virtualbox.org

Updated the report with my findings. Hopefully, they find the problem and fix it for the next release.

I just tried again to make sure I was not completely out of order and I can not connect via the standard port but it does work if I select 3395 and I am using external Authentication. My error is that I am already using the port, which I am not but that is what it says.

Perryg wrote:I just tried again to make sure I was not completely out of order and I can not connect via the standard port but it does work if I select 3395 and I am using external Authentication. My error is that I am already using the port, which I am not but that is what it says.

What host are you using? Windows XP? SP3? Are you using VRDP or the guest Terminal Server?

I host on Vista Business and use its RDP client but from what I can tell it would not matter. I have investigated further and even went as far as uninstalling and reinstalling VirtualBox all the way back to 3.0.0 to see what the deal is all about. (I also have a Debian server that hosts connections but have not tested that yet)

I found that the way I setup a vRDP connection is to put the Host address and port in the connection line (still cannot use the default 3389) and then my host user name in the name line. I also put in to allow me to save the credentials. When connecting the first time it asks me for my password and then connects and allows me in. Now here is the rub. If you tell it to always ask for the credentials it fails. So in a sense it is not doing what it is supposed to do, but does if you do it one way only. That is why I could not understand why it worked for me but not you or Sasquatch. Now I understand. So to sum it up the VBox auth program is expecting to see a name at the very least. Asking without sending the name it refuses to authenticate, as indicated in the vbox log files.

I also see an error for VRDPAuth2 which I can not explain even though it allows the connection.

See, my post above, I have even more problems with Vista RDP client that in your case. Maybe due to security policies from the domain I am in. But I have been unable to make it work with any XP and that is my primary use case. Did you test with XP client? If you did what version was the XP? Service pack, NLA enabled, RDP 6.1 client installed?

I just did another test this morning. See the results below:
Host = Vista Business SP2
Guest = XP pro SP3
vRDP method = External
vRDP port = 3399
Vista NLA = Active (This is active by default in Vista business) but I did not create an entry for the session. It works for me so I see no need in adding another layer of complexity.
2nd test I used an XP pro SP3 client set the same way to connect to a Debian 5 guest. That works as well.

I have not tried encrypting the guest drive but that should not be where the problem is anyway since you are authenticating on the Host. I do know that the error warnings that Sasquatch posted simply means that is not working. I got those errors before I put the VBox auth file in the path statement and as you see they really are ambiguous since they do not tell you what the problem is.

The only (3) prerequisites that I have found is the VBox auth file has to be in the Host path statement, and you must tell the Windows RDP client to "allow me to save my credentials", and I have to use port 3390 or higher. Domain security settings must be what is causing your problems IMHO. Have you looked at the Vista security logs to see if it shows anything? Depending on your domain settings you may need to ask the domain administrator to look in the security logs due to the fact that domains are handled differently than peer networks.

Perry, I got these errors on my Ubuntu Host. Windows Guest connecting to another Windows VM (or whatever VM I want), there is no dialogue with the username and password. Haven't tested this with other Windows versions (would be W7 at most). Linux is already tested, no password means no connection. It won't ask for one during connection.

I understand and totally believe you, but the OP is doing this in a Windows environment and one I am very familiar with.
I got/get these same errors when ever there is any problem connecting. Since I have no problem connecting using external authentication (tested all the back to version 3.0.0 yesterday) and the only thing that I have that is different is that I am not in a domain... I have to think that must be a problem. Especially since the only (3) things that I have seen that caused this the OP has corrected. Anyway I am just sending my results, since mine works. Hopefully someone can see what their problem is and get it to work as well.

Edit: By the way, vRDP through Linux uses PAM authentication and that one is even harder to get to work. I had to edit my PAM configuration file to even allow it to work.
I can provide the enter for this if you need it.

VRDP on my Linux is no problem, rdesktop -u <username> -p - localhost and I'm flying.

Me too, but what about using the Windows RDP client? Does it work for you? I had to edit the following to get it to work.
edit /etc/pam.d/common-account.

Windows never showed a login window, as I said above. I will change the config tonight on my system and see what I get. I don't think that I need to restart any services.