Avoid launching a web browser

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1

Hi Jeff and OOD team,

I am implementing an AI platform via open-webui. I can launch the standard desktop app, then start the service open-webui followed by opening a web browser at (http://localhost:8080). This is not user-friendly.

I want to bypass the web browser instead of using a proxy, similar to Jupyterlab or vscode. I have view.html.erb and need to tweak the parameters.

Please advise! A Zoom session would be highly appreciated.
Wei

2

I’m not 100% sure I have the availability to meet. I guess I can offer these tips:

  • you need to boot the app on a port we allocate and set the port environment variable to. (you can see in Jupyter how this is done)
  • You likely need to fix the root URL for the app to not be just / but instead be /node/$host/$port (you can see in Jupyter how this is done)
  • Your view.html.erb should handle any authentication you need by providing the password/credentials in a <form>, header or query parameters.

If you can share the app maybe I can take a look asynchronously.

3

Thank you, Jeff!

I will modify/debug further before sharing the code with you.

Wei

4

Hi Jeff,

Thank you!
I can start ollama and launch its GUI via open-webui using the standard desktop app:

This works but is not user-friendly. Therefore, I want to create a LM app, which is similar to VScode server or Jupyter Notebook.

[wfeinstein@n0000 lrc_LM]$ cat view.html.erb
<form action=“/node/<%= host %>/<%= port %>/login” method=“post” target=“_blank”>
<input type=“hidden” name=“password” value=“<%= password %>”>
<button class=“btn btn-primary” type=“submit”>
<i class=“fa fa-eye”></i> Connect to Open WebUI
</button>
</form>

[wfeinstein@n0000 lrc_LM]$ cat template/before.sh.erb
# Export the module function if it exists
[[ $(type -t module) == “function” ]] && export -f module
# Find available port to run server on
export port=$(find_port ${host})
# Export compute node the script is running on
export host=“${host}”
# Generate SHA1 encrypted password (requires OpenSSL installed)
SALT=“$(create_passwd 16)”
password=“$(create_passwd 16)”
PASSWORD_SHA1=“$(echo -n “${password}${SALT}” | openssl dgst -sha1 | awk ‘{print $NF}’)”
source /global/home/groups/scs/wfeinstein/ollama/startup.sh

[wfeinstein@n0000 lrc_LM]$ cat template/script.sh.erb
#!/usr/bin/env bash
echo “TIMING - Starting main script at: $(date)”
cd “${HOME}”
module purge
module load <%= context.modules %>
<%- end -%>
# Start Ollama in the background
ollama &
# Wait for Ollama to initialize (adjust sleep time as needed)
sleep 10
open-webui serve --port ${port}

The app didn’t launch; output.log has some info for further debugging. In addition, “connection.yaml” didn’t get created in the same directory.

[root@perceus-00 output]# cat 3940c616-a301-4ab8-8606-60ae373c6447/output.log
Setting VNC password…
Starting VNC server…
Desktop ‘TurboVNC: n0357.lr6:1 (wfeinstein)’ started on display n0357.lr6:1
Log file is vnc.log
Successfully started VNC server on n0357.lr6:5901…
Script starting…
Waiting for open-webui server to open port 31011…
TIMING - Starting wait at: Sat Feb 22 11:27:23 PST 2025
TIMING - Starting main script at: Sat Feb 22 11:27:23 PST 2025
/global/home/groups/scs/wfeinstein/ollama/usr/bin/ollama
Usage:
ollama [flags]
ollama [command]
Available Commands:
serve Start ollama
create Create a model from a Modelfile
show Show information for a model
run Run a model
stop Stop a running model
pull Pull a model from a registry
push Push a model to a registry
list List models
ps List running models
cp Copy a model
rm Remove a model
help Help about any command
Flags:
-h, --help help for ollama
-v, --version Show version information
Use “ollama [command] --help” for more information about a command.
Loading WEBUI_SECRET_KEY from file, not provided as an environment variable.
Loading WEBUI_SECRET_KEY from /global/home/users/wfeinstein/.webui_secret_key
INFO [alembic.runtime.migration] Context impl SQLiteImpl.
INFO [alembic.runtime.migration] Will assume non-transactional DDL.
INFO [open_webui.env] ‘ENABLE_SIGNUP’ loaded from the latest database entry
INFO [open_webui.env] ‘DEFAULT_LOCALE’ loaded from the latest database entry
INFO [open_webui.env] ‘DEFAULT_PROMPT_SUGGESTIONS’ loaded from the latest database entry
WARNI [open_webui.env]
WARNING: CORS_ALLOW_ORIGIN IS SET TO ‘*’ - NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PRODUCTION DEPLOYMENTS.
INFO [open_webui.env] Embedding model set: sentence-transformers/all-MiniLM-L6-v2
/global/home/groups/scs/wfeinstein/ollama/local/site-packages/pydub/utils.py:170: RuntimeWarning: Couldn’t find ffmpeg or avconv - defaulting to ffmpeg, but may not work
warn(“Couldn’t find ffmpeg or avconv - defaulting to ffmpeg, but may not work”, RuntimeWarning)
WARNI [langchain_community.utils.user_agent] USER_AGENT environment variable not set, consider setting it to identify your requests.
/global/home/groups/scs/wfeinstein/ollama/local/site-packages/open_webui
/global/home/groups/scs/wfeinstein/ollama/local/site-packages
/global/home/groups/scs/wfeinstein/ollama/local
Running migrations
___ __ __ _ _ _ ___
/ _ \ _ __ ___ _ __ \ \ / /__| |__ | | | |_ _|
| | | | '_ \ / _ \ '_ \ \ \ /\ / / _ \ '_ \| | | || |
| |_| | |_) | __/ | | | \ V V / __/ |_) | |_| || |
\___/| .__/ \___|_| |_| \_/\_/ \___|_.__/ \___/|___|
|_|
v0.5.12 - building the best open-source AI user interface.

Fetching 30 files: 100%|██████████| 30/30 [00:00<00:00, 24750.02it/s]
INFO: Started server process [2061819]
INFO: Waiting for application startup.
INFO: Application startup complete.
INFO: Uvicorn running on http://0.0.0.0:31011 (Press CTRL+C to quit)
Discovered open-webui server listening on port 31011!
TIMING - Wait ended at: Sat Feb 22 11:27:46 PST 2025
Starting websocket server…
[websockify]: pid: 2062089 (proxying 25880 ==> localhost:31011)
[websockify]: log file: ./websockify.log
[websockify]: waiting …
[websockify]: failed to launch!
Cleaning up…
Killing Xvnc process ID 2061649

Hope the code and log file above are helpful for debugging.

Thanks,

5

It looks like the web service started at proxying 25880, which theoretically could be viewed at localhost:31011. Any ideas of how I should tweak it?

Thanks,

6

Hi Wei,

I am also working on a similar project with Open WebUI. The problem that I have encountered is that Open WebUI does not currently allow you to set a different root URL for the server instance; see Jeff’s second point above. This is important for reverse proxy applications as he explains in his post. Using these servers within a reverse proxy is a relatively common thing that many other apps support; for instance, Gradio has this feature built-in.

Open WebUI uses a mix of absolute and relative paths to indicate where different files are located to be served out. I have had some success modifying the source code but it is still a work in progress.

7

Hi Anderss,

Thank you for sharing, and glad to know you are working on a similar project with webUI.
Do you have a few minutes to share some of your work in progress, including Webui’s mixed paths?

Thank you,
Wei

8

Hi Wei,

Sure, although I don’t have a lot of answers to share. My week is pretty full but how about we meet next Monday afternoon? I am in Eastern time.

Best,
Sean

1 Like
9

Hi Sean,

Sounds great next Monday afternoon. I will set up a Zoom call if you can share your email or vice versa.

Thank you,
Wei

1 Like
10

Hi Wei,

Sure: anderss at wfu.edu

Anytime between 3–5 PM EST works for me.

Best,
Sean

11

HI Sean,

Thank you! Sent you a Zoom invite.

Wei