How to access localhost running on local centos VM from android phone?

Question

I have local VM (OS centos 7) running on my laptop (OS windows). There is a server running on the VM at ip address localhost:xxxx where xxxx is the port number. Now I want to browse to this ip address on my android phone like browsing any other website.

I have tried using adb library and connecting the android phone to the VM via USB cable and following the answered question in that link [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4779963/how-can-i-access-my-localhost-from-my-android-device] However, my adb version is 1.0.31 which doesn't support the command adb reverse tcp:4000 tcp:4000

Then I tried updating adb version using yum update adb but it states that adb is up to date.

Finally, I thought about installing android studio to install the updated adb , but the VM is already too slow and drains the laptop RAM, hence the android studio will slow the VM furthermore.

How do you connect to the server using a browser on your pc? — blackapps, Nov 29 '22 at 12:55
using my laptop i just type in the local VM ip address in the browser and it works — Girl, Nov 29 '22 at 12:56
Come to the point. Tell exactly which ip. Also tell local ip of your laptop. — blackapps, Nov 29 '22 at 12:57
Your Android phone has ip like 192.168.1.# and can connect to the 3 but not to 192.168.100.### as it does not even see that network. — blackapps, Nov 29 '22 at 13:09
Yeah, makes sense. But unfortunately, that's the network I want it to see as that's where the server is running :( — Girl, Nov 29 '22 at 13:10
`plugged in using USB to the VM –`? In which way does it use the VM? Or can it use the VM? Or do you think it can use the VM? — blackapps, Nov 29 '22 at 13:11
Like when i plug in the phone to the laptop, a pop-up window appears from which i choose it to be connected to the VM and I see the phone icon appear on the VM desktop — Girl, Nov 29 '22 at 13:12
Ahh.. interesting. Which infos can you get from that icon about the phone? Any ip? — blackapps, Nov 29 '22 at 13:13
Nothing, just the internal storage, same as when you transfer files from USB flash — Girl, Nov 29 '22 at 13:14
Well, nice talking to you but sorry, i dont know what you should do. — blackapps, Nov 29 '22 at 13:16

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 01 '22 at 13:04

Since adb worked fine on my windows laptop I followed those steps to connect the android phone to my local centos VM:

Open puTTy
Create new session and enter IP address of the local VM
Under SSH open Tunnels: In the source port: enter the port you want to connect to In the destination: enter IP address of the VM and the port (same as in source port) Press on OPEN

4. A terminal will pop up and require you to connect to the local VM using credentials.

At this point you are connected to the local VM and whenever you type in the laptop localhost: port_number you will be redirected to the VM server running on that port

Since android phone is connected to same Wi-Fi as laptop this should work however, I did additional steps to access the server on the phone.

connect phone to laptop using USB cable
Open cmd terminal which is in same path as adb tools
type command adb reverse tcp:xxxx tcp:xxxx where xxxx is the port number, the same as typed in puTTY in earlier steps

At this point whenever I type in localhost: port_number, the android phone now can access the server running on the VM

How to access localhost running on local centos VM from android phone?

1 Answers1