter

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    14

  • Joined

  • Last visited

    Never

 Content Type 

Posts posted by morleypotter

    Launch Ubuntu applications from a php script

    in Linux

    Posted

    I've made a small amount of progress amending an example on the manual page but i was wondering if anyone could 'tweak' this code to get it to work.

     

    1st the code then the output.

     

    <?php
exec('TERM=xterm display localhost:0.0 /usr/bin/firefox n 1 b i', $xterm, $error );
echo nl2br(implode("\n",$xterm));
if ($error){
    exec('TERM=xterm display localhost:0.0 /usr/bin/firefox n 1 b 2>&1', $error );
    echo "Error: ";
    exit($error[0]);
}
?>

     

    Error: display: unable to open X server `' @ display.c/DisplayImageCommand/422.

     

    I tried adding 'startx' in various places but it just makes the page hang?

     

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Launch Ubuntu applications from a php script

    in Linux

    Posted

    Hi Thorpe, I tried it but it only made a blank line, when i change the word 'firefox' with 'ls' for example it then produces a result so i'm sure i've done it right?

     

    <?php
echo "Firefox Launch Test";
echo "</br>";
$output = shell_exec('firefox');
echo "<pre>$output</pre>";
if ($output === "0")
{
echo "working....";
}
else
{
echo "Firefox Launch Test Failed!";
}
echo "</br>";
echo "whoami query = ";
echo (`whoami`);
?>;

    Launch Ubuntu applications from a php script

    in Linux

    Posted

    Thanks Thorpe - Couldn't find that info anywhere, i was looking at suPHP when i noticed your post.

     

    Here are the results of ps aux | grep apache which means i've changed it properly this time....

     

    dave@dave-laptop:~$ ps aux | grep apache

    root    14744  0.0  0.3  21344  6364 ?        Ss  15:18  0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

    dave    14747  0.0  0.1  21344  3644 ?        S    15:18  0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

    dave    14748  0.0  0.2  21800  5352 ?        S    15:18  0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

    dave    14749  0.0  0.2  21800  5328 ?        S    15:18  0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

    dave    14750  0.0  0.2  21800  5336 ?        S    15:18  0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

    dave    14751  0.0  0.1  21344  3656 ?        S    15:18  0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

    dave    14856  0.0  0.1  21344  3644 ?        S    15:18  0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

    dave    15116  0.0  0.0  3324  804 pts/0    S+  15:20  0:00 grep --color=auto apache

     

    And my code which is this still doesn't work?

     

    echo "Firefox Launch Test";
echo "</br>";
echo "</br>";
$output = `/usr/bin/firefox`;
if ($output === "0")
{
echo "working....";
}
else
{
echo "Firefox Launch Test Failed!";
}

     

    I'm so frustrated i thought i was onto a winner when you told me how to change the user Apache runs as.

    Launch Ubuntu applications from a php script

    in Linux

    Posted

    Oh and ps. The reason you are getting the working message is because exec must be returning false. 0 is the same as false in php. You will need to use the === operators to make sure you are actually getting the string "0".

     

    Thanks Thorpe, you are right it does now display "failed" as you suggest, as to why i thought it a good idea to pass it again to exec - i have no idea.

     

    The code i have below therefore isn't even attempting to launch firefox, i have also added the /usr/bin path to it to see if that helps but nothing, oh well, i'll try some more googling to see how to give those rights to Apache.

     

    I have just ran a echo exec('whoami'); the response being 'www-data' [which i understand is Apache] so i've done something wrong whilst trying to get Apache to run as the current user.

     

     

    <?php
echo "Firefox Launch Test";
echo "</br>";
echo "</br>";
$output = `/usr/bin/firefox`;
if ($output === "0")
{
echo "working....";
}
else
{
echo "Firefox Launch Test Failed!";
}
?>

    Launch Ubuntu applications from a php script

    in Linux

    Posted

    No.

     

    As the manual says exec returns the last line of output resulting from the command. Its looks like your trying to check the commands status (which by the way will be 0 if successful). You'll want to look at the third arg to exec.

     

    Hi Thorpe,

     

    I changed the code and now it's reporting "working", so i assume that when i figure out how to give the sufficient rights to Apache it should launch the application?

     

    OR

     

    Because i added the 'if' statement to see if it was actually doing anything the code will now not launch the application?

     

    Apologies if this doesn't make sense, i think i've confused myself now!  :-\

     

    echo "Firefox launchtest2";
echo "</br>";
echo "</br>";
$output = `firefox`;
$doit2 = exec($output);
if ($doit2 == "0")
{
echo "working....";
}
else
{
echo "Firefox Launch Test 2 Failed!";
}
?>

    Launch Ubuntu applications from a php script

    in Linux

    Posted

    Just a quick update on the code i'm using now (will this work once i've gotten Apache to run as the current user)

     

    <?php
echo "test1"; // shell_exec can return results and print them
$launcher = shell_exec('ls -lart'); 
echo "<pre>$launcher</pre>";  

// now to try and launch an application

echo "Firefox launchtest1";
echo "</br>";
echo "</br>";
$launcher = exec('firefox'); 
if ($launcher == "1")
{
echo "working....";
}
else
{
echo "Firefox Launch Test 1 Failed!";
}
echo "</br>";
echo "</br>";
echo "Firefox launchtest2";
echo "</br>";
echo "</br>";
$output = `firefox`;
$doit2 = exec($output);
if ($doit2 == "1")
{
echo "working....";
}
else
{
echo "Firefox Launch Test 2 Failed!";
}
?>

     

    Which produces....

     

    test1

     

    total 16

    drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 May 25 16:54 webalizer

    drwxr-xr-x 16 root root 4096 May 25 16:54 ..

    -rw-r--r--  1 root root  579 Aug 11 13:49 index.php

    drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4096 Aug 11 13:49 .

     

    Firefox launchtest1

     

    Firefox Launch Test 1 Failed!

     

    Firefox launchtest2

     

    Firefox Launch Test 2 Failed!

     

    -- Thanks again.

    Launch Ubuntu applications from a php script

    in Linux

    Posted

    It doesn't matter if you use shell scripts or not. PHP will do fine.

     

    Given that your only going to allow one user on these systems, I would make Apache execute as this user. This should (in theory) solve the issue as Apache will be running as the same user who owns the desktop environment.

     

    I wouldn't recommend them being root however as they can still quite easily damage filesystems on the machine.

     

    Thanks again Thorpe, i have read somewhere that it is the normal practice to add the user to the www-data group, which i have done and re-ran the nautilus scripts above but nothing seems to be happening?

     

    I fear i may miss understand?

     

    Could you (or anyone willing) please advise on how I would make Apache execute as the current user?

     

    Thanks.

    Launch Ubuntu applications from a php script

    in Linux

    Posted

    Hi Thorpe,

     

    Firstly thank you for your help, i have read up on suEXEC which isn't (i think) the right tool for the job as there will only be one user on the live cd, [who i will probably make root as nothing can be written to a cd to break anything once i'm finished].

     

    I have posted on ubuntuforums.org as well and what feedback i had from them suggests as you say it is theoretically possible, but nobody seems to actually know how to do it.

     

    I'm now changing my train of thought and thinking of writing shell scripts to open the applications and using php to 'activate' the script - is this possible do you think?

     

    Again thanks for your help.

    Launch Ubuntu applications from a php script

    in Linux

    Posted

    Hi Everyone, I REALLY need some help please before I go mad.

     

    As the subject of this post suggests i'm trying to launch Ubuntu applications from a php script, i have tried different ways of doing this but without much success.

     

    Firstly i would like to explain why and maybe somebody may have a better suggestion or an alternative route...

     

    I am making a 'personal' remix of Ubuntu which will be a live CD i can use for my university work (studying computer forensics), it will basically be a minimal install with every Linux based forensics application i can lay my hands on, instead of having a huge list of shortcut's in the menu's that ship with Ubuntu I though it would be fun/a challenge to make a fancy PHP based web site which contained a database of the programs so i could search through them and find what i need by category ect and then launch those applications from the same site.

     

    I can 'talk' to Ubuntu through some small scripts i've tried but i can't launch any applications.

     

    Here is what i've got so far....

     

    <?php
echo "test1";
$launcher = shell_exec('ls'); 
print "<pre>$launcher</pre>";  

echo "test2";
$output = exec(ls);
$doit2 = exec($output);
print "<pre>$doit2</pre>";

echo "test3";
$cmd = 'ls';
echo "<pre>".shell_exec($cmd)."</pre>";
?>

     

    Which outputs....

     

    test1

     

    index.php

    webalizer

     

    test2

     

    Webalizer V2.01-10 (Linux 2.6.32-24-generic) locale: C

     

    test3

     

    index.php

    webalizer

     

    Sucess i thought, so i then tried using the same formats to launch nautilus as a test, all of the below produced no results...

     

    <?php
echo "test1";
$launcher = shell_exec('/usr/bin/nautilus'); 
print "<pre>$launcher</pre>";  

echo "test2";
$output = exec(/usr/bin/nautilus);
$doit2 = exec($output);
print "<pre>$doit2</pre>";

echo "test3";
$cmd = '/usr/bin/nautilus';
echo "<pre>".shell_exec($cmd)."</pre>";
?>

     

    Can anybody please help me out, i've searched all over these forums, php.net and googled endlessly.

     

    Any advice would be greatly appreciated

     

    Many thanks,

     

    MorleyPotter

    brainstorm website replication help

    in Frameworks

    Posted

    Hi Everyone, I'm thinking of producing a website for a project at uni which would resemble the Ubuntu brainstorm website [here: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com]

     

    I plan to write it in PHP (obviously) with a mysql database, does anyone have any ideas on how i could start to plan such a project, suggest any PHP frameworks which may make the job easier, any code already available to start me off etc??

     

    Any help would be greatly appreciated & apologies if this is in the wrong place (i'm new to this sort of thing)

     

    morleypotter.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.