Problems with sample httpd setup

[Steve Purcell]

O Wise Ones,

I'm running the Open Source Erlang packaged with Debian Linux; version 7.3,
containing erts version 5.0.2.4 and inets version 2.5.6.

Having copied the sample server_root to '/var/tmp' and set the ServerName,
I can then start httpd successfully using the method prescribed in
the docs:-

  Erlang (BEAM) emulator version 5.0.2.4 [source]

  Eshell V5.0.2.4  (abort with ^G)
  1> httpd:start().
  {ok,<0.31.0>}

However, when I then make a request (from a variety of standard browsers) to
the server (via http://localhost:8888/), the server disconnects and the error
log shows up the following mis-formatted message which I partially
decoded as 'Error reading request':

  [08/Aug/2001:10:48:20 +0200] server crash for 127.0.0.1, reason: [69,
    114, 114, 111, 114, 32, 114, 101, 97, 100, 105, 110, 103, 32, 114,
    101, 113, 117, 101, 115, 116, 58, 32, [104, 101, 97, 100, 101, 114,
    32, 116, 111, 111, 32, 108, 111, 110, 103, 58, 32, "256", 32, 43, 32,
    "223"]]

Is this a known problem? Any help would be appreciated. (I would prefer to
get a working example configuration for my installed erlang components than
to upgrade those components.)

Thanks in advance,

-Steve