Connection issue (HTTP/IPv6)

[d47081]

Hi there, and thank for this beautiful app!

It works perfect with mastodon.social, but when I'm trying to connect my personal instance using HTTP/IPv6, I have Socket I/O timeout issue.

I'm using host alias, as this client crops the raw IPv6 from Server URL entry.
Maybe it does not support connections without SSL also. My network is secure, and I'm not using SSL certificate; Not sure where is the problem.

So to finalize the question:

1. does this app support IPv6?
2. will it handle http (not https) when I provide just hostname in the URL field (on the new account connect)?
3. what if I use /etc/hosts alias

Version 0.9.2

[GeopJr]

does this app support IPv6?

Should be, it's not something Tuba is responsible for however. Libsoup and GnuTLS are the networking libraries. But yeah, ipv6 should be supported.

will it handle http (not https) when I provide just hostname in the URL field (on the new account connect)?

No. I really would advice against this for federated social networks, even if your network is 'secure'. But if you want to go ahead I'm not going to stop you either:

As far as I am aware, the only thing you'd need to change is https to http in this line:

Tuba/src/Dialogs/NewAccount.vala

Line 141 in bf4e85c

account.instance = @"https://$str";

Once you manage to add the new account, you may revert the change as Tuba will get the instance url from the keyring.

what if I use /etc/hosts alias

🤷, it's up to libsoup and gnutls on how they'll handle it.

[d47081]

Hmm, thanks for the information. I expected it was something related to the hardcoded https line. It would be useful to have the ability to select the scheme, even though I agree that SSL should be everywhere. In my case, I'm just using Yggdrasil, and SSL over TLS doesn't look very appealing.

Thank you anyway; maybe someone will implement scheme support in the future.

[GeopJr]

I mean, I can do it but it's very niche and sounds dangerous unless you know what you are doing. Yggdrasil sounds interesting but since I don't know how it works I can't comment on it.

In general, you'd really want SSL for federated networks, not only to protect your users and yourself, but also because you need to communicate with other servers. If I for example, ran a server that has members that are getting targeted by their govs, I would definitely block all http-only servers (yes, govs can find other ways to get access, but this is the bare minimum).

[d47081]

sounds dangerous unless you know what you are doing

Yes, I know what I'm doing, but thanks for notice. All traffic from the Yggdrasil interface is already encrypted, so there’s no need to use more than one layer. For these reasons, I have also disabled force http > https auto-redirection in Firefox.

The idea is to create a local network federation; I don't plan to use or interact with clearnet nodes outside. Therefore, the connection will be secure. Yggdrasil is something like I2P or VPN, as it provides a tunnel with built-in encryption. I'm testing Tuba with the snac server, and the web interface interacts well with another node using http without any issues. Just can't connect there with Tuba.

[GeopJr]

Okay then. If you can access it from https, even temporarily, you can add the account with https, then open the "Passwords & Keys" (seahorse) app and edit the secret manually. It will look something like this:

{"id":"a5pthsccfaqyzhy3","username":"user","display-name":"user","acct":"user","header":"https://your.instance/assets/transparent.png","avatar":"user","instance":"https://your.instance","client-id":"5TZvVovRBUo0yJSF0RWnRy8HE1QXrtQE","client-secret":"Dn94YFuTcsaQlQP4AnxgGZ1lyOcuCWnA","access-token":"mm6n4AjgZtyyPPwptoml7pMBjfdESiE3","handle":"@user@your.instance","backend":"Mastodon","uuid":"a47afcf9-aa5d-4ab5-a722-1fd4124c7e72","admin-mode":false,"emojis":[]}

and replace all https://your.instance with the http-only url and it should work.

[d47081]

I might try to create a patch (or PR) based on the code line you provided above; I just have never worked with Vala before.

Regarding IPv6, it seems I can use IPv4, but IPv6 (like 2606:4700:4700::1111 or [2606:4700:4700::1111]) is getting trimmed like that:

[GeopJr]

Oh yeah, you are right!

Though, thinking of it again, I feel like it might be better to push users towards using https and domains names. It will be easier to just build it for yourself by modifying the line I sent before + the lines above, add your account and then revert that.

[GeopJr]

Here, wait for this to finish https://github.com/GeopJr/Tuba/actions/runs/14958854952 and install the flatpak it uploads (it will be under artifacts)

[d47081]

I forgot to mention that IPv6 is not really an issue (unlike HTTPS), as I can use just /etc/hosts alias to resolve it. Anyway, this subject is just an extra feature request. Of course not many people wants it to care about :)

Here, wait for this to finish https://github.com/GeopJr/Tuba/actions/runs/14958854952 and install the flatpak it uploads (it will be under artifacts)

Wow, thanks much!

[GeopJr]

I think you raised some important issues even if I don't really agree with the whole http-only (I'd really rather not allow http-only servers to connect at all - even though your use case is unique and you know what you are doing). I get myself burned over this when testing locally due to localhost etc, maybe a cli option or an env var to bypass these would be a nice middle ground

[d47081]

According to the patch I saw the potential issue before, but now tested it and found that there is incorrect slash trimming: it changes http://test to http:test. Suppose there shuld be another replacement rule, just not sure about this filter dependencies.

And about the : trim, it works now for IPv6, but I still see the Please enter a valid instance URL message

[GeopJr]

You are right, check this build out when it's done https://github.com/GeopJr/Tuba/actions/runs/14965019143

Just make sure to not include the last slash. This was done in a hurry so I didn't write any normalization functions, so make sure it's in this format: <scheme>://<host> no trailing slashes, no ports unless needed, no paths

[d47081]

Thank you, now I can confirm that successfully connected with to my http/ipv6 Snac server!

Only one tip: I'm still using /etc/hosts alias, because providing IPv6 for some reasons fails with Please enter a valid instance URL. Not sure if it works with IPv4.

About right slash, it's nothing to rtrim in Vala? I think if this part is critical, users without experience yet may provide this postfix by copying domain name from browser URL, it should be improved anyhow..