[Resolved] Unable to connect to VirtualBox via RDP

[paulr4]

I'm running VirtualBox (plus extension pack) on an Ubuntu 18 machine, and successfully running WinXP (with VirtualBox Guest Additions installed) as a virtal machine inside it. My next aim is to connect to the WinXP VM from another computer (currently Win 10) using RDP, which I understand VirtualBox is able to do.

Unfortunately I'm unable to connect remotely to my WinXP VM. I've set it us as follows:

In VirtualBox I've enabled the RDP server using Display > Remote Display > Enable server, using the default settings (port 3389 etc), and started the WinXP VM. On the Win10 machine I'm using Windows Remote Desktop Connection, and have tried entering [ubuntumachinename]:3389 and [ubuntumachineIP]:3389 but always receive the message 'This computer can't connect to the remote computer'.

I can connect the to the Ubuntu machine from the Win10 machine using VNC, so it doesn't appear to be a networking problem. Also, attempting to connect the Ubuntu machine to its own VMs at 127.0.0.1:3389 using Ubuntu's remote desktop app Remmina doesn't work either.

I tried the following in case the firewall was blocking access:
sudo ufw allow 3389

And tried checking the port was open with 'netstat -ano | grep 3389' which returned:

Code: Select all

Proto Recv-Q Send-Q   Local Address   Foreign Address   State    Timer
tcp        0      0   0.0.0.0:3389    0.0.0.0:*         LISTEN   off (0.00/0/0)

Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to be running any RDP-related software on the VM to be able to connect to it? Can anyone offer any advice? Thank you.

[socratis]

Do I need to be running any RDP-related software on the VM to be able to connect to it?

Absolutely not, because you're not connecting to the guest, you're connecting to the host. It's troubling that from the Ubuntu host you can't connect to "localhost:3389" with an RDP viewer (not VNC, RDP, right?).

Follow a "start the VM from cold-boot" / "observe error" / "shutdown the VM" cycle. With the VM completely shut down (not paused or saved), right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager and select "Show Log". Save only the first "VBox.log", ZIP it and attach it to your response (see the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form).

[paulr4]

Thank you for your response, here's the log. I made two attempts to connect, one locally, one remotely. Neither worked, and neither seem to appear in the log.

And yes, I was using Remmina in its RDP mode.

[socratis]

VirtualBox VM 5.2.10_Ubuntu r121806 linux.amd64 (Jun 15 2018 16:14:07) release log

Not only you're using an older VirtualBox version, but you're using the Ubuntu fork of VirtualBox. You can either ask in their forums for help, or completely remove/uninstall/delete/purge their version and install the official version from the Downloads section of VirtualBox.

You can even add VirtualBox as a repository, so you could use your traditional install/upgrade/uninstall tools.

00:00:00.530909 VNC (Version: 5.2.10 r121806; VRDE Module: VBoxVNC)
00:00:00.530915 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack (Version: 5.2.16 r123759; VRDE Module: VBoxVRDP)

You have both VNC and RDP modules installed, albeit with different versions. The Extension Pack (ExtPack) has to match the VirtualBox version. See ch. 9.23 Other Extension Packs for more information on the VNC ExtPack.

[paulr4]

Thanks for the suggestion, I wrongly assumed the Ubuntu version was current. I uninstalled it and then installed the latest version by following the instructions here:

https://websiteforstudents.com/install- ... 18-04-lts/

After adding the extension from the VirtualBox downloads page, it worked as expected.

[socratis]

I wrongly assumed the Ubuntu version was current

It is. It is the current Ubuntu fork.

and then installed the latest version by following the instructions here:

You know you could have followed the official instructions, from the official website, right? All the procedures and commands are there, no need to go to 3rd party blogs/sites:

• Downloads »
  • Linux distributions » 
    • Debian-based Linux distributions

Glad you got it going. Marking as [Resolved].