start.ubuntu.com

padu · 4 Mar 2021, 14:17

I can see occasional outgoing requests to start.ubuntu.com (every ten minutes or so) on a Nexus 5/OTA-15 and OPO/RC with no apps open. Can somebody please shed some light on what's that used for in UT? Opening start.ubuntu.com in desktop browser reveals a Google search box.

Keneda · 4 Mar 2021, 14:20

@padu
For my self learning, how do you see those requests?

padu · 4 Mar 2021, 14:33

@keneda In a local (LAN-wide) DNS resolver.

Keneda · 4 Mar 2021, 14:38

@padu THX

padu · 5 Mar 2021, 09:56

There's already a discussion about start.ubuntu.com that didn't turn up in a forum search for me before. According to that it's a connectivity check.

padu · 6 Mar 2021, 16:55

@keneda said in start.ubuntu.com:

For my self learning, how do you see those requests?

Since you're asking explicitly, here's a hack-ish non-Libertine way to watch outgoing (DNS) connections. Note that deb packages use xz compression nowadays that is not supported by UT's tar. So extraction of the binary has to be done on a device with a more recent version of tar.

# Download armhf deb package of tcpdump.  There are newer package versions on the server, but those may not work as easily because of further dependencies.
$ wget http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/pool/main/t/tcpdump/tcpdump_4.7.4-1ubuntu1_armhf.deb
# Extract deb archive.
$ ar -x tcpdump_4.7.4-1ubuntu1_armhf.deb
# Extract binary.
$ tar -xf data.tar.xz

Now, move file usr/sbin/tcpdump to the UT device (via adb, ssh, cloud). Then switch to a terminal on the UT device.

# Make the binary executable.
$ chmod +x tcpdump
# Watch all DNS queries on the device.
$ sudo tcpdump -i any port 53

Then wait and see.

(Tested on OPO OTA-16 RC/W09).